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
The mind's nose: Evocation, representation and similarity of imaginary and real odours. The food industry is a key sector in the Australian economy, accounting for 26.6 Billion Dollars in exports in 2001/2. Every year substantial sums are spent advertising, developing and testing new products, with notoriously high failure rates. Arguably both advertising and development depend, to some degree, on the ability of people to imagine the flavour and smell of these products. This project should id ....The mind's nose: Evocation, representation and similarity of imaginary and real odours. The food industry is a key sector in the Australian economy, accounting for 26.6 Billion Dollars in exports in 2001/2. Every year substantial sums are spent advertising, developing and testing new products, with notoriously high failure rates. Arguably both advertising and development depend, to some degree, on the ability of people to imagine the flavour and smell of these products. This project should identify procedures which enhance peoples ability to do this. Such findings should enable advertisers to design advertisements that are better able to induce imaginary aromas in their audience and enhance the training of food product developers, so they too can better imagine and conceptualise new food products.Read moreRead less
Working Memory: The Binding of Spatial and Nonspatial Features in the Retention of Visual and Auditory Information. By advancing the understanding of how integrated representations are retained in memory for the features of visual objects and the features of sounds, the research will provide new theoretical insights as well as new methods for investigating several forms of psychopathology. Deficits in feature binding have been argued to be implicated in autism, in the auditory hallucinations exp ....Working Memory: The Binding of Spatial and Nonspatial Features in the Retention of Visual and Auditory Information. By advancing the understanding of how integrated representations are retained in memory for the features of visual objects and the features of sounds, the research will provide new theoretical insights as well as new methods for investigating several forms of psychopathology. Deficits in feature binding have been argued to be implicated in autism, in the auditory hallucinations experienced by individuals with schizophrenia, and in memory decline with advancing age. By investigating these deficits using insights from the proposed study, researchers may be able to develop ways to ameliorate the adverse effects of the deficits.Read moreRead less
Face recognition: Properties and origins of whole-face processing. Humans identify other individuals almost entirely by their faces. Correspondingly, research has demonstrated a "special" style of cognitive processing that is unique to faces (at least in ordinary adults). The present project will address two major theoretical issues: (1) the exact nature of the special processing for faces, and (2) the extent to which it is innate, or learned. New progress in understanding these issues will be m ....Face recognition: Properties and origins of whole-face processing. Humans identify other individuals almost entirely by their faces. Correspondingly, research has demonstrated a "special" style of cognitive processing that is unique to faces (at least in ordinary adults). The present project will address two major theoretical issues: (1) the exact nature of the special processing for faces, and (2) the extent to which it is innate, or learned. New progress in understanding these issues will be made using a series of novel experimental techniques. These techniques isolate the specific contribution of the face recognition system, independent of contributions from object recognition, and from early visual processing.Read moreRead less
Special cognitive processing for faces: Expertise effects, and links to neural mechanisms. Humans identify other individuals primarily by their faces. Evidence from cognitive psychology indicates a special 'whole-face' (as opposed to part-based) style of processing for upright faces. This project will provide new insights into two long-standing issues about the origin of special face processing: (1) whether it derives from generic expert recognition processes or has some face-specific innate co ....Special cognitive processing for faces: Expertise effects, and links to neural mechanisms. Humans identify other individuals primarily by their faces. Evidence from cognitive psychology indicates a special 'whole-face' (as opposed to part-based) style of processing for upright faces. This project will provide new insights into two long-standing issues about the origin of special face processing: (1) whether it derives from generic expert recognition processes or has some face-specific innate component; and (2) the extent to which it can be distinguished from part-based processing at the neural level using both functional brain imaging (fMRI) and adaptation to distorted faces.Read moreRead less
Absolute identification and beyond: A comprehensive, integrated architecture for speeded choice. Absolute identification (AI) is an important field of study for both theoretical and practical reasons. Theoretically, advances in AI study shed light on fundamental memory and attentional limitations of human cognition. Practically, AI models a task that is useful and necessary in everyday life and the extensions we propose are similarly useful (e.g., a model of the confidence with which judgments a ....Absolute identification and beyond: A comprehensive, integrated architecture for speeded choice. Absolute identification (AI) is an important field of study for both theoretical and practical reasons. Theoretically, advances in AI study shed light on fundamental memory and attentional limitations of human cognition. Practically, AI models a task that is useful and necessary in everyday life and the extensions we propose are similarly useful (e.g., a model of the confidence with which judgments are made). Apart from the epistemological benefits, the proposal will rebuild the role that Australian researchers have previously played in mathematical approaches to basic cognitive problems (including decision making and AI).
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The How and Why of Auditory-Visual Speech Perception: Affective and Articulatory Factors in Japanese and English Language Infants and Children. When we talk to babies certain aspects of our face and voice change compared with when we talk to adults. In this project we investigate the nature of the changes mothers make to their face and voice when talking to infants, the emotional or language-based purpose of these changes, and how infants and schoolchildren perceive these changes. Our previous s ....The How and Why of Auditory-Visual Speech Perception: Affective and Articulatory Factors in Japanese and English Language Infants and Children. When we talk to babies certain aspects of our face and voice change compared with when we talk to adults. In this project we investigate the nature of the changes mothers make to their face and voice when talking to infants, the emotional or language-based purpose of these changes, and how infants and schoolchildren perceive these changes. Our previous studies show that visual information is used more by English than Japanese language speakers, so these studies are investigated with both these language groups. The results will inform us more about language learning, hearing aid use, and speech recognition by machines.Read moreRead less
Making speech three-dimensional: Adding tone to consonant- and vowel-based speech perception and language acquisition research, quantification and theory. Children learn the intricacies of human language in just a few years because they tune into their native language well before they start to speak. We now have a good understanding of this process and how it might affect learning difficulties but only for a limited number of European languages. Here we will investigate face-to-face speech and ....Making speech three-dimensional: Adding tone to consonant- and vowel-based speech perception and language acquisition research, quantification and theory. Children learn the intricacies of human language in just a few years because they tune into their native language well before they start to speak. We now have a good understanding of this process and how it might affect learning difficulties but only for a limited number of European languages. Here we will investigate face-to-face speech and language learning for components used across the world's languages, most particularly lexical tone used in many Asian languages, with significant implications for language acquisition, language learning difficulties, machines that speak, learning foreign languages, aids for the Deaf and hearing impaired, and multilingualism. Read moreRead less
Developing a generative transformational theory of visual perception. This project will develop and test a generative, transformational computer model of visual perception, based on fractal encoding. This uses a powerful similarity metric to select transformations, that, when applied to image elements, generate a replica of the image. The model can detect and analyse structure in regular and semi-regular images, even when embedded in noise. This approach provides an explanation for several perce ....Developing a generative transformational theory of visual perception. This project will develop and test a generative, transformational computer model of visual perception, based on fractal encoding. This uses a powerful similarity metric to select transformations, that, when applied to image elements, generate a replica of the image. The model can detect and analyse structure in regular and semi-regular images, even when embedded in noise. This approach provides an explanation for several perceptual phenomena and illusions. It can reconcile opposed theories of perception and provide a unifying perspective on perception and cognition. Practical applications include the automatic recognition of objects in imagery and the detection of structure in complex data.Read moreRead less
Developing an integrative theoretical account of some basic mechanisms and limiting factors in human perception and cognition. The principal factors limiting cognitive performance are widely considered to be information processing speed, working memory capacity, and the effective control of cognitive processes. The proposed programme aims to develop and test a unifying theory relating these to two of the most basic achievements of the brain - discrimination and identification. This will help us ....Developing an integrative theoretical account of some basic mechanisms and limiting factors in human perception and cognition. The principal factors limiting cognitive performance are widely considered to be information processing speed, working memory capacity, and the effective control of cognitive processes. The proposed programme aims to develop and test a unifying theory relating these to two of the most basic achievements of the brain - discrimination and identification. This will help us to understand the underlying basis of differences and changes in cognitive performance. The outcomes have implications for the design, analysis and interpretation of studies of perception, judgement, memory and intelligence. The research also has applied relevance to neuropsychology, information handling and the design of system interfaces.Read moreRead less