Licensing negotiation: How credits, credentials, and context generate behavioural latitude. Women need to negotiate in order to secure economic resources, but their efforts to negotiate violate gender stereotypes and evoke backlash. This project integrates the negotiation, gender stereotypes, and psychological licensing literatures to understand how employees’ behavioural histories, and the behavioural histories of their employers, give employees psychological license to violate stereotyped expe ....Licensing negotiation: How credits, credentials, and context generate behavioural latitude. Women need to negotiate in order to secure economic resources, but their efforts to negotiate violate gender stereotypes and evoke backlash. This project integrates the negotiation, gender stereotypes, and psychological licensing literatures to understand how employees’ behavioural histories, and the behavioural histories of their employers, give employees psychological license to violate stereotyped expectations. This project combines laboratory and field methods to identify situations in which both men and women can negotiate economic outcomes without putting their organisational relationships at risk. The project’s findings will help employees to decide when and where to negotiate, and enable managers to design workplaces that sustain gender equity.Read moreRead less
Functional impact of high fat and high sugar diets on memory encoding. This project aims to determine the functional mechanisms of how fats and sugar affect neuronal processes vital for learning and memory. Expected outcomes will define the neural mechanisms underpinning cognitive changes in emotional and spatial memory encoding, and how these relate to brain and metabolic parameters. This will provide benefits by unveiling the possible consequences of dietary fat and sugar on the brain, and th ....Functional impact of high fat and high sugar diets on memory encoding. This project aims to determine the functional mechanisms of how fats and sugar affect neuronal processes vital for learning and memory. Expected outcomes will define the neural mechanisms underpinning cognitive changes in emotional and spatial memory encoding, and how these relate to brain and metabolic parameters. This will provide benefits by unveiling the possible consequences of dietary fat and sugar on the brain, and the mechanisms of neuroplasticity enhancing interventions.Read moreRead less
Using large scale modelling to understand reading development and dyslexia. This project aims to construct a computational model of reading that makes quantitative predictions about reading behaviour and dyslexia. It will test theories of reading development and dyslexia based on what they predict in terms of reading performance, predictions which many theories of dyslexia do not make. The model will be in English, French and Italian, which offer rich and constraining data to test the model. The ....Using large scale modelling to understand reading development and dyslexia. This project aims to construct a computational model of reading that makes quantitative predictions about reading behaviour and dyslexia. It will test theories of reading development and dyslexia based on what they predict in terms of reading performance, predictions which many theories of dyslexia do not make. The model will be in English, French and Italian, which offer rich and constraining data to test the model. The project is expected to explain the link between reading performance and underlying influences and why dyslexia manifests differently in different languages.Read moreRead less
Where do inductive biases come from? A Bayesian investigation. This project aims to investigate the origin of our thinking and learning biases using state-of-the-art mathematical models and sophisticated experimental designs. Expected outcomes include bridging the gap between human and machine learning by pairing mathematical modelling with experimental work, forming a necessary step toward the development of machine systems that can reason like people do. This will provide significant benefits ....Where do inductive biases come from? A Bayesian investigation. This project aims to investigate the origin of our thinking and learning biases using state-of-the-art mathematical models and sophisticated experimental designs. Expected outcomes include bridging the gap between human and machine learning by pairing mathematical modelling with experimental work, forming a necessary step toward the development of machine systems that can reason like people do. This will provide significant benefits such as understanding how people operate so effectively in real environments, when even the most powerful computers struggle to handle the complexities of everyday learning problems.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
Critical windows: understanding changes in eating and physical activity over the transition from secondary school to young adulthood. This project will explain changes in eating, physical activity and sedentary behaviour during the critical period of transition from secondary school to young adulthood. It will provide important information on how we can assist adolescents to maintain a healthy lifestyle over a time characterised by several major life changes.
Learning from others: Inductive reasoning based on human-generated data. Most of the data we see every day, from politics to gossip, comes from other people. Making inferences about such data is difficult because the people who provided it may have biases or limitations in their knowledge that we do not know about and must figure out. This project uses a series of experiments tied to normative computational models of social reasoning to explore how people solve this problem. This work has the po ....Learning from others: Inductive reasoning based on human-generated data. Most of the data we see every day, from politics to gossip, comes from other people. Making inferences about such data is difficult because the people who provided it may have biases or limitations in their knowledge that we do not know about and must figure out. This project uses a series of experiments tied to normative computational models of social reasoning to explore how people solve this problem. This work has the potential to make a major impact in understanding how information is understood and shared, especially when it is about topics that people lack firsthand knowledge about, like climate change. The computational models also have applications to the development of expert systems upon which our information economy relies.Read moreRead less
The cost of keeping gruesome images from the world. This project aims to investigate one of society’s most invisible ‘frontline’ trauma workforces—the online content moderators responsible for limiting the public’s exposure to distressing and sensitive content on social media. Using a series of rigorous experiments, and cutting-edge psychological and physiological assessment techniques, the research will advance our understanding of the impact of indirect trauma on mental health. Expected outcom ....The cost of keeping gruesome images from the world. This project aims to investigate one of society’s most invisible ‘frontline’ trauma workforces—the online content moderators responsible for limiting the public’s exposure to distressing and sensitive content on social media. Using a series of rigorous experiments, and cutting-edge psychological and physiological assessment techniques, the research will advance our understanding of the impact of indirect trauma on mental health. Expected outcomes include novel empirical evidence for preventative strategies that will predict, monitor and reduce negative mental health outcomes. This will provide significant global benefits to people with indirect trauma experiences, such as defence and forensic personnel.Read moreRead less
A model of the mind which explains the role of emotions in normal cognition and affective disorder. Depression is recognised as one of the most burdensome diseases in Australia. Though we of course make no claims, as philosophers, to cure depression our contribution is to engage philosophy productively with a vital national area of empirical research. The other area of national benefit is to consolidate Australia's developing reputation as a site for the involvement of philosophy in interdiscipl ....A model of the mind which explains the role of emotions in normal cognition and affective disorder. Depression is recognised as one of the most burdensome diseases in Australia. Though we of course make no claims, as philosophers, to cure depression our contribution is to engage philosophy productively with a vital national area of empirical research. The other area of national benefit is to consolidate Australia's developing reputation as a site for the involvement of philosophy in interdisciplinary projects which link the humanities to the sciences. Furthermore, with the project's anchoring in the humanities, there is hope that a focus on, and increased understanding of, depression will have flow-on effects in the Australian community that will help ease the stigmatisation that is still felt by many of its sufferers.Read moreRead less
How inhibition shapes human brain oscillations and working memory capacity. This project aims to investigate the link between inhibitory mechanisms, gamma oscillations and working memory in humans. Retaining information in short-term ‘working’ memory is crucial for cognition, influencing our personality and intelligence. However, the brain mechanisms underlying this process are unclear. Evidence from animal/computational research indicates that brain oscillations in high frequency ‘gamma’ bands, ....How inhibition shapes human brain oscillations and working memory capacity. This project aims to investigate the link between inhibitory mechanisms, gamma oscillations and working memory in humans. Retaining information in short-term ‘working’ memory is crucial for cognition, influencing our personality and intelligence. However, the brain mechanisms underlying this process are unclear. Evidence from animal/computational research indicates that brain oscillations in high frequency ‘gamma’ bands, which depend on neural inhibition, are critical for working memory. Mapping a path from molecules to cognition will detail how neural mechanisms shape human behavioural performance and guide efforts to enhance memory and cognitive function.Read moreRead less