Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354596
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$20,000.00
Summary
Perception and Action in Auditory Scenes (PAAS): Neural, Behavioural, Computational and Mechanical Systems. Auditory scenes are temporal and ephemeral yet pervasively influence human life. How humans negotiate such scenes has not been solved, a fact highlighted by attempts to build machines to respond to speech, warnings etc., in real-world situations with room reverberation, different talkers, and background noise. No one discipline can solve such problems. In this network outstanding researche ....Perception and Action in Auditory Scenes (PAAS): Neural, Behavioural, Computational and Mechanical Systems. Auditory scenes are temporal and ephemeral yet pervasively influence human life. How humans negotiate such scenes has not been solved, a fact highlighted by attempts to build machines to respond to speech, warnings etc., in real-world situations with room reverberation, different talkers, and background noise. No one discipline can solve such problems. In this network outstanding researchers from physical, medical, human, and social sciences with interests in speech, music and audition will provide insights into how humans and machines localize, recognize, interpret and produce auditory events, and advance frontier technologies, e.g., automatic speech recognition, hearing prostheses, auditory monitoring/warning systems.Read moreRead less
Can attentional re-training reduce food cravings and consumption? This project aims to determine the impact of a procedure involving the re-training of attention to food cues on food cravings and food intake. Results will advance our understanding of food cravings and contribute to interventions aimed at curbing unwanted cravings and (over) consumption.
Developing a Unified Theory of Episodic Memory. This project aims to develop a model of episodic memory and to apply the model to both adult and child development data. Unlike current approaches, the model is expected to address multiple memory tasks including item recognition, associative recognition, source recognition and cued recall, and also aims to address reaction time data, allowing different sources of interference causing forgetting in adults to be identified. By addressing both encodi ....Developing a Unified Theory of Episodic Memory. This project aims to develop a model of episodic memory and to apply the model to both adult and child development data. Unlike current approaches, the model is expected to address multiple memory tasks including item recognition, associative recognition, source recognition and cued recall, and also aims to address reaction time data, allowing different sources of interference causing forgetting in adults to be identified. By addressing both encoding and retrieval processes, the model can assess how changes in different sources of interference modulate performance through the trajectory of early development. Hierarchical Bayesian estimation aims to enable a simultaneous account of multiple tasks and support future deployment in applied contexts.Read moreRead less
A Scalable Theory of Behavior Composition for Practical Engineering Models of Human Performance. Minimizing human error and maximizing human performance is a major design goal in safety critical systems. The development of methods for affordable human performance modeling has widespread applicability for evaluating user-system interfaces. The compositional method explored here has been shown to make accurate predictions reduce model development time by an order of magnitude. Large safety critica ....A Scalable Theory of Behavior Composition for Practical Engineering Models of Human Performance. Minimizing human error and maximizing human performance is a major design goal in safety critical systems. The development of methods for affordable human performance modeling has widespread applicability for evaluating user-system interfaces. The compositional method explored here has been shown to make accurate predictions reduce model development time by an order of magnitude. Large safety critical applications, such as military or air traffic control systems, would benefit greatly. The proposed work tests whether the compositional methods will scale to more complex domains. The work will be coordinated with Australian industry, academia, and government research efforts.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100106
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$360,000.00
Summary
Measuring interference from prior memories using experience sampling. The project aims to better understand the causes of forgetting in recognition memory. This project will measure participants' experiences using smartphone technology for four weeks before a recognition memory experiment. Similarities between the images in the experiment and images in prior experience can be used to fully specify all interference components within a computational model of recognition memory, leading to a comple ....Measuring interference from prior memories using experience sampling. The project aims to better understand the causes of forgetting in recognition memory. This project will measure participants' experiences using smartphone technology for four weeks before a recognition memory experiment. Similarities between the images in the experiment and images in prior experience can be used to fully specify all interference components within a computational model of recognition memory, leading to a complete model of recognition memory. Better understanding the causes of forgetting in recognition memory could show how interference contributes to memory impairments in ageing, and ultimately Alzheimer’s and other clinical disorders.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180100433
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$365,058.00
Summary
Cortical layer specific functional imaging of the human brain. This project aims to record layer specific cortical activity in humans by leveraging ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging. It expects to yield robust techniques for the general analysis of neuroimaging-based, layer-specific measurements. This project will progress the fields of cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging as well as bring the field of neuroimaging closer to that of neurophysiology and thus facilitate collaboration ....Cortical layer specific functional imaging of the human brain. This project aims to record layer specific cortical activity in humans by leveraging ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging. It expects to yield robust techniques for the general analysis of neuroimaging-based, layer-specific measurements. This project will progress the fields of cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging as well as bring the field of neuroimaging closer to that of neurophysiology and thus facilitate collaboration among researchers.Read moreRead less
The Psychology of Misinformation—Towards A Theory-driven Understanding. The project aims to develop a psychological theory of misinformation effects. Misinformation influences people’s memory, reasoning and decision-making even after corrections – it thus poses a significant challenge for science and society. Through the combination of systematic experimentation with theory-driven computational modelling, the project will strive to concurrently consider individual-level cognition and the impact ....The Psychology of Misinformation—Towards A Theory-driven Understanding. The project aims to develop a psychological theory of misinformation effects. Misinformation influences people’s memory, reasoning and decision-making even after corrections – it thus poses a significant challenge for science and society. Through the combination of systematic experimentation with theory-driven computational modelling, the project will strive to concurrently consider individual-level cognition and the impact of sociocultural context. It is anticipated that this novel integrative approach will substantially expand our understanding of misinformation effects, and that this theoretical progress will result in the formulation of specific communication strategies to reduce the impact of misinformation on society.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130100129
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$374,943.00
Summary
A model based approach to investigating short-term memory: exploiting response time distributions. Working memory is one of the most fundamental and well studied aspects of human cognition. The project plans to develop and test a computational modelling framework into which fundamental theories of short-term memory can be placed. This unique approach will offer a deeper understanding of the underlying components of working memory.
Developing a integrated memory-based model of evaluation and choice. People's judgements and choices are unstable. This project intends to examine one potential source of this instability: the memories that come to mind when people are evaluating choices. Many of the choices we make in our everyday lives are made on the basis of remembered information, and yet theories of evaluation and choice typically do not account for the role of memory, or provide only a cursory account of its role. In the ....Developing a integrated memory-based model of evaluation and choice. People's judgements and choices are unstable. This project intends to examine one potential source of this instability: the memories that come to mind when people are evaluating choices. Many of the choices we make in our everyday lives are made on the basis of remembered information, and yet theories of evaluation and choice typically do not account for the role of memory, or provide only a cursory account of its role. In the project, people will be presented with value information, and the project plans to examine how that information is retrieved from memory and then used to evaluate options and make decisions. Expected project outcomes would provide a coherent model that provides an integrated understanding of the role of memory in judgement and choice.Read moreRead less
Testing the Modularity of Memory. Researchers disagree about whether verbal and visual working memory (WM) storage occurs in separate modules. Recent evidence suggests that only verbal memoranda have access to a specialised module, while visual memories make use of more general resources. This project aims to re-examine interference between verbal and visual memoranda using statistical methods specialised for assessing whether multiple latent factors underlie performance on recognition memory ta ....Testing the Modularity of Memory. Researchers disagree about whether verbal and visual working memory (WM) storage occurs in separate modules. Recent evidence suggests that only verbal memoranda have access to a specialised module, while visual memories make use of more general resources. This project aims to re-examine interference between verbal and visual memoranda using statistical methods specialised for assessing whether multiple latent factors underlie performance on recognition memory tasks, examining adult and child populations. This is expected to influence applications of WM theory in many everyday settings, resulting in improvements in educational practices, workplace procedures, and clinical treatments that depend on theoretical understandings of limits in cognition.Read moreRead less