Overcoming Violence and Building Peace in Conditions of Complexity in PNG . The project is an investigation of the drivers and inhibitors of three inter-related forms of violence in Papua New Guinea - tribal fighting, sorcery accusation related violence and family and sexual violence. The harm caused by these forms of violence is systemic and ongoing, with widespread negative impacts for women, men and children across multiple dimensions of social and economic development. The project will produ ....Overcoming Violence and Building Peace in Conditions of Complexity in PNG . The project is an investigation of the drivers and inhibitors of three inter-related forms of violence in Papua New Guinea - tribal fighting, sorcery accusation related violence and family and sexual violence. The harm caused by these forms of violence is systemic and ongoing, with widespread negative impacts for women, men and children across multiple dimensions of social and economic development. The project will produce new knowledge about how violence and peace-making initiatives emerge, connect, spread and disperse, and generate new conceptual models to better analyse the dynamics of violence and peace across time and space. These theoretical insights will inform better violence prevention initiatives for Papua New Guinea and beyond.Read moreRead less
Combating Misinformation – Designing a Toolkit to Address a Global Problem. Misinformation impairs people’s cognition – their memory, reasoning and judgements – even if credible corrections are issued; it therefore poses a significant threat to evidence-based practice and policy. This project aims to develop novel psychological interventions to reduce the impact of misinformation, based on an experimental research program designed to systematically assess the effects of various types of misinfor ....Combating Misinformation – Designing a Toolkit to Address a Global Problem. Misinformation impairs people’s cognition – their memory, reasoning and judgements – even if credible corrections are issued; it therefore poses a significant threat to evidence-based practice and policy. This project aims to develop novel psychological interventions to reduce the impact of misinformation, based on an experimental research program designed to systematically assess the effects of various types of misinformation on cognition and behaviour. The expected outcome is the development of new knowledge regarding misinformation processing and communication and its translation into a toolkit for practical application. This promises to improve individual and public decision making and foster a culture of accurate information exchange.Read moreRead less
Neural noise in human cognitive ageing and reserve. Age-related increases in neural noise degrade information transfer in the brain and lead to diminished cognitive function. Yet with cognitive reserve, some people are able to maintain healthy functioning well into their later years. This project aims to investigate the effects of neural noise on brain connectivity, cognitive performance and reserve, advancing breakthrough work on the neural physiology of healthy cognitive ageing and malleabilit ....Neural noise in human cognitive ageing and reserve. Age-related increases in neural noise degrade information transfer in the brain and lead to diminished cognitive function. Yet with cognitive reserve, some people are able to maintain healthy functioning well into their later years. This project aims to investigate the effects of neural noise on brain connectivity, cognitive performance and reserve, advancing breakthrough work on the neural physiology of healthy cognitive ageing and malleability of neural noise. This will be delivered by novel combinations of electrophysiology, neuroimaging and non-invasive brain stimulation. Benefits extend from developing neural markers for measuring cognitive reserve to new strategies for building resilience to age-related cognitive decline.Read moreRead less
Categorisation, communication and the local environment. Languages around the world incorporate different systems of categories, and understanding this variation can contribute to a better understanding of similarities and differences between cultures. This project examines how linguistic variation is shaped in part by variation in the local physical and social environment. The methods include computational analyses of large electronic data sets including dictionaries and linguistic corpora tha ....Categorisation, communication and the local environment. Languages around the world incorporate different systems of categories, and understanding this variation can contribute to a better understanding of similarities and differences between cultures. This project examines how linguistic variation is shaped in part by variation in the local physical and social environment. The methods include computational analyses of large electronic data sets including dictionaries and linguistic corpora that have become available only recently, and psychological experiments that probe the causal mechanisms that lead to variation across languages. The outcomes include computational tools that pick out key differences between languages and therefore support cross-cultural communication.Read moreRead less
Enhancing Australia's Social Connectedness and Emotional Well-being. This project aims to redefine scientific understanding of why social connections are good for well-being, conceptualizing it as a process that involves successful regulation of emotions and behaviour. Effective social interventions require precise understanding of psychological process: the project will supply this understanding and leverage it to develop evidence-based interventions that grow social and emotional skills. Expec ....Enhancing Australia's Social Connectedness and Emotional Well-being. This project aims to redefine scientific understanding of why social connections are good for well-being, conceptualizing it as a process that involves successful regulation of emotions and behaviour. Effective social interventions require precise understanding of psychological process: the project will supply this understanding and leverage it to develop evidence-based interventions that grow social and emotional skills. Expected outcomes include generation of a novel literature at the intersection of social- and self-regulation and methodological innovations in the study of social connections. Significant benefits include creation of applied interventions with the potential to provide a ‘social cure’ for Australia’s loneliness problem.Read moreRead less
Racism, Wellbeing and Extremist Identification in Australia. Drawing on established social psychological theories of prejudice, the project aims to combat racism by ascertaining how it is maintained within a multicultural society and how its damaging consequences can be diminished. Racism is a pervasive problem and its harmful effects cost Australia an estimated $46.4 billion each year. The project plans to investigate how small negative interracial interactions can perpetuate racial hostility a ....Racism, Wellbeing and Extremist Identification in Australia. Drawing on established social psychological theories of prejudice, the project aims to combat racism by ascertaining how it is maintained within a multicultural society and how its damaging consequences can be diminished. Racism is a pervasive problem and its harmful effects cost Australia an estimated $46.4 billion each year. The project plans to investigate how small negative interracial interactions can perpetuate racial hostility and segregation; how negative interracial interactions might lead to extremist identification and sympathies; and how prejudice and discrimination develops between different minority groups. It also plans to investigate how positive interactions with majority groups (eg White Australians) might promote wellbeing and healthy behaviours in minority group members. Project outcomes may lead to solutions that promote social cohesion in Australia.Read moreRead less
Dealing with distraction: understanding recovery after interruption. Interruptions impair cognitive performance but modern environments have normalised distractions in our workplaces, homes, schools and cars. Daily tragedies occur because people are unaware of their attentional capacity limits. This Fellowship explores the consequences of interruption in moving displays using cutting-edge methods to determine how the brain holds information over an interruption and the process of attentional rec ....Dealing with distraction: understanding recovery after interruption. Interruptions impair cognitive performance but modern environments have normalised distractions in our workplaces, homes, schools and cars. Daily tragedies occur because people are unaware of their attentional capacity limits. This Fellowship explores the consequences of interruption in moving displays using cutting-edge methods to determine how the brain holds information over an interruption and the process of attentional recovery. It includes translational work determining effective ways to raise awareness of attention limits and guide policy. The outcomes will advance knowledge of the mechanisms of recovery from interruption, raise awareness of capacity limits beyond academia, and guide policy to improve safety.Read moreRead less
Understanding the neural basis of gaze behaviour in the human brain. Selecting where to look is a necessary step in human vision that is vital for guiding social behaviours. For example, although we inadvertently look toward faces in our environment, especially faces expressing emotion, we do not know how this is accomplished. This project aims to define the mechanisms responsible for detecting and prioritising faces in the human brain. The results are expected to advance our understanding of ho ....Understanding the neural basis of gaze behaviour in the human brain. Selecting where to look is a necessary step in human vision that is vital for guiding social behaviours. For example, although we inadvertently look toward faces in our environment, especially faces expressing emotion, we do not know how this is accomplished. This project aims to define the mechanisms responsible for detecting and prioritising faces in the human brain. The results are expected to advance our understanding of how vision operates in daily life, and augment theories of how the prioritisation of social cues might differ in people living with Anxiety disorders. It is anticipated that the project outcomes will also inform the development of artificial vision systems that can interpret social meaning in visual environments.
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Deep Time Images in the Age of Globalisation. Using rock art as a focus, this innovative comparative project will examine the processes that create contemporary heritage. The project aims to answer questions such as: What motivates tourists to visit rock art sites in different parts of the world? And what preconceptions do tourists and Traditional Owners have about each other? This project will transform our understanding of rock art heritage sites and provide invaluable foundations for future a ....Deep Time Images in the Age of Globalisation. Using rock art as a focus, this innovative comparative project will examine the processes that create contemporary heritage. The project aims to answer questions such as: What motivates tourists to visit rock art sites in different parts of the world? And what preconceptions do tourists and Traditional Owners have about each other? This project will transform our understanding of rock art heritage sites and provide invaluable foundations for future approaches towards heritage management, preservation, and communication. For the first time, the creation of rock art heritage will be analysed simultaneously in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere as the product of global intertwined intellectual processes and ongoing legacies.Read moreRead less
Understanding the role of mental imagery in cognition and behaviour. This project aims to develop objective physiological methods to measure mental imagery, uncover its brain mechanisms using neuroimaging and show how it biases cognition. It has long been suspected that mental imagery biases cognition, visual working memory and perception. However, showing this has been difficult due to a lack of measurement techniques. Here this is overcome by developing novel assay technologies and applying th ....Understanding the role of mental imagery in cognition and behaviour. This project aims to develop objective physiological methods to measure mental imagery, uncover its brain mechanisms using neuroimaging and show how it biases cognition. It has long been suspected that mental imagery biases cognition, visual working memory and perception. However, showing this has been difficult due to a lack of measurement techniques. Here this is overcome by developing novel assay technologies and applying them to the extremes of imagery, Aphantasia (no imagery) and Hyperphantasia (strong and vivid imagery). Expected outcomes include new measurement tools for generations of scientists, understanding the brain mechanisms of imagery and showing how our cognition (memory, risk, investing) is biased by mental imagery. Read moreRead less