Categorization and Working Memory: Bridging two Pillars of Cognition. Categorization is a fundamental cognitive skill that underlies much expert behavior, including medical diagnosis. A given task often gives rise to widely divergent strategies across individuals, and flawed strategies have been implicated in prediction errors of experts (e.g., bush fire fighters). This project seeks to identify the underlying variables that determine an individual's strategy acquisition by relating working memo ....Categorization and Working Memory: Bridging two Pillars of Cognition. Categorization is a fundamental cognitive skill that underlies much expert behavior, including medical diagnosis. A given task often gives rise to widely divergent strategies across individuals, and flawed strategies have been implicated in prediction errors of experts (e.g., bush fire fighters). This project seeks to identify the underlying variables that determine an individual's strategy acquisition by relating working memory performance to categorization. Working memory is a core cognitive construct that is quite well understood, but its relationship to category learning has so far remained unexplored. Being able to predict the development of categorization strategies can help maximize expert performance.Read moreRead less
Are two processes one too many? An investigation of the viability of the dual-process model of recognition memory. Memory is the glue that holds together our lives and personal identities. While psychologists are developing better and more sophisticated accounts of how it works, many deep questions remain. The present research examines some of these questions in relation to how memory can be decomposed into its component processes and how we are to understand these processes. An appropriate unde ....Are two processes one too many? An investigation of the viability of the dual-process model of recognition memory. Memory is the glue that holds together our lives and personal identities. While psychologists are developing better and more sophisticated accounts of how it works, many deep questions remain. The present research examines some of these questions in relation to how memory can be decomposed into its component processes and how we are to understand these processes. An appropriate understanding of these questions is vital to the development of interventions (both psychological and pharmacological) designed to halt or even reverse memory decline associated with normal aging and age-associated brain disease (such as Alzheimer disease).Read moreRead less
Towards an integrated model of reasoning and reasoning development. This project aims to identify the core cognitive processes that underlie different forms of reasoning and how they develop. The project intends to use a signal detection framework to derive detailed computational models of reasoning which can then be tested through Bayesian computational modelling as well as the first systematic investigation of developmental change in reasoning processes. Expected outcomes include a more princi ....Towards an integrated model of reasoning and reasoning development. This project aims to identify the core cognitive processes that underlie different forms of reasoning and how they develop. The project intends to use a signal detection framework to derive detailed computational models of reasoning which can then be tested through Bayesian computational modelling as well as the first systematic investigation of developmental change in reasoning processes. Expected outcomes include a more principled and comprehensive computational model of reasoning in both adults and children. The project should provide significant benefits by helping to resolve long-standing debates about how humans reason complex arguments relevant to everyday lives and guide development of more effective methods for teaching reasoning.Read moreRead less
Multidimensional unfolding: the latitude of acceptance and the structure of the single peaked response process in a multidimensional space. The latitude of acceptance and the operational function that structures the single peaked response process have only recently been understood as central to unidimensional models for the measurement of attitude, preference and choice. They have been neglected in multidimensional models. This project will formalise these two central components in a multidimens ....Multidimensional unfolding: the latitude of acceptance and the structure of the single peaked response process in a multidimensional space. The latitude of acceptance and the operational function that structures the single peaked response process have only recently been understood as central to unidimensional models for the measurement of attitude, preference and choice. They have been neglected in multidimensional models. This project will formalise these two central components in a multidimensional space. The operational function governs the relationship between any item-person distance and the latitude of acceptance defines a multidimensional hyper-sphere within which the more positive response is more likely. The project will articulate and operationalise these models for a range of typical response formats from ranking to pairwise preferences.Read moreRead less
Single and dual process models of recognition memory: Reconciliation of behavioural, electrophysiological, and neuroimaging data. Advanced brain scanning technologies are increasingly used to study human memory. As well as being important for our basic understanding of memory, they also tell us how memory is affected by normal development, ageing, disease, and injury. Unfortunately, because these technologies are so new, a gap has opened up between our psychological understanding of memory and t ....Single and dual process models of recognition memory: Reconciliation of behavioural, electrophysiological, and neuroimaging data. Advanced brain scanning technologies are increasingly used to study human memory. As well as being important for our basic understanding of memory, they also tell us how memory is affected by normal development, ageing, disease, and injury. Unfortunately, because these technologies are so new, a gap has opened up between our psychological understanding of memory and the physiological events measured by the scanning technologies. This has created a problem for how we should interpret the results that are found. The present project aims to close this gap by applying new research methodologies and theoretical insights based on our previous research.Read moreRead less
State-trace analysis: theory and application. A fundamental question for the science of psychology is: how can we identify the functional components of the human mind from observed behaviour and bodily states? This project explores this question through a new methodology called state-trace analysis and apply it to a basic cognitive ability - the capacity to learn to classify different objects.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120101029
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Responding to humanitarian emergencies: mass generosity as collective action. The world has witnessed a string of disasters that, at times, appear to have pushed the human capacity for generosity to its limits. This ground-breaking psychological research explores ways to help government and nongovernment agencies to build broader support in Australian society for efforts to respond to humanitarian emergencies.
Pathways to social cohesion and social change: opinion-based groups and the dynamic formation of identities. This project will update the understanding of political conflict by exploring groups based around shared opinions. It will show that groups are likely to be more successful in their political campaigns when they tie their causes to national and other positive identifies.
Developing useable markers of mental health deterioration. The project aims to improve risk management in mental health. Risk management in mental health is currently hampered because there is no nationally agreed set of markers of deterioration. One strand of the project aims to improve safety procedures by identifying the bases of decisions about adverse outcomes (i.e. symptom deterioration) and testing this knowledge to understand and predict other adverse events (e.g. non-suicidal self-injur ....Developing useable markers of mental health deterioration. The project aims to improve risk management in mental health. Risk management in mental health is currently hampered because there is no nationally agreed set of markers of deterioration. One strand of the project aims to improve safety procedures by identifying the bases of decisions about adverse outcomes (i.e. symptom deterioration) and testing this knowledge to understand and predict other adverse events (e.g. non-suicidal self-injury). A second strand aims to improve prediction of clinical deterioration and non-suicidal self-injury. By identifying ways to inform and implement decisions about risk management, the project intends to lay a foundation for the development of a nationally agreed set of markers for mental health deterioration to be used in occupational safety and health processes.Read moreRead less
From child learner to adult musician: Factors leading to success and ongoing participation in music. Building on recommendations from the Commonwealth Government's National Review of School Music Education (2005), this project seeks to clarify the factors that facilitate engagement in music. Building on data collected 10 years ago, the proposed follow up study will enable us to trace how Australian education in the form of school instrumental programs influence musical development, interest and ....From child learner to adult musician: Factors leading to success and ongoing participation in music. Building on recommendations from the Commonwealth Government's National Review of School Music Education (2005), this project seeks to clarify the factors that facilitate engagement in music. Building on data collected 10 years ago, the proposed follow up study will enable us to trace how Australian education in the form of school instrumental programs influence musical development, interest and attainment from childhood through to early adulthood. With this information, the study will enable us to identify how Australian education can be developed to facilitate the life-long enjoyment that artistic appreciation and participation can offer as a result of school music. Read moreRead less