The social dynamics of language: a study of phonological variation and change in West Australian English. This project studies the role of pronunciation as a marker of individual and community identity. As the first systematic study of accent variability in Perth, it focusses on how, across different contexts, speakers from older and younger generations and different backgrounds deploy speech as a means of projecting social affiliation and difference.
Investigation of the component distributions of pause duration in spontaneous speech: Constraints for models of language production. We have discovered that the distribution of pause durations in spontaneous speech of individual speakers can be decomposed into at least two log-normal distributions. Our project will investigate this finding and provide a foundation for new research relevant to language production models. This will be achieved by determining the semantic, lexical, psycholinguistic ....Investigation of the component distributions of pause duration in spontaneous speech: Constraints for models of language production. We have discovered that the distribution of pause durations in spontaneous speech of individual speakers can be decomposed into at least two log-normal distributions. Our project will investigate this finding and provide a foundation for new research relevant to language production models. This will be achieved by determining the semantic, lexical, psycholinguistic, physiological, and acoustic concomitants of each component distribution and by investigating the impact of selected variables on the shape and location of each. The project has important implications for models of language production and applied problems involving automatic speech recognition, forensic speaker identification, and human communication disorders.Read moreRead less
Investigating a new paradigm for plant-pathogen interactions; Identification of host-selective toxin proteins in the wheat pathogen Stagonospora nodorum. Stagonospora nodorum is a fungus that causes leaf and glume blotch disease on wheat. This disease alone causes $55 million dollars in yield losses per annum. Traditional breeding methods have yielded crops that are only mildly resistant leaving control of the disease to be worryingly reliant on fungicides. This project aims to identify and char ....Investigating a new paradigm for plant-pathogen interactions; Identification of host-selective toxin proteins in the wheat pathogen Stagonospora nodorum. Stagonospora nodorum is a fungus that causes leaf and glume blotch disease on wheat. This disease alone causes $55 million dollars in yield losses per annum. Traditional breeding methods have yielded crops that are only mildly resistant leaving control of the disease to be worryingly reliant on fungicides. This project aims to identify and characterise proteins that the fungus secretes to cause disease on wheat. By identifying these proteins, it is anticipated that strategies, both traditional and modern, could be employed to enable better control of the disease. This in turn would help provide a long term and secure supply of wheat and wheat based products to the community.Read moreRead less
A Cross-National and Cross-Cultural Study of Global Translation Industry. This project aims to tackle the pressing issue of the social invisibility of the translation profession, a persistent social problem that threatens to hinder the development of a critical knowledge-based industry in Australia within a rapidly changing international social, economic and cultural context. The project is expected to offer insights into the emerging international translation system and inform policy makers an ....A Cross-National and Cross-Cultural Study of Global Translation Industry. This project aims to tackle the pressing issue of the social invisibility of the translation profession, a persistent social problem that threatens to hinder the development of a critical knowledge-based industry in Australia within a rapidly changing international social, economic and cultural context. The project is expected to offer insights into the emerging international translation system and inform policy makers and the general public about the challenges and opportunities of developing this profitable and resilient service industry.Read moreRead less
The Ancient Today: Living Traditions of Classical Language Education. This project aims to compare, for the first time, ancient language education across world cultures with ‘classical’ literatures. It expects to illumine the purpose and value of classical language education in Chinese, Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit historically and within global education systems today by comparing pedagogic ideals and practices across times and cultures. It aims to test the potential of inclusive classical langua ....The Ancient Today: Living Traditions of Classical Language Education. This project aims to compare, for the first time, ancient language education across world cultures with ‘classical’ literatures. It expects to illumine the purpose and value of classical language education in Chinese, Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit historically and within global education systems today by comparing pedagogic ideals and practices across times and cultures. It aims to test the potential of inclusive classical language learning to boost educational outcomes for disadvantaged students. Other expected outcomes include two books, scholarly articles, education policy reports, and PhD student training. This should strengthen intercultural understanding and benefit school students, educators, policy makers and the wider public.Read moreRead less
Does word similarity across languages help or hinder bilingual speakers? This project aims to understand in more detail how bilinguals can accurately speak in both their languages. Speaking is a complex skill, particularly if you have two languages to choose from, which will be true for over half of Australia’s population by 2025. This project aims to investigate the factors that influence speech production in both monolinguals and bilinguals including those with language impairment, and develop ....Does word similarity across languages help or hinder bilingual speakers? This project aims to understand in more detail how bilinguals can accurately speak in both their languages. Speaking is a complex skill, particularly if you have two languages to choose from, which will be true for over half of Australia’s population by 2025. This project aims to investigate the factors that influence speech production in both monolinguals and bilinguals including those with language impairment, and develop a better bilingual theory. The benefit of this new theory will be to provide a clear basis for diagnosis and treatment for children in bilingual households who have problems learning to speak, and for bilingual people with language problems after a stroke or dementia.Read moreRead less
Uncovering the processes underlying human category learning. There is a pervasive belief that complex tasks can somehow be learned via a 'smart' implicit or procedural learning mechanism, which operates independently of memory and attention. This idea has important implications for our understanding of cognition. If true, there seems little point in providing explicit instruction in such tasks, and efforts to do so are, at best, wasted time and, at worst, detrimental to the learning process. Th ....Uncovering the processes underlying human category learning. There is a pervasive belief that complex tasks can somehow be learned via a 'smart' implicit or procedural learning mechanism, which operates independently of memory and attention. This idea has important implications for our understanding of cognition. If true, there seems little point in providing explicit instruction in such tasks, and efforts to do so are, at best, wasted time and, at worst, detrimental to the learning process. This project will provide much-needed scrutiny of this idea and will help not only to re-orient our understanding of how we deal with complex information, but will also highlight issues about data interpretation that are fundamental for the research and wider communities.Read moreRead less
Binding in working memory. Cross-modal binding?the integration of verbal and spatial features of events?is central to human cognition. However, it has been neglected in the study of working memory, where the dominant theoretical framework includes separate subsystems for the retention of verbal and spatial information. Using novel paradigms involving the concurrent auditory presentation of verbal and spatial information, the proposed research is directed at discovering (1) the fundamental chara ....Binding in working memory. Cross-modal binding?the integration of verbal and spatial features of events?is central to human cognition. However, it has been neglected in the study of working memory, where the dominant theoretical framework includes separate subsystems for the retention of verbal and spatial information. Using novel paradigms involving the concurrent auditory presentation of verbal and spatial information, the proposed research is directed at discovering (1) the fundamental characteristics of binding, and (2) the extent to which benchmark effects previously identified with a particular modality are ?inherited? by the other modality under conditions conducive to binding. Outcomes of the research will provide important constraints on the development of theories of working memory. In addition, the research will develop paradigms that have potentially important applications to clinical psychology, where diverse forms of psychopathology have been linked to deficits in binding.Read moreRead less
The role of retrieval cues when remembering over the short term. This project has two principal benefits: A basic scientific outcome concerning the development of a cue-driven memory model and an applied outcome that can inform the design of language learning tools. A core assumption proposed to explain short-term memory performance is that an event's salience affects its memorability. To date however, this salience dimension has escaped experimental vigour. This project examines the conditions ....The role of retrieval cues when remembering over the short term. This project has two principal benefits: A basic scientific outcome concerning the development of a cue-driven memory model and an applied outcome that can inform the design of language learning tools. A core assumption proposed to explain short-term memory performance is that an event's salience affects its memorability. To date however, this salience dimension has escaped experimental vigour. This project examines the conditions under which some events are perceived to be more salient than others. In addition, by determining when, and which cues are more salient, the project can inform future design of language learning tools (e.g., interactive memory games). Read moreRead less
Memory And Time. What could be simpler than remembering a few items, such as the digits in a phone number, for a brief time in the right order? Notwithstanding its simplicity, this serial recall task is essential for sophisticated human abilities such as vocabulary acquisition. This project investigates whether chronological time is a causal variable in short-term memory, as some?but by no means all?theorists assume. Experiments will manipulate time between items at study and retrieval using nov ....Memory And Time. What could be simpler than remembering a few items, such as the digits in a phone number, for a brief time in the right order? Notwithstanding its simplicity, this serial recall task is essential for sophisticated human abilities such as vocabulary acquisition. This project investigates whether chronological time is a causal variable in short-term memory, as some?but by no means all?theorists assume. Experiments will manipulate time between items at study and retrieval using novel techniques, and thus observe the effect of time on memory. Computational models of psychological time will be developed to better predict memory performance.Read moreRead less