Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100783
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$409,781.00
Summary
Music and speech as a window into the predictive brain . Prediction is fundamental to daily life, and yet we know little about how this central process works in the brain. This research program aims to provide in-depth insight into predictive processing by investigating the precise, culturally relevant, and communicative domains of music and speech. The research expects to reveal cognitive and neural correlates of “what” will occur and “when” it will occur, while exploiting the musician brain as ....Music and speech as a window into the predictive brain . Prediction is fundamental to daily life, and yet we know little about how this central process works in the brain. This research program aims to provide in-depth insight into predictive processing by investigating the precise, culturally relevant, and communicative domains of music and speech. The research expects to reveal cognitive and neural correlates of “what” will occur and “when” it will occur, while exploiting the musician brain as a model for plasticity. Expected outcomes include a multi-dimensional model of prediction and its neural markers that will lay the foundation to investigate impaired predictive processing. This should substantially benefit health and education by providing perspectives for training and rehabilitation.Read moreRead less
Fundamental neurocognitive mechanisms underpinning creative thought. The project aims to understand the neural and cognitive bases of creative thought by using a novel approach and recent framework that has emerged from the study of semantic cognition and executive control functions. Creative thought is fundamental to human advances throughout history and it is the foundation to all arts and sciences. Expected outcomes are a framework that can explain the source of knowledge and the evaluative ....Fundamental neurocognitive mechanisms underpinning creative thought. The project aims to understand the neural and cognitive bases of creative thought by using a novel approach and recent framework that has emerged from the study of semantic cognition and executive control functions. Creative thought is fundamental to human advances throughout history and it is the foundation to all arts and sciences. Expected outcomes are a framework that can explain the source of knowledge and the evaluative mechanisms needed to generate new and useful ideas. Significant benefits will be to advance our understanding of the neurocognitive mechanisms of creative thought, which can enhance Australia’s scientific capability through training and collaboration and broader society by enhancing capacity for innovative thinking. Read moreRead less
Investigating the characteristics of older adults' conversation behaviour. The project aims to determine the factors that negatively impact older adults’ ability to engage in conversation. This is an important health issue; conversations are essential for communicating needs and maintaining social links; reduced social engagement leads to serious health problems and anticipates cognitive decline. The project will compile profiles of older adults' auditory-visual conversation behavior and indices ....Investigating the characteristics of older adults' conversation behaviour. The project aims to determine the factors that negatively impact older adults’ ability to engage in conversation. This is an important health issue; conversations are essential for communicating needs and maintaining social links; reduced social engagement leads to serious health problems and anticipates cognitive decline. The project will compile profiles of older adults' auditory-visual conversation behavior and indices of perceptual, cognitive and social skills. A path model will link these data to ratings of social engagement and satisfaction. By identifying factors leading to low ranked conversations, evidence-based guidelines can be developed for older adults and their carers to enhance communication and improve health and well-being.Read moreRead less
Everyday autism: bridging the gap between lab and life. Recent research demonstrates that autistic people, their families and professionals often feel that there remains a sharp divide between autism science and key aspects of everyday autistic life, despite significant public investment in that science. This proposed research investigates reasons for this divide and proposes ways in which it might be overcome. Expected outcomes include greater opportunities for autistic people to play active ro ....Everyday autism: bridging the gap between lab and life. Recent research demonstrates that autistic people, their families and professionals often feel that there remains a sharp divide between autism science and key aspects of everyday autistic life, despite significant public investment in that science. This proposed research investigates reasons for this divide and proposes ways in which it might be overcome. Expected outcomes include greater opportunities for autistic people to play active roles in the research process and more scientific experimentation that moves out of the laboratory and into more true-to-life settings. Bridging the gap between lab and life will result in better theory-building on autism, better translation of scientific discoveries and more robust policy recommendations.Read moreRead less
Fake News and Post-Truth Impacts: Responses to Conflictive Uncertainty. Attributions of fake news and post-truth are symptoms of uncertainty arising from conflicting information. Little is known about human responses to conflictive uncertainty other than that people find it aversive. This project aims to identify the determinants of human attitudes towards conflictive uncertainty. The aims will be achieved via the development of measures of attitudes toward conflictive uncertainty, and studies i ....Fake News and Post-Truth Impacts: Responses to Conflictive Uncertainty. Attributions of fake news and post-truth are symptoms of uncertainty arising from conflicting information. Little is known about human responses to conflictive uncertainty other than that people find it aversive. This project aims to identify the determinants of human attitudes towards conflictive uncertainty. The aims will be achieved via the development of measures of attitudes toward conflictive uncertainty, and studies identifying the major influences thereof. Expected outcomes include advances in knowledge of how conflictive uncertainty attitudes relate to risk orientations, personality, and situational factors. Anticipated benefits include improved strategies for decision makers and communicators faced with conflictive uncertainty.Read moreRead less
Emotions and Employee Turnover: New Methods for Complex Dynamic Systems. This project aims to vastly improve the data-analytic capabilities of social and health researchers, while increasing knowledge about emotion dynamics and their link to employee turnover. By drawing on and advancing methods from ecology and applied physics, this project plans to investigate the role that individual emotions play in employee turnover with new quantitative methods for characterising and testing causality in c ....Emotions and Employee Turnover: New Methods for Complex Dynamic Systems. This project aims to vastly improve the data-analytic capabilities of social and health researchers, while increasing knowledge about emotion dynamics and their link to employee turnover. By drawing on and advancing methods from ecology and applied physics, this project plans to investigate the role that individual emotions play in employee turnover with new quantitative methods for characterising and testing causality in complex dynamic systems. The expected outcomes include an improved capacity for researchers, managers, and policy makers to understand complex organisational, economic, and health systems. This will provide immediate societal benefits by informing the development and deployment of targeted interventions in such systems.Read moreRead less
Towards an integrated model of reasoning and reasoning development. This project aims to identify the core cognitive processes that underlie different forms of reasoning and how they develop. The project intends to use a signal detection framework to derive detailed computational models of reasoning which can then be tested through Bayesian computational modelling as well as the first systematic investigation of developmental change in reasoning processes. Expected outcomes include a more princi ....Towards an integrated model of reasoning and reasoning development. This project aims to identify the core cognitive processes that underlie different forms of reasoning and how they develop. The project intends to use a signal detection framework to derive detailed computational models of reasoning which can then be tested through Bayesian computational modelling as well as the first systematic investigation of developmental change in reasoning processes. Expected outcomes include a more principled and comprehensive computational model of reasoning in both adults and children. The project should provide significant benefits by helping to resolve long-standing debates about how humans reason complex arguments relevant to everyday lives and guide development of more effective methods for teaching reasoning.Read moreRead less
A paradigm shift in understanding cognitive flexibility. Aims: The project aims to model cognitive flexibility as a dynamic process within people that varies across situations and occasions using advanced data analytics.
Significance: The project intends to generate new knowledge in intelligence theory using recent advances that overcome known theory-testing limitations that have historically been ignored.
Expected Outcomes: An authentic account of cognitive flexibility and a new paradigm for ....A paradigm shift in understanding cognitive flexibility. Aims: The project aims to model cognitive flexibility as a dynamic process within people that varies across situations and occasions using advanced data analytics.
Significance: The project intends to generate new knowledge in intelligence theory using recent advances that overcome known theory-testing limitations that have historically been ignored.
Expected Outcomes: An authentic account of cognitive flexibility and a new paradigm for developing and testing models of dynamic change within people.
Benefits: Dynamic models are needed to understand authentic problem-solving and cognitive function. The advances benefit research and applied areas where dynamic processes are important, including education, work, and cognitive aging.Read moreRead less
Flexible models and methods for cognitive model-based decision-making. This project aims to apply mathematical decision models to important questions of basic and applied science. Advances will be pursued through an interdisciplinary effort, combining recent developments in econometric and statistical methods, cognitive science and computing. The expected outcomes will bring a proven and powerful approach to a new range of questions investigating psychological aspects of choices about health c ....Flexible models and methods for cognitive model-based decision-making. This project aims to apply mathematical decision models to important questions of basic and applied science. Advances will be pursued through an interdisciplinary effort, combining recent developments in econometric and statistical methods, cognitive science and computing. The expected outcomes will bring a proven and powerful approach to a new range of questions investigating psychological aspects of choices about health care and consumer purchases. This project will provide significant benefits to the wider scientific community to understand basic cognition, and human behaviour in many domains.Read moreRead less
Modelling human perceptual-motor interaction for human-machine applications. This project aims to develop a new modelling framework for identifying the perceptual-motor processes that underlie cooperative and competitive human interaction. The project will also determine whether this modelling framework can be combined with modern machine-learning methods to develop artificial agents capable of human level performance. Expected outcomes will include a practical methodology for rapidly generating ....Modelling human perceptual-motor interaction for human-machine applications. This project aims to develop a new modelling framework for identifying the perceptual-motor processes that underlie cooperative and competitive human interaction. The project will also determine whether this modelling framework can be combined with modern machine-learning methods to develop artificial agents capable of human level performance. Expected outcomes will include a practical methodology for rapidly generating models of effective human interaction that can be easily implemented in human-machine systems. This will provide a richer understanding of the fundamental perceptual-motor processes that support robust human interaction and enhanced the effectiveness of human-machine collaboration and training technologies.Read moreRead less