Discrimination learning in humans: Associative and attentional mechanisms. This project offers three major benefits: (1) Australian researchers excel in cognitive neuroscience, learning and psychopharmacology, areas based largely on animal models of human cognition. This project contributes to these areas by specifying the relationship between animal learning and human cognition; (2) the project enhances Australia's international reputation in these areas via its collaboration with a scientist ....Discrimination learning in humans: Associative and attentional mechanisms. This project offers three major benefits: (1) Australian researchers excel in cognitive neuroscience, learning and psychopharmacology, areas based largely on animal models of human cognition. This project contributes to these areas by specifying the relationship between animal learning and human cognition; (2) the project enhances Australia's international reputation in these areas via its collaboration with a scientist of Geoff Hall's stature; it also offers students outstanding research training and international exposure; (3) given Chris Mitchell's industry experience and the relevance of this work to advertising/marketing, this project will generate knowledge relevant to, and possible future collaborations with, Australian industries.Read moreRead less
The role of memory and reasoning processes in associative learning. The project will investigate how people learn to detect cues that predict or cause significant events in their environment (associative learning). The research builds on recent empirical and theoretical work by the investigators supporting the role of deductive reasoning processes in associative learning. Novel experimental strategies will be used to identify the separate and interacting roles of lower-level memory processes a ....The role of memory and reasoning processes in associative learning. The project will investigate how people learn to detect cues that predict or cause significant events in their environment (associative learning). The research builds on recent empirical and theoretical work by the investigators supporting the role of deductive reasoning processes in associative learning. Novel experimental strategies will be used to identify the separate and interacting roles of lower-level memory processes and higher-level reasoning processes. Existing competing models and novel cooperative models will be tested. The research will lead to a better understanding of associative learning in humans, and will also inform the construction of intelligent artificial systems.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120100898
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
The brain that adapts itself - flexible processing in an ever-changing world. To cope with the changing world around us, our brains must constantly adapt themselves, reconfiguring an incredibly complex system to produce flexible behaviour. This project will develop innovative brain imaging techniques and use them to examine this process in vision, fundamental for understanding the human brain, and advancing neuroscience in Australia.
Making sense of the world: how does the brain process task-relevant information? Contributing to a global effort to understand the human brain, this project will develop and use innovative brain imaging techniques to ask how our brains make sense of the world. This project establishes collaboration with a world renowned research centre in Cambridge, UK, and will be fundamental for advancing basic science in Australia.
Optimising students’ academic trajectories: The role of growth (‘personal best’) goals. Too many students fail to reach their academic potential and, as a result, they risk being systematically denied a sense of academic ‘success’ and progress. Through a focus on academic growth (and ‘personal bests’), this research project traverses complex terrain to identify the role of growth goals and growth goal setting in students’ academic trajectories. It also tackles methodological challenges that have ....Optimising students’ academic trajectories: The role of growth (‘personal best’) goals. Too many students fail to reach their academic potential and, as a result, they risk being systematically denied a sense of academic ‘success’ and progress. Through a focus on academic growth (and ‘personal bests’), this research project traverses complex terrain to identify the role of growth goals and growth goal setting in students’ academic trajectories. It also tackles methodological challenges that have impeded research progress in this compelling area. Through strategic international and institutional links, the research program will identify innovative approaches to academic growth and growth goals that will significantly assist pedagogy and psychology aimed at optimising students’ academic potential.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