Ostracism and Aggression. Ostracism has been implicated in school shootings (e.g., Columbine) and other violent or anti-social episodes (e.g., Port Arthur shootings). Some argue that ostracism drives individuals toward joining violent extremist groups. Research, however, is mixed: sometimes targets of ostracism correct their behaviors to be more socially acceptable; whereas other times they react with aggression. This research program will investigate the conditions under which ostracism either ....Ostracism and Aggression. Ostracism has been implicated in school shootings (e.g., Columbine) and other violent or anti-social episodes (e.g., Port Arthur shootings). Some argue that ostracism drives individuals toward joining violent extremist groups. Research, however, is mixed: sometimes targets of ostracism correct their behaviors to be more socially acceptable; whereas other times they react with aggression. This research program will investigate the conditions under which ostracism either leads to paths of either pro-social or aggressive reactions. A new virtual reality paradigm will be developed to provide stronger manipulations of ostracism and to assist in discovering the crucial conditions responsible for these paths.Read moreRead less
Neural mechanisms for human form perception. This project aims to determine if there is a single cortical mechanism underlying the human ability to discriminate and recognise objects. It has been speculated that different classes of objects, or forms require different processes. Demonstrating a single process would be a significant advance towards understanding the neural mechanisms giving rise to our ability to segment visual fields into meaningful objects and background. This research provides ....Neural mechanisms for human form perception. This project aims to determine if there is a single cortical mechanism underlying the human ability to discriminate and recognise objects. It has been speculated that different classes of objects, or forms require different processes. Demonstrating a single process would be a significant advance towards understanding the neural mechanisms giving rise to our ability to segment visual fields into meaningful objects and background. This research provides a means for testing models of the neural interactions thought to be generating human form perception and will help us discover how the visual cortex converts raw sensory input into object and form perception.Read moreRead less
Motherese by ear and eye: infant perception of visual prosody. The project breaks new ground in auditory-visual speech processing by using naturally expressive continuous speech to probe how infants perceive visual prosody. A strength of the project lies in its use of breakthrough animation technologies to create a state-of-the-art virtual Talking Mother to enable control of visual speech cues.
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
Unleashing the potential of VR: reducing sickness in head-mounted displays. Virtual reality (VR) is a breakthrough technology with a host of applied uses. Unfortunately, many people become sick when using head-mounted displays (HMDs). Our project proposes, and aims to test, a new theory of this cybersickness. We intend to quantify the sensory conflicts produced by HMD VR for the first time and measure their effects on perception, eye-movements, balance and well-being. The project will 1) determi ....Unleashing the potential of VR: reducing sickness in head-mounted displays. Virtual reality (VR) is a breakthrough technology with a host of applied uses. Unfortunately, many people become sick when using head-mounted displays (HMDs). Our project proposes, and aims to test, a new theory of this cybersickness. We intend to quantify the sensory conflicts produced by HMD VR for the first time and measure their effects on perception, eye-movements, balance and well-being. The project will 1) determine the causes of, and conditions responsible for, cybersickness; and 2) offer practical information on how to prevent it. These outcomes are expected to directly benefit, and greatly improve HMD use in, fields ranging from defence, education, entertainment, gaming, medicine, real estate, simulation training and tourism.Read moreRead less
Enhancing employee safety in response to workplace violence. International and national trends indicate that workplace violence is a significant growing problem. Poorly managed, victims can suffer physical and psychological trauma, and employers risk increases in workers compensation claims, insurance premiums, employee turnover, sick leave and low morale. There is a dearth of research into the effectiveness of training employees to predict, control and defuse aggressive incidents, yet this is a ....Enhancing employee safety in response to workplace violence. International and national trends indicate that workplace violence is a significant growing problem. Poorly managed, victims can suffer physical and psychological trauma, and employers risk increases in workers compensation claims, insurance premiums, employee turnover, sick leave and low morale. There is a dearth of research into the effectiveness of training employees to predict, control and defuse aggressive incidents, yet this is a significant priority for many industries. This project will develop and evaluate a new best practice aggression minimisation training program with 200 mental health employees by an RCT assessing gains in safety, knowledge, skills and confidence in managing violence.Read moreRead less
It's only human: Understanding why errors occur in skilled behaviour. There is evidence that error plays a major role in the causes of workplace injury and errors in skilled behaviour are the most common type of error leading to occupational accidents. It is likely that skill-based error is also important in causing fatal and severe injury in other settings. If we want to reduce or prevent injury, tackling the causes of error, and especially skill-based error, must be a prime target. By reduci ....It's only human: Understanding why errors occur in skilled behaviour. There is evidence that error plays a major role in the causes of workplace injury and errors in skilled behaviour are the most common type of error leading to occupational accidents. It is likely that skill-based error is also important in causing fatal and severe injury in other settings. If we want to reduce or prevent injury, tackling the causes of error, and especially skill-based error, must be a prime target. By reducing skill-based error in the workplace, current estimates suggest that loss of life would be reduced by about 200 cases per year and annual direct and indirect costs to the community by $484 million. Similar benefits are likely to emanate from reducing skill-based error in other settings.Read moreRead less
Preventing injuries in crashes involving young drivers: development and evaluation of impulse control training. Road crashes are a leading cause of death and injury for young Australians, at tremendous economic, social and personal cost. This project has the potential to reduce this problem by developing the first driver training to fast-track development of mental processes that contribute to the most serious young driver crashes. Further, the industry partners are committed to translating the ....Preventing injuries in crashes involving young drivers: development and evaluation of impulse control training. Road crashes are a leading cause of death and injury for young Australians, at tremendous economic, social and personal cost. This project has the potential to reduce this problem by developing the first driver training to fast-track development of mental processes that contribute to the most serious young driver crashes. Further, the industry partners are committed to translating the research outcomes into policy and practice. This cutting-edge research will place Australia at the forefront of driver training research, and enhance road safety research capacity.Read moreRead less
The Australian naturalistic driving study: innovation in road safety research and policy. A revolutionary new approach, the naturalistic driving study, will investigate what people actually do when they drive, in normal and safety-critical situations. It will provide Australia with answers to some intractable, high priority, road safety problems that cannot be answered using current methods, thereby saving hundreds of lives.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE130100050
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$570,000.00
Summary
Integrated facility for recording driver and road user behaviour. The integrated facility will be used to record and analyse data on driver and road user behaviour, in normal and safety-critical situations, for thousands of Australian drivers. The data yielded will be used to develop new and improved countermeasures for reducing road deaths and serious injuries on Australian roads.