Interpreting intrusions: Illuminating the cognitive mechanisms that fuel obsessional thought. This project aims to evaluate a theoretical model regarding the causal and maintaining role that cognitive biases play in obsessional thought. Obsessions are common in the general population and negatively impact health and daily functioning. Individuals struggle with their obsessions but are unable to disengage from them. A pressing question is: what makes an obsession so “sticky”? To answer this quest ....Interpreting intrusions: Illuminating the cognitive mechanisms that fuel obsessional thought. This project aims to evaluate a theoretical model regarding the causal and maintaining role that cognitive biases play in obsessional thought. Obsessions are common in the general population and negatively impact health and daily functioning. Individuals struggle with their obsessions but are unable to disengage from them. A pressing question is: what makes an obsession so “sticky”? To answer this question, this project aims to employ a novel, computerised experimental methodology to directly manipulate cognitive processes proposed to underpin obsessions. This methodology will be used to alter key biases proposed to drive obsessional thinking, thus shedding light on core psychological mechanisms.Read moreRead less
Understanding genetic and environmental risks of emotional disorders in childhood and adolescence. To reduce the burden of mental health disorders in Australia, this project will advance knowledge on genetic and environmental causes of anxiety and related disorders in children and adolescents. The results will allow better identification of children at risk for emotional problems and will identify new ways of tailoring prevention and treatment.
Academic Buoyancy and Academic Resilience: New Approaches to Examining and Understanding Adversity and Setback in the Academic Domain. Although Federal & State/Territory governments inject millions of dollars into schools, multitudes of students fall short of their academic potential due to an inability to deal with academic adversity. Essentially, these students are not academically buoyant or resilient. This diminishes their personal capacity through life & ultimately Australia's capacity to c ....Academic Buoyancy and Academic Resilience: New Approaches to Examining and Understanding Adversity and Setback in the Academic Domain. Although Federal & State/Territory governments inject millions of dollars into schools, multitudes of students fall short of their academic potential due to an inability to deal with academic adversity. Essentially, these students are not academically buoyant or resilient. This diminishes their personal capacity through life & ultimately Australia's capacity to compete globally. The proposed Research Program conducts a comprehensive analysis of academic buoyancy & resilience & the attributes pivotal to them. In so doing, it seeks to promote & maintain young people's good academic health. According to Australian authorities (eg. Australian Bureau of Statistics, The Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs), young people's academic health is vital to our nation's economic, cultural, & social success.Read moreRead less
How emotion shapes perception: delineating structural, temporal, and representational properties of emotion-induced blindness. Emotion helps shape conscious perception, with implications for public safety and mental health. This project will reveal mechanisms underlying emotion’s impact on perception. In doing so, it will advance theoretical understanding of basic processes and of how perceptual mechanisms might operate within and inform treatment of emotional disorders.
Attention please! Selective attention and human associative learning. Selective attention allows us to pick useful pieces of information out of the mass of stimulation that we're faced with every moment. This project investigates how what we've previously learnt about the significance of events influences whether we'll pick them out as useful in future, and how this might be impaired by old age or mental disorder.