Evaluating the Quality of Scientific Research in Psychology. Buttressing public trust in science has never been more important, yet many sciences are experiencing a crisis of confidence. The current system of relying on journal prestige to calibrate our confidence in individual research findings has created corrupt incentives for scientists, and risks undermining public trust in science. Thousands of scientists and institutions around the world have indicated that research evaluation needs an ov ....Evaluating the Quality of Scientific Research in Psychology. Buttressing public trust in science has never been more important, yet many sciences are experiencing a crisis of confidence. The current system of relying on journal prestige to calibrate our confidence in individual research findings has created corrupt incentives for scientists, and risks undermining public trust in science. Thousands of scientists and institutions around the world have indicated that research evaluation needs an overhaul by signing the Declaration on Research Assessment. One solution is to create a public, transparent, and valid process for producing and sharing expert evaluations of individual papers. This project aims to launch this reform in psychology, and partner with PREreview to help it spread to other fields.Read moreRead less
Sexism in scientific and pseudo-scientific explanations of sex inequality: an empirical, ethical and educative approach. Neuroscientific explanations of sex inequality are scientifically premature, and lead to popular exaggerations that sustain inequality through self-fulfilling effects. This project will increase understanding of these harmful consequences, and bring about essential improvements in both the quality of scientific research, and public understanding.
From autobiographical memory to collective memory: An interdisciplinary study of individual and group cognition. Remembering our past is crucial to our identity and well-being, both as individuals and in groups. Investigating the role of social groups in memory, this project offers 4 benefits: (1) it builds Australia's capacity for high-level, innovative memory research; (2) it pioneers an interdisciplinary approach, genuinely integrating philosophy and psychology, to strengthen Australia's inte ....From autobiographical memory to collective memory: An interdisciplinary study of individual and group cognition. Remembering our past is crucial to our identity and well-being, both as individuals and in groups. Investigating the role of social groups in memory, this project offers 4 benefits: (1) it builds Australia's capacity for high-level, innovative memory research; (2) it pioneers an interdisciplinary approach, genuinely integrating philosophy and psychology, to strengthen Australia's international reputation in these fields; (3) it identifies social supports for healthy remembering, thus 'Promoting and Maintaining Good Health' ('Ageing well, ageing productively'); (4) it offers fresh, sophisticated ways to address public debates about the role of memory in productive, fulfilling lives, 'Strengthening Australia's social and economic fabric'.Read moreRead less
When should we stop trusting the senses? Perceptual decision making under ambiguity. When the input to the senses is ambiguous, our preconceptions often come to influence how we experience the world. This can lead to disagreement and often shows up as odd behaviour in different people. This project explores the mechanisms that determine how different people respond to ambiguity, and how much they then rely on their preconceptions.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100087
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$452,285.00
Summary
Sally disagrees with you! A unified theory for human sociality . As fundamentally social beings, we usually keep company with the people that think like ourselves: Our friends and loved ones. This project aims to deliver a unifying theory of human sociality that can account for why the human brain may want to avoid conflict between own and others' ways of thinking. This will be achieved via online behavioural experiments, a highly innovative functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) design, a ....Sally disagrees with you! A unified theory for human sociality . As fundamentally social beings, we usually keep company with the people that think like ourselves: Our friends and loved ones. This project aims to deliver a unifying theory of human sociality that can account for why the human brain may want to avoid conflict between own and others' ways of thinking. This will be achieved via online behavioural experiments, a highly innovative functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) design, and philosophical approaches. The project expects to generate knowledge on the social neuroscience of political/religious group behaviour, shedding light on the brain mechanisms that underlie social cognition. It will benefit our approach to social problems like discrimination, fundamentalism and extremism.Read moreRead less
Determinants of Audio-Visual effects in degraded and non-degraded speech. Seeing a speaker's face can affect the perception of their speech in a number of ways. This project proposes a detailed comparison of factors that affect Audio-Visual (AV) facilitation of degraded speech detection and identification. Detection-based tasks should be more sensitive to signal based correlations whereas identification-based effects more sensitive to complementary information. The significance of the current pr ....Determinants of Audio-Visual effects in degraded and non-degraded speech. Seeing a speaker's face can affect the perception of their speech in a number of ways. This project proposes a detailed comparison of factors that affect Audio-Visual (AV) facilitation of degraded speech detection and identification. Detection-based tasks should be more sensitive to signal based correlations whereas identification-based effects more sensitive to complementary information. The significance of the current proposal is that it offers both a strategy and a connected series of experiments for determining key behavioural constraints on AV speech integration. Understanding AV interactions will build links between neurophysiological processes and coherent perception and have important implications for AV application.Read moreRead less
A community based social identity approach to loneliness. Loneliness across Australia is a deep concern. Social prescribing is a novel community-based approach to managing loneliness, however it is unclear when and in what circumstances it is effective. This project aims to test a social identity approach to loneliness, incorporating longitudinal, cross-sectional, and experimental methods to understand how best to engage isolated people in group programs. The expected benefits of this project ar ....A community based social identity approach to loneliness. Loneliness across Australia is a deep concern. Social prescribing is a novel community-based approach to managing loneliness, however it is unclear when and in what circumstances it is effective. This project aims to test a social identity approach to loneliness, incorporating longitudinal, cross-sectional, and experimental methods to understand how best to engage isolated people in group programs. The expected benefits of this project are to produce a validated social prescribing model that can be implemented in multiple settings across Australia in order to reduce loneliness, strengthen communities, and guide more appropriate uses of health services.Read moreRead less
Ageing well in a foreign land. Ageing well in a foreign land. This project aims to enhance well-being among people ageing in a foreign land, by understanding the best approaches to connect them. Older people from diverse cultural backgrounds are socially isolated as they age in a foreign land. This project will use a mixed methods approach to identify the factors that contribute to social isolation and low well-being; understand when and how engagement in ethnocultural and multicultural activiti ....Ageing well in a foreign land. Ageing well in a foreign land. This project aims to enhance well-being among people ageing in a foreign land, by understanding the best approaches to connect them. Older people from diverse cultural backgrounds are socially isolated as they age in a foreign land. This project will use a mixed methods approach to identify the factors that contribute to social isolation and low well-being; understand when and how engagement in ethnocultural and multicultural activities enhances social connectedness and well-being; and evaluate and determine key principles underlying effective identity-based interventions. The intended outcome of the project is a new policy model that builds Australia’s care capacity in tandem with its diverse ageing population.Read moreRead less
Breaking the cycle of homelessness: an identity change approach to enhance resilience and well-being. This project will explore the factors that contribute to the development of well-being and resilience among those who are homeless. We focus on the importance of social connections in enhancing resilience, well-being and breaking the cycle of homelessness. Findings will inform best practice guidelines and policy in emergency accommodation centres.
The brain in real-time: predicting the present, reconstructing the past. This proposal aims to understand how the brain compensates for its own internal delays to function in real-time. Because it takes time for information from the senses to reach the brain, it takes time for us to become aware of an event that occurs in the outside world. This project will use an innovative combination of techniques to study how prediction and reconstruction mechanisms work together in the brain. Expected outc ....The brain in real-time: predicting the present, reconstructing the past. This proposal aims to understand how the brain compensates for its own internal delays to function in real-time. Because it takes time for information from the senses to reach the brain, it takes time for us to become aware of an event that occurs in the outside world. This project will use an innovative combination of techniques to study how prediction and reconstruction mechanisms work together in the brain. Expected outcomes of this project include a fundamental understanding of how we function in the present. This should provide significant benefits, such as an important theoretical advance in our understanding of how conscious awareness is realised in the brain, placing Australia at the cutting edge.Read moreRead less