Optimising recall in children's testimony: The challenge of repeated questions. One of the threats to a healthy start in life for Australian children, and one which imposes substantial financial and emotional cost on the Australian community, is child abuse and neglect. This project addresses a key stumbling block in obtaining evidence from child victims/witnesses- their tendency to inconsistent testimony under repeated questioning. It seeks to understand the conditions under which inconsiste ....Optimising recall in children's testimony: The challenge of repeated questions. One of the threats to a healthy start in life for Australian children, and one which imposes substantial financial and emotional cost on the Australian community, is child abuse and neglect. This project addresses a key stumbling block in obtaining evidence from child victims/witnesses- their tendency to inconsistent testimony under repeated questioning. It seeks to understand the conditions under which inconsistency is minimized, as a basis for developing empirically and theoretically based ways to optimise the accuracy and legal utility of children's testimony. As a signatory to the United National Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990), Australia has a legal as well as a moral responsibility in this regard.Read moreRead less
Children's difficulties in learning to read: Causes and consequences of poor letter-sound knowledge. This research will identify the causes and treatments of reading impairment in children. This will help the Government counter the effects of poor reading instruction in Australian schools (see the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy). The outcomes will reveal how struggling readers should be taught in classrooms, and which treatments should be covered by the Reading Assistance Voucher ....Children's difficulties in learning to read: Causes and consequences of poor letter-sound knowledge. This research will identify the causes and treatments of reading impairment in children. This will help the Government counter the effects of poor reading instruction in Australian schools (see the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy). The outcomes will reveal how struggling readers should be taught in classrooms, and which treatments should be covered by the Reading Assistance Voucher programme. Treating reading impairment in children will reduce the number of teenagers who attempt suicide, drop out of school, or abuse drugs to try and escape the failure that accompanies poor reading ability.Read moreRead less
The impact of post-incident debriefing on psychological wellbeing and recall of events. First response emergency service personnel, such as fire fighters, police officers and paramedics provide an essential service, but as a result of their work are at increased risk of developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In an attempt to protect against PTSD many personnel are required to attend group debriefings following exposure to traumatic events. However, there is evidence that these group d ....The impact of post-incident debriefing on psychological wellbeing and recall of events. First response emergency service personnel, such as fire fighters, police officers and paramedics provide an essential service, but as a result of their work are at increased risk of developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In an attempt to protect against PTSD many personnel are required to attend group debriefings following exposure to traumatic events. However, there is evidence that these group debriefings may actually increase the risk of PTSD and also permanently distort the participants' memory for the events they witnessed. We will work with NSW Fire Brigade to develop an effective PTSD intervention for emergency service personnel which also preserves the integrity of the participants' memory for critical events.Read moreRead less
Repeated questions in children's event recall: Testing competing explanations. One of the threats to a healthy start in life for Australian children, and one which imposes substantial financial and emotional cost on the Australian community, is child abuse and neglect. This project addresses a key stumbling block in obtaining evidence from child victims/witnesses - their tendency to give inconsistent testimony under repeated questioning. It seeks to understand the conditions under which inconsis ....Repeated questions in children's event recall: Testing competing explanations. One of the threats to a healthy start in life for Australian children, and one which imposes substantial financial and emotional cost on the Australian community, is child abuse and neglect. This project addresses a key stumbling block in obtaining evidence from child victims/witnesses - their tendency to give inconsistent testimony under repeated questioning. It seeks to understand the conditions under which inconsistency is minimized, as a basis for developing empirically and theoretically based ways to optimise the accuracy and legal utility of children's testimony. Read moreRead less
'As-if thinking': an experimental analysis of human reasoning and decision-making. The failure to respond adequately to the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 highlighted the difficulty of sequential decision-making. Responses to such emergencies require detailed contingency plans, necessitating a consideration of all possible outcomes of a situation regardless of their objective probability. This project takes an innovative approach to the experimental analysis of human reasoning and de ....'As-if thinking': an experimental analysis of human reasoning and decision-making. The failure to respond adequately to the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 highlighted the difficulty of sequential decision-making. Responses to such emergencies require detailed contingency plans, necessitating a consideration of all possible outcomes of a situation regardless of their objective probability. This project takes an innovative approach to the experimental analysis of human reasoning and decision-making, with the aim of identifying the mechanisms, factors, and boundary conditions affecting inferences and decisions about uncertain alternatives. The research will inform planning for Australia's readiness to respond to unpredictable events with uncertain outcomes and enhance the reputation of Australian science.Read moreRead less
Music cognition in infants, children and adults. Music is an important tool for the expression of emotion and transmission of culture. One approach to understanding why music is a human universal is to examine how people process musical structure - the simultaneous and sequential pitch relations among tones of musical pieces. We investigate the way humans acquire implicit and explicit knowledge of such relations and the way exposure to music influences acquisition. Three experiments involving in ....Music cognition in infants, children and adults. Music is an important tool for the expression of emotion and transmission of culture. One approach to understanding why music is a human universal is to examine how people process musical structure - the simultaneous and sequential pitch relations among tones of musical pieces. We investigate the way humans acquire implicit and explicit knowledge of such relations and the way exposure to music influences acquisition. Three experiments involving infants, children and adults will compare formal musical training with incidental learning. Results will increase knowledge of the development of auditory perception and music cognition. Infant perceptual predispositions hold implications for music education.Read moreRead less
Associability processes in propositional learning. A novel attentional model of learning is evaluated in this project. In this model, learning is seen not as a consequence of a low-level, evolutionarily old system shared with our ancestors, but as a product of our capacity to apply rules and engage in reasoning. Understanding the role of attention in learning will allow a better understanding of the attentional biases seen in clinical disorders such as addiction and a new way to think about the ....Associability processes in propositional learning. A novel attentional model of learning is evaluated in this project. In this model, learning is seen not as a consequence of a low-level, evolutionarily old system shared with our ancestors, but as a product of our capacity to apply rules and engage in reasoning. Understanding the role of attention in learning will allow a better understanding of the attentional biases seen in clinical disorders such as addiction and a new way to think about the neuroscience of attention. These benefits may further suggest new lines of research in the development of drugs to combat attentional disorders.Read moreRead less
A new theory of visual word recognition and reading aloud. The results of this research will lead to an improvement in the theory of reading, which will in turn improve the quality of advice to speech pathologists, teachers, parents and the broader community about children’s reading difficulties and their treatment.
Studies of lexical contagion: Interactions between lexical and episodic memory. Episodic memory allows us to recognize previously experienced items or events. Lexical memory represents orthographic (spelling), phonological (sound) and semantic (meaning) information about words. This project applies recent developments in the study of lexical memory to systematically investigate orthographic and phonological effects on episodic memory for words and nonwords. The new findings will be compared with ....Studies of lexical contagion: Interactions between lexical and episodic memory. Episodic memory allows us to recognize previously experienced items or events. Lexical memory represents orthographic (spelling), phonological (sound) and semantic (meaning) information about words. This project applies recent developments in the study of lexical memory to systematically investigate orthographic and phonological effects on episodic memory for words and nonwords. The new findings will be compared with well known semantic effects that give rise to false memories. The results will be important for evaluating and developing unified models of memory, and providing objectively defined stimulus materials and baselines of memory performance that can be used in applied research.Read moreRead less
Masked priming in the Bayesian Reader. This project brings three benefits. One is scientific, by advancing understanding of unconscious cognition, and of automatic aspects of word recognition. This will lead to the second, applied benefit in developing better assessment tools for reading skill. The third benefit is in enhancing Australia's growing reputation in word recognition research by strengthening links with a top international researcher, as well as providing research training opportun ....Masked priming in the Bayesian Reader. This project brings three benefits. One is scientific, by advancing understanding of unconscious cognition, and of automatic aspects of word recognition. This will lead to the second, applied benefit in developing better assessment tools for reading skill. The third benefit is in enhancing Australia's growing reputation in word recognition research by strengthening links with a top international researcher, as well as providing research training opportunities for Australia's future researchers via international collaboration. Read moreRead less