Legitimacy, Deservingness, and Entitlement: Studies in Social Justice. This research program aims to clarify the variables that affect whether authorities are seen to be legitimate or otherwise, and the conditions under which people are perceived to be entitled to benefits or to deserve either positive or negative treatment. We will also examine how personal and social values affect these kinds of judgments, and how judgments of legitimacy, deservingness and entitlement are related. The resear ....Legitimacy, Deservingness, and Entitlement: Studies in Social Justice. This research program aims to clarify the variables that affect whether authorities are seen to be legitimate or otherwise, and the conditions under which people are perceived to be entitled to benefits or to deserve either positive or negative treatment. We will also examine how personal and social values affect these kinds of judgments, and how judgments of legitimacy, deservingness and entitlement are related. The research program will advance theoretical understanding about social justice in a variety of contexts (eg., organizations, law, government, family). It will also have practical outcomes by suggesting ways of exercising authority that are seen as both effective and fair.Read moreRead less
The dynamics of witness confidence effects on juror judgments. While psychologists and criminal justice professionals concur that eyewitness confidence is one of the major influences on juror judgments, previous researchers' treatment of confidence as an invariant testimonial characteristic means that we actually know little about the impact of witness confidence. This research tests social persuasion theories and reveals the dynamic effects on juror judgments and verdicts of the sort of confide ....The dynamics of witness confidence effects on juror judgments. While psychologists and criminal justice professionals concur that eyewitness confidence is one of the major influences on juror judgments, previous researchers' treatment of confidence as an invariant testimonial characteristic means that we actually know little about the impact of witness confidence. This research tests social persuasion theories and reveals the dynamic effects on juror judgments and verdicts of the sort of confidence fluctuations that characterise real witnesses. Knowing how such fluctuations will shape jurors' judgments is vital for judges (when instructing jurors) and for police and lawyers when they assess the likely impact of the witnesses they intend to call.Read moreRead less
Keeping Memory Current: Updating and Discounting of Information. This project is about understanding the human cognitive capacity to manage change. The need to manage change is a common thread that permeates nearly all National Research Priorities and is a central issue in an information society. The applied component of the project will develop techniques to improve the capabilities of individuals and communities to rely on up-to-date knowledge during decision making. The project will also cont ....Keeping Memory Current: Updating and Discounting of Information. This project is about understanding the human cognitive capacity to manage change. The need to manage change is a common thread that permeates nearly all National Research Priorities and is a central issue in an information society. The applied component of the project will develop techniques to improve the capabilities of individuals and communities to rely on up-to-date knowledge during decision making. The project will also contribute to psychological science in numerous ways. Basic research in psychology is of particular national benefit because the available national research funding is commensurate with the requirements of world-class research in psychology.Read moreRead less
Determinants and consequences of conscious visual awareness. Usually salient images can disappear from awareness without corresponding stimulus changes. This project is based on an innovative account linking such disappearances to a functional adaptation which facilitates vision in cluttered environments. Project completion will expand Australia's knowledge base, forge links between junior and senior Australian based investigators and provide excellent training opportunities. Publication of rese ....Determinants and consequences of conscious visual awareness. Usually salient images can disappear from awareness without corresponding stimulus changes. This project is based on an innovative account linking such disappearances to a functional adaptation which facilitates vision in cluttered environments. Project completion will expand Australia's knowledge base, forge links between junior and senior Australian based investigators and provide excellent training opportunities. Publication of research in top-ranking international journals will further promote Australian science abroad. Ultimately, this research will have implications for the design and implementation of artificial visual systems, which must overcome many of the same dilemmas faced by the human visual system in cluttered environments.Read moreRead less
Human time perception: A crossmodal investigation. This research program investigates time perception in humans in the subsecond range. Time perception is a crucial aspect of cognitive functioning but one that is poorly understood. The subsecond scale is particularly relevant because it is the time-frame for crucial tasks such as motor coordination, speech perception and crossmodal integration. This project examines time in an audiovisual context, exploring the cognitive limits of our ability to ....Human time perception: A crossmodal investigation. This research program investigates time perception in humans in the subsecond range. Time perception is a crucial aspect of cognitive functioning but one that is poorly understood. The subsecond scale is particularly relevant because it is the time-frame for crucial tasks such as motor coordination, speech perception and crossmodal integration. This project examines time in an audiovisual context, exploring the cognitive limits of our ability to keep track of time and testing whether time is encoded as a basic feature. These experiments will further our knowledge of time perception and lead to improved models of how the brain encodes time.Read moreRead less
Audio-visual interactions in human perception. How the brain integrates information from different sensory modalities to form coherent perceptions of the external environment is a challenging question in sensory and cognitive neuroscience. Neurophysiologically, sensory interactions have become well documented over the last decade or so. Complementary perceptual research, however, is lacking. This project seeks to redress the imbalance, using audio-visual interactions as a paradigm. Psychophysica ....Audio-visual interactions in human perception. How the brain integrates information from different sensory modalities to form coherent perceptions of the external environment is a challenging question in sensory and cognitive neuroscience. Neurophysiologically, sensory interactions have become well documented over the last decade or so. Complementary perceptual research, however, is lacking. This project seeks to redress the imbalance, using audio-visual interactions as a paradigm. Psychophysical experiments will explore: (i) audio-visual interactions in perception (sound enhancing vision, vision enhancing hearing); (ii) audio-visual interactions in spatial attention. Neurophysiological evidence, plus very recent psychophysical findings of audio-visual interactions, suggest this will be a rich vein of research.Read moreRead less
Characterising and linking intermediate-level processing of pattern, motion and position in human vision? This work will advance basic science by enhancing understanding of human coding of image structure. The aim is to provide a common structure for understanding visual processing of form, motion and position. The work will help lift the international profile of Australian science. Explaining how the primitives for shape perception are extracted will also have consequences of potential economic ....Characterising and linking intermediate-level processing of pattern, motion and position in human vision? This work will advance basic science by enhancing understanding of human coding of image structure. The aim is to provide a common structure for understanding visual processing of form, motion and position. The work will help lift the international profile of Australian science. Explaining how the primitives for shape perception are extracted will also have consequences of potential economic benefit. One important aspect is the design of displays that allow observers to absorb complex information about rapidly changing situations. This work has the potential to provide information that enables display designers to optimise the efficiency of presentation of pattern and motion information.Read moreRead less
Visual Coding of Motion and Form. Understanding how brains solve the problems of vision may prove crucial in understanding how to build intelligent robots capable of seeing, as well as in developing more sophisticated virtual reality-type computer-based technologies. Moreover, given that a large proportion of our cortex is given over to visual processing, anything we can learn about the operation of the visual system might prove relevant to our understanding of cortical processing in general as ....Visual Coding of Motion and Form. Understanding how brains solve the problems of vision may prove crucial in understanding how to build intelligent robots capable of seeing, as well as in developing more sophisticated virtual reality-type computer-based technologies. Moreover, given that a large proportion of our cortex is given over to visual processing, anything we can learn about the operation of the visual system might prove relevant to our understanding of cortical processing in general as well as bringing us one step closer to an explanation of how activity in our brains gives rise to the experience of conscious perception. This project will directly expand Australia's knowledge-base regarding neural processing in general and visual perception in particular.Read moreRead less
An investigation of long-range stereopsis. Our project will be the first to examine long-range stereoscopic perceptions of depth, slant and curvature, as well as perceived changes in slant and curvature on the ground. The research is also theoretically significant and novel in exploring the scaling of stereopsis by monocular distance cues such as the ground plane, perspective and horizon. Determining the useful range of stereopsis also has many practical applications e.g. for understanding vehi ....An investigation of long-range stereopsis. Our project will be the first to examine long-range stereoscopic perceptions of depth, slant and curvature, as well as perceived changes in slant and curvature on the ground. The research is also theoretically significant and novel in exploring the scaling of stereopsis by monocular distance cues such as the ground plane, perspective and horizon. Determining the useful range of stereopsis also has many practical applications e.g. for understanding vehicle guidance (eg helicopter landing), as well as natural locomotion and route planning. The research is possible because of innovative equipment designed to allow for fast changes in remote targets.
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Stereoscopic Vision at Large Distances. This project measures the benefits of stereopsis, which is a perception of depth obtained from binocular vision, at distances of tens to hundreds of meters. Almost nothing is known of our stereoscopic abilities over this range and thus this is new and fundamental data about human vision. We will investigate how monocular and binocular information is combined at large distances; an issue relevant to sensor fusion, a central problem in neuroscience. The rese ....Stereoscopic Vision at Large Distances. This project measures the benefits of stereopsis, which is a perception of depth obtained from binocular vision, at distances of tens to hundreds of meters. Almost nothing is known of our stereoscopic abilities over this range and thus this is new and fundamental data about human vision. We will investigate how monocular and binocular information is combined at large distances; an issue relevant to sensor fusion, a central problem in neuroscience. The research is also critical for any tasks involving judgments over long distances including the recognition of distant targets and their relationships as well as the visual guidance of vehicles such as helicopters. It will also provide critical information to designers of binocular instruments.Read moreRead less