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
Adaptive learning of spatiotemporal patterns: Development of multi-layer spiking neuron networks using Hebbian and competitive learning. The aim of this project is to develop a method for recognising patterns that change in time. The development of a reliable method that is fast and robust to noise will have wide application in many areas, especially computer speech recognition where timing plays a crucial role. Building-blocks similar to those in the brain (spiking neurons) will be used. Aut ....Adaptive learning of spatiotemporal patterns: Development of multi-layer spiking neuron networks using Hebbian and competitive learning. The aim of this project is to develop a method for recognising patterns that change in time. The development of a reliable method that is fast and robust to noise will have wide application in many areas, especially computer speech recognition where timing plays a crucial role. Building-blocks similar to those in the brain (spiking neurons) will be used. Automatic techniques will be used to teach groups of spiking neurons the differences between sequences of events by adjusting connections between them. The significance of this approach is that it captures information about timing that is missed in existing techniques.Read moreRead less
Adaptive learning in networks of spiking neurons for recognising patterns that change with time. The aim of this project is to develop a method for recognising patterns that change with time. Building-blocks similar to those in the brain (spiking neurons) will be used. Automatic techniques will be developed to teach groups of spiking neurons the differences between sequences of events by adjusting connections between neurons. The significance of this approach is that it captures information abou ....Adaptive learning in networks of spiking neurons for recognising patterns that change with time. The aim of this project is to develop a method for recognising patterns that change with time. Building-blocks similar to those in the brain (spiking neurons) will be used. Automatic techniques will be developed to teach groups of spiking neurons the differences between sequences of events by adjusting connections between neurons. The significance of this approach is that it captures information about timing that is missed in existing techniques. The development of a reliable method that is fast and robust to noise will have wide application in many areas, especially computer speech recognition where timing plays a crucial role.Read moreRead less
Temporal Pattern Learning and Recognition in Neural Systems. This project is relevant to the National Research Priority area of Frontier Technologies and addresses fundamental cross-disciplinary issues of how neural systems learn patterns that change with time, which is at the cutting edge of intelligent processing systems. Applications are in rapidly growing fields of automatic speech processing, robotics, machine learning and intelligent systems, all with applications in areas of economic impo ....Temporal Pattern Learning and Recognition in Neural Systems. This project is relevant to the National Research Priority area of Frontier Technologies and addresses fundamental cross-disciplinary issues of how neural systems learn patterns that change with time, which is at the cutting edge of intelligent processing systems. Applications are in rapidly growing fields of automatic speech processing, robotics, machine learning and intelligent systems, all with applications in areas of economic importance. Application to cochlear implant speech processing will provide benefit for the hearing impaired. The project will provide students with training at an international level within Australia, thus helping ensure Australia maintains and extends its science and technology base into the future.Read moreRead less
Surviving the data deluge: Scalable feature extraction, discrimination and analysis for computer vision tasks using compressed sensed data. Strategically, our pioneering solutions besides being technically and socially significant, open fresh options for sensor-agnostic data analysis. The technical significance lies through the creation of new technologies for the critical national and global security markets, currently overwhelmed by data. The social significance arises from our solutions being ....Surviving the data deluge: Scalable feature extraction, discrimination and analysis for computer vision tasks using compressed sensed data. Strategically, our pioneering solutions besides being technically and socially significant, open fresh options for sensor-agnostic data analysis. The technical significance lies through the creation of new technologies for the critical national and global security markets, currently overwhelmed by data. The social significance arises from our solutions being privacy preserving, providing new avenues for the production of novel, socially acceptable products for aged care monitoring. Our methods spearhead future advancement in diverse disciplines due to the wide applicability of the methods to other sensor networks (Square Kilometre Array) and data types, providing new frameworks for addressing crucial problems of data management. Read moreRead less
Does phonological awareness help children learn to read? An almost universally-accepted view in the field of reading acquisition is that phonological awareness, or the ability to perceive and manipulate speech sounds, causes a child to be good at learning to read. We argue that, despite the voluminous literature on this issue, it has not been conclusively established that such a causal link exists. To do so requires a project, proposed here, in which completely pre-literate children are selec ....Does phonological awareness help children learn to read? An almost universally-accepted view in the field of reading acquisition is that phonological awareness, or the ability to perceive and manipulate speech sounds, causes a child to be good at learning to read. We argue that, despite the voluminous literature on this issue, it has not been conclusively established that such a causal link exists. To do so requires a project, proposed here, in which completely pre-literate children are selected, their phonological awareness measured, and its relationship with subsequent literacy acquisition followed. Settling this issue will have significant consequences for both theory and practice in reading acquisition and dyslexia.Read moreRead less
Developing a Unified Theory of Episodic Memory. This project aims to develop a model of episodic memory and to apply the model to both adult and child development data. Unlike current approaches, the model is expected to address multiple memory tasks including item recognition, associative recognition, source recognition and cued recall, and also aims to address reaction time data, allowing different sources of interference causing forgetting in adults to be identified. By addressing both encodi ....Developing a Unified Theory of Episodic Memory. This project aims to develop a model of episodic memory and to apply the model to both adult and child development data. Unlike current approaches, the model is expected to address multiple memory tasks including item recognition, associative recognition, source recognition and cued recall, and also aims to address reaction time data, allowing different sources of interference causing forgetting in adults to be identified. By addressing both encoding and retrieval processes, the model can assess how changes in different sources of interference modulate performance through the trajectory of early development. Hierarchical Bayesian estimation aims to enable a simultaneous account of multiple tasks and support future deployment in applied contexts.Read moreRead less
Stochastic, Neurally-Plausible Models for Selective Attention and Decision Making. An understanding of the basic cognitive processes involved in attention and decision making is the goal of international research effort in a number of disciplines. The benefits expected from such understanding include improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of a variety of cognitive deficits and improved occupational safety and efficiency in settings involving interaction with complex systems, such air traffi ....Stochastic, Neurally-Plausible Models for Selective Attention and Decision Making. An understanding of the basic cognitive processes involved in attention and decision making is the goal of international research effort in a number of disciplines. The benefits expected from such understanding include improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of a variety of cognitive deficits and improved occupational safety and efficiency in settings involving interaction with complex systems, such air traffic control, airline cockpits, motor vehicles, and process management. By developing mathematical models of these processes and the neural mechanisms that underlie them, this project will contribute to this understanding. It will also provide international postdoctoral opportunties for Australian-trained Ph.D. graduates.Read moreRead less
Understanding the relationship between child maltreatment and language competence: An evidential interviewing perspective. This research aims to develop the first comprehensive and controlled examination of the oral language profiles of maltreated children and how these impact performance in an investigative interview paradigm. This examination is essential for developing strategies for improving the elicitation of evidence from child abuse witnesses. By improving child witness evidence, this re ....Understanding the relationship between child maltreatment and language competence: An evidential interviewing perspective. This research aims to develop the first comprehensive and controlled examination of the oral language profiles of maltreated children and how these impact performance in an investigative interview paradigm. This examination is essential for developing strategies for improving the elicitation of evidence from child abuse witnesses. By improving child witness evidence, this research will improve the prosecution and conviction rates of child abuse offences, which will have a deterrent effect on potential offenders. Finally, this research will reduce the stress of witnesses involved in the legal process and provide better screening of children in need of specialised language intervention.Read moreRead less
An Integrated Theory of Attention and Decision Making. Biologically, the fundamental computational task carried out by the human brain is the translation of perception into action. To perform this translation, attentional processes select relevant stimuli from the environment and decision processes then identify the selected stimuli. This project develops an integrated theory of attention and decision making in simple visual tasks, which will help us understand how these tasks are carried out i ....An Integrated Theory of Attention and Decision Making. Biologically, the fundamental computational task carried out by the human brain is the translation of perception into action. To perform this translation, attentional processes select relevant stimuli from the environment and decision processes then identify the selected stimuli. This project develops an integrated theory of attention and decision making in simple visual tasks, which will help us understand how these tasks are carried out in the brain. Understanding how these tasks are performed biologically will aid in the design of autonomous information-gathering and decision-making agents whose actions simulate human behaviour. Read moreRead less