Learning and choosing in a complex world. How do people make choices in a complex world? Making good choices requires expertise, but people must often forego rewards in order to acquire this knowledge. This is the essence of an "explore-exploit dilemma": to maximise rewards across a long time frame, people must take the time to explore and learn now. Empirically, this project aims to unify much of the existing psychological literature and extend it to cover richer, more complex problems. Theoret ....Learning and choosing in a complex world. How do people make choices in a complex world? Making good choices requires expertise, but people must often forego rewards in order to acquire this knowledge. This is the essence of an "explore-exploit dilemma": to maximise rewards across a long time frame, people must take the time to explore and learn now. Empirically, this project aims to unify much of the existing psychological literature and extend it to cover richer, more complex problems. Theoretically, the project aims to use tools from machine learning to compare human decision making to optimal planning models.Read moreRead less
Expecting the unexpected: how people prioritise predictability. This project aims to investigate how people represent and use information about unpredictability in their environment. Seeing too much predictability is problematic, but seeing too little can also be a problem, for example inappropriate "learned helplessness" can occur, whereby people feel disempowered because the world is seen as random. Recent findings demonstrated a bias in fundamental learning that may maintain these inappropria ....Expecting the unexpected: how people prioritise predictability. This project aims to investigate how people represent and use information about unpredictability in their environment. Seeing too much predictability is problematic, but seeing too little can also be a problem, for example inappropriate "learned helplessness" can occur, whereby people feel disempowered because the world is seen as random. Recent findings demonstrated a bias in fundamental learning that may maintain these inappropriate beliefs about unpredictability. This bias is not anticipated by formal theories of learning. The project will investigate how this bias is brought about by first formalising a novel theory of fundamental learning and then systematically testing its assumptions.Read moreRead less
A process model of visual working memory. This project aims to develop a process model of encoding of items into memory. Working memory is central to almost all cognitive functions, but little is known about short-term memory for visual information. Progress in this area is slow because of a focus on models that do not specify the processes underlying memory, and no model explains the processes that would limit the number of items the memory can hold to four. A process model is expected to addre ....A process model of visual working memory. This project aims to develop a process model of encoding of items into memory. Working memory is central to almost all cognitive functions, but little is known about short-term memory for visual information. Progress in this area is slow because of a focus on models that do not specify the processes underlying memory, and no model explains the processes that would limit the number of items the memory can hold to four. A process model is expected to address fundamental issues in visual working memory.Read moreRead less
Uncovering the processes underlying human reasoning: A state-trace approach. This project aims to answer the most important unresolved question in the psychology of reasoning; how many distinct cognitive processes underlie human reasoning? To answer this question, this project aims to conduct an extensive experimental investigation of the factors that selectively impact inductive and deductive inferences and the application of high-dimensional state-trace analysis; a powerful new method for diag ....Uncovering the processes underlying human reasoning: A state-trace approach. This project aims to answer the most important unresolved question in the psychology of reasoning; how many distinct cognitive processes underlie human reasoning? To answer this question, this project aims to conduct an extensive experimental investigation of the factors that selectively impact inductive and deductive inferences and the application of high-dimensional state-trace analysis; a powerful new method for diagnosing underlying processes from behavioural data. The project is expected also to develop a new computational model that accounts for both inductive and deductive forms of reasoning.Read moreRead less
Investigation of recognition memory in behavioural, electrophysiological, and functional neuro-imaging domains using state-trace analysis. This project utilises a novel methodology to investigate human recognition memory across three separate domains - behavioural, electrophysiological and functional neuro-imaging. The aim is to determine how these three aspects of memory are related and if they can be united by a single theory.
ARC/NHMRC Research Network in Ageing Well. The ARC Research Network on Ageing Well will support interdisciplinary, high quality research in the National Research Priority Goal of Ageing Well, Ageing Productively. It will build scale and focus on Australia's notable research strengths in ageing, promote collaborative research, and extend research capacities. The Network will link outstanding researchers from many disciplines, nurture developing researchers, relate social to health researchers, s ....ARC/NHMRC Research Network in Ageing Well. The ARC Research Network on Ageing Well will support interdisciplinary, high quality research in the National Research Priority Goal of Ageing Well, Ageing Productively. It will build scale and focus on Australia's notable research strengths in ageing, promote collaborative research, and extend research capacities. The Network will link outstanding researchers from many disciplines, nurture developing researchers, relate social to health researchers, strengthen international collaboration, and involve and inform end-point users. It will foster research which responds to the aspirations and needs of older Australians and informs action that can improve experiences of individual and population ageing.Read moreRead less
Improving the diagnosticity of eyewitness memory choices. Eyewitness identification error is common and costly. This project aims to improve the quality of information provided by eyewitnesses, and the ability of police officers and triers of fact (e.g., juries, judges) to evaluate this information. Laboratory investigations will determine how best to test memory and confidence to achieve this aim. A new class of cognitive models will provide a unified account of response accuracy, response time ....Improving the diagnosticity of eyewitness memory choices. Eyewitness identification error is common and costly. This project aims to improve the quality of information provided by eyewitnesses, and the ability of police officers and triers of fact (e.g., juries, judges) to evaluate this information. Laboratory investigations will determine how best to test memory and confidence to achieve this aim. A new class of cognitive models will provide a unified account of response accuracy, response time, and confidence, suitable for application to computerized testing scenarios. The models and testing methods validated in the laboratory will be refined for application in eyewitness memory settings, facilitating better evaluation of identification evidence, and potentially reducing wrongful convictions.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
How is information organised in the mind? Learning structured mental representations from data. One of the biggest questions in psychology is to understand the principles that the mind uses to organise information. This project is both a search for these underlying psychological laws, and an attempt to develop new statistical technologies and mathematical tools that can be used to organise information in applied settings.
ARC Complex Open Systems Research Network. Complexity is the common frontier in the physical, biological and social sciences. This Network will link specialists in all three sciences through five generic conceptual and mathematical theme activities. It will promote research into how subsystems self-organise into new emergent structures when assembled into an open, non-equilibrium system. Outcomes will include new technologies and software tools and deeper understanding of fundamental questions i ....ARC Complex Open Systems Research Network. Complexity is the common frontier in the physical, biological and social sciences. This Network will link specialists in all three sciences through five generic conceptual and mathematical theme activities. It will promote research into how subsystems self-organise into new emergent structures when assembled into an open, non-equilibrium system. Outcomes will include new technologies and software tools and deeper understanding of fundamental questions in science. An essential function of the network will be introducing researchers end users to new tools and broadening the horizons of graduate students.Read moreRead less