The early communicative environment prior to and following cochlear implants: impact on children's early communicative and cognitive development. This research with children with cochlear implants will examine the effect on language development of being in an oral environment or one that also includes sign language. The outcomes will provide information for parents and professionals enabling informed decision about the management of the children to promote the best possible outcomes.
Nurturing Australia's Little Multilingual Minds. Despite its substantial multilingual capacity of more than 300 languages, Australia has been described as a 'graveyard for languages'. In partnering with community organisations we will facilitate polyglot early learning, commencing with Spanish and Vietnamese. Expected outcomes are a deep understanding of multilingual families’ experiences, a model to support lifespan multilingual education, and openly-accessible database of child language in her ....Nurturing Australia's Little Multilingual Minds. Despite its substantial multilingual capacity of more than 300 languages, Australia has been described as a 'graveyard for languages'. In partnering with community organisations we will facilitate polyglot early learning, commencing with Spanish and Vietnamese. Expected outcomes are a deep understanding of multilingual families’ experiences, a model to support lifespan multilingual education, and openly-accessible database of child language in heritage languages. Benefits include a pivotal contribution to early childhood education with the creation of a tailor-made, principle-based program, which will enhance children’s academic achievement, familial social and mental wellbeing, and cultural and economic opportunities for all Australians. Read moreRead less
Creating perceptual experts in Australia's policing and security agencies. This project aims to create the next generation of experts in Australia’s policing and national security agencies, by improving crime scene evidence interpretation. Agencies are under pressure to develop more rigorous training practices that go beyond mere intuition and tradition. This project will use a novel approach that directs learning toward the most diagnostic perceptual cues. Expected outcomes include a solid empi ....Creating perceptual experts in Australia's policing and security agencies. This project aims to create the next generation of experts in Australia’s policing and national security agencies, by improving crime scene evidence interpretation. Agencies are under pressure to develop more rigorous training practices that go beyond mere intuition and tradition. This project will use a novel approach that directs learning toward the most diagnostic perceptual cues. Expected outcomes include a solid empirical basis for national training programs designed to create experts that are accurate, reliable, and continuously improving. Improving the training of experts will ensure the integrity of forensics as evidentiary tools available to police, lead to more reliable courtroom convictions and help safeguard Australia from terrorism and crime.Read moreRead less
The emotional psychology of blood donors: understanding and using the affective key to donor return. Every week in Australia 27,000 blood donations are required to meet medical needs. Though donors are continually recruited, each year around 40per cent of Australian donors fail to re-donate. Why this occurs and how to prevent this is not well understood. Using an approach grounded in psychology and affective science, this project comprises a program of studies that aims to advance understanding ....The emotional psychology of blood donors: understanding and using the affective key to donor return. Every week in Australia 27,000 blood donations are required to meet medical needs. Though donors are continually recruited, each year around 40per cent of Australian donors fail to re-donate. Why this occurs and how to prevent this is not well understood. Using an approach grounded in psychology and affective science, this project comprises a program of studies that aims to advance understanding of the affective factors that contribute to blood donor return and translate that understanding into interventions to increase donor return. The project aims to advance the psychological conceptualisation of blood donation by integrating insight from affective science, while also enabling the Blood Service to meet the nation's demand for blood products.Read moreRead less
An Investigation of Intersubjectivity: Music Therapy and Hospitalised Infants. A contingent relationship is vital for normal infant development. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which supplies life-saving modern medical technology to very sick infants, is also an environment where contingency is rarely available to the infant . In this environment, a Music Therapist ?improvising? with the infant, can re-introduce contingency to the infant, and encourage infant self-regulation. This project inv ....An Investigation of Intersubjectivity: Music Therapy and Hospitalised Infants. A contingent relationship is vital for normal infant development. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which supplies life-saving modern medical technology to very sick infants, is also an environment where contingency is rarely available to the infant . In this environment, a Music Therapist ?improvising? with the infant, can re-introduce contingency to the infant, and encourage infant self-regulation. This project investigates the efficacy of a Music Therapy intervention in improving infant health, and micro-analyses the interaction between infant and therapist in order to further understand the nature of the Communicative Musicality of the interaction.Read moreRead less
Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back. Episodic Volunteering for Non-Profits. This project seeks to improve the policy and practice of volunteer involvement in the non-profit sector. Non-profit organisations rely on volunteers, and their capacity to deliver vital community services is threatened by the decrease in long-term, continuous volunteering and increase in episodic (short-term, flexible) volunteering. The interdisciplinary project aims to use mixed methods (qualitative interviews and quantitat ....Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back. Episodic Volunteering for Non-Profits. This project seeks to improve the policy and practice of volunteer involvement in the non-profit sector. Non-profit organisations rely on volunteers, and their capacity to deliver vital community services is threatened by the decrease in long-term, continuous volunteering and increase in episodic (short-term, flexible) volunteering. The interdisciplinary project aims to use mixed methods (qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys) and multiple perspectives (volunteers and staff who manage them) to develop an episodic volunteering definition; to explore the economic and social impact of episodic volunteering, and to develop a theoretical model of volunteer retention. The findings are intended to provide an evidence base and recommendations for non-profit sector policy and practice.Read moreRead less
Optimising illicit dark net marketplace interventions. Optimising illicit dark net marketplace interventions. This project aims to develop and test a series of interventions to disrupt identify theft activities, and design an operational risk framework that will aid law enforcement agencies and organisations to timely and appropriately intervene in cyber space. The buying and selling of identity credentials via dark net forums is a significant and growing problem. This research— based on systems ....Optimising illicit dark net marketplace interventions. Optimising illicit dark net marketplace interventions. This project aims to develop and test a series of interventions to disrupt identify theft activities, and design an operational risk framework that will aid law enforcement agencies and organisations to timely and appropriately intervene in cyber space. The buying and selling of identity credentials via dark net forums is a significant and growing problem. This research— based on systems analyses of dark net forums, and bringing together researchers, practitioners, theories and methods from human factors, sociotechnical systems, criminology, and cyber security—is expected to increase understanding of the dark net and improve ways of disrupting identity theft and trading.Read moreRead less
Paving the way for ultra-long haul flights: strategies to mitigate jetlag. This project aims to develop and test strategies to mitigate jetlag, founded on biophysical modelling of circadian rhythms. It sets out to quantify the speed of circadian adaptation of sleep, alertness, and metabolism after transmeridian travel and to maximise speed of adaptation via optimised timing of light exposure, food, and exercise in-flight and on-the-ground. Expected outcomes include powerful models for jetlag str ....Paving the way for ultra-long haul flights: strategies to mitigate jetlag. This project aims to develop and test strategies to mitigate jetlag, founded on biophysical modelling of circadian rhythms. It sets out to quantify the speed of circadian adaptation of sleep, alertness, and metabolism after transmeridian travel and to maximise speed of adaptation via optimised timing of light exposure, food, and exercise in-flight and on-the-ground. Expected outcomes include powerful models for jetlag strategies, ready for application in air travel. The project will directly inform Qantas’ operations for ultra-long haul flights and their international network more broadly. Project outcomes will benefit society and the economy through improving travellers’ alertness, sleep, and reducing the risk of fatigue-related accidents.Read moreRead less
Combining Community Based Social Marketing and Technological Innovation to Combat Wood-Smoke Pollution in Regional Australia. There is considerable evidence to suggest that wood smoke pollution represents a serious health threat. This project will provide valuable information about the relative effectiveness of social marketing and technology-based interventions to reduce wood smoke pollution, and how these interventions may be combined to maximise their impact. The resulting improvements in ai ....Combining Community Based Social Marketing and Technological Innovation to Combat Wood-Smoke Pollution in Regional Australia. There is considerable evidence to suggest that wood smoke pollution represents a serious health threat. This project will provide valuable information about the relative effectiveness of social marketing and technology-based interventions to reduce wood smoke pollution, and how these interventions may be combined to maximise their impact. The resulting improvements in air quality may produce substantial health benefits for the residents of Australian communities that depend heavily on wood as a domestic heating fuel during winter months. Read moreRead less
Thinking brains and bodies: distributed cognition and dynamic memory in Australian Dance Theatre. Creative thinking, learning and memory - key features of human cognition - will be investigated in the context of dance in this project. Complementary quantitative and qualitative methods will shed light on process and communication in the Australian Dance Theatre and the arts more broadly, and inform new accounts of thinking as embodied and distributed.