Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140101181
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$384,183.00
Summary
How Do Our Past Decisions Affect Our Present Decisions? – An Innovative Model. Decisions under time pressure made in the past have a tendency to affect our current decisions. This phenomenon is often termed ‘sequential effects’. Typically, sequential effects are explained by positing the existence of a psychological mechanism that is specifically aimed at resolving conflicting information. The aim of this project is to develop a computational model that produces sequential effects naturally. Inn ....How Do Our Past Decisions Affect Our Present Decisions? – An Innovative Model. Decisions under time pressure made in the past have a tendency to affect our current decisions. This phenomenon is often termed ‘sequential effects’. Typically, sequential effects are explained by positing the existence of a psychological mechanism that is specifically aimed at resolving conflicting information. The aim of this project is to develop a computational model that produces sequential effects naturally. Innovatively, this model would remove the need for an explicit conflict monitoring mechanism. This project is significant because it progresses our understanding of how humans deal with conflict. The expected outcome is a comprehensive, quantitative account of sequential effects in human decision making.Read moreRead less
How strong inference has failed psychology, and an updated approach. There are so many quantitative theories of cognition that it can be difficult to see the forest for the trees. This project will contend that this is caused by suboptimal model selection. Comprehensive data sets and modern statistical techniques will be used to evaluate competing accounts in five paradigms, thinning the trees to reveal the forest.
Rapid decisions: from neuroscience to complex cognitions. A succession of rapid decisions supports our daily life - run or walk? Fish or steak? This project will integrate three different approaches to understanding these decisions, from neuroscience, mathematical psychology and experimental psychology. This research will provide insights about normal human functioning, and problems such as occur in healthy ageing.
The psychology of not wanting to know. This project aims to deliver insights into paradoxical decision-making behaviours of humans who pursue either useless information or deliberate ignorance. The project intends to shed new light on why these conflicting states of information preference exist by building on significant recent advances in understanding how reinforcement learning, anticipation and discounting combine to determine when people do and do not want to know. Intended benefits include ....The psychology of not wanting to know. This project aims to deliver insights into paradoxical decision-making behaviours of humans who pursue either useless information or deliberate ignorance. The project intends to shed new light on why these conflicting states of information preference exist by building on significant recent advances in understanding how reinforcement learning, anticipation and discounting combine to determine when people do and do not want to know. Intended benefits include maintaining and enhancing the excellent status of Australian psychological and cognitive science. The downstream benefits include elucidating the development of anxiety disorders and problem gambling.Read moreRead less
A new training approach to address the novice driver problem. This project aims to develop a new approach to driver training. For the second consecutive year, road deaths in Australia have increased by 150 from 2014 to 2016. The increase in deaths was greatest for young drivers between the ages of 17-25 years, who remain over-represented in road deaths. The majority of these deaths occur in the first few months after licensing. This project expects to generate new knowledge, where the focus is o ....A new training approach to address the novice driver problem. This project aims to develop a new approach to driver training. For the second consecutive year, road deaths in Australia have increased by 150 from 2014 to 2016. The increase in deaths was greatest for young drivers between the ages of 17-25 years, who remain over-represented in road deaths. The majority of these deaths occur in the first few months after licensing. This project expects to generate new knowledge, where the focus is on developing young driver’s cognitive skills about speed choice through the provisions of a training program that focuses on feedback. The results will have the potential to be used by road authorities and driver training organisations to improve road safety.Read moreRead less
Improving young drivers' speed management behaviour. This project incorporates proven educational and training techniques employed within the aviation industry to improve young drivers' speed management skills. Ultimately the results of this project will aid road safety authorities in redesigning training programmes to achieve this goal.
Decoding the neural representation of objects in the human brain. Humans can effortlessly recognise thousands of objects in a fraction of a second. This essential capacity is an integral part of our daily lives that allows us to recognise our keys, our car, our friends and family. This project will elucidate how humans recognise objects by investigating the neural representation of objects in the brain.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150101053
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$364,536.00
Summary
Cracking the code of successful language learning. Mastery of a second language generates economic advantages, especially in English-speaking nations with large immigrant populations, such as Australia. It is not clear why some second-language learners flourish while others struggle in the same educational setting. Successful learners must possess attributes that when combined with the features of the learning situation result in positive learning outcomes, whereas unsuccessful learners are like ....Cracking the code of successful language learning. Mastery of a second language generates economic advantages, especially in English-speaking nations with large immigrant populations, such as Australia. It is not clear why some second-language learners flourish while others struggle in the same educational setting. Successful learners must possess attributes that when combined with the features of the learning situation result in positive learning outcomes, whereas unsuccessful learners are likely mismatched to their training method. In a series of artificial language learning experiments, this project aims to identify the combination of factors that matter most in successful language learning. Ultimately it may be possible to tailor training proactively to maximise learning outcomes.Read moreRead less
Tracking reading comprehension: What experts reveal about the mind. This project plans to use expert readers to provide a window on what defines optimal reading. Reading is a complex skill that requires precise coordination of cognition, perception and attention. By measuring skilled readers’ eye movements while they read sentences and short passages, the experiments are designed to investigate how individual differences in reading, spelling and vocabulary influence the timing and coordination o ....Tracking reading comprehension: What experts reveal about the mind. This project plans to use expert readers to provide a window on what defines optimal reading. Reading is a complex skill that requires precise coordination of cognition, perception and attention. By measuring skilled readers’ eye movements while they read sentences and short passages, the experiments are designed to investigate how individual differences in reading, spelling and vocabulary influence the timing and coordination of word identification and comprehension processes during normal reading and how this changes with a readers' goals. The results would distinguish between competing theories of how skilled readers balance word identification and comprehension processes, an issue that is critical to current debates about how reading should be taught.Read moreRead less
Cracking the code for skilled reading: the role of lexical quality in word and sentence reading. This project tests the hypothesis that highly skilled reading depends on precisely specified stored knowledge about written words. This project will investigate how individual diffences in reading, spelling and vocabulary among expert readers influence the time course of early orthographic and semantic processes in word identification and the pattern of lecical and contextual influences on eye moveme ....Cracking the code for skilled reading: the role of lexical quality in word and sentence reading. This project tests the hypothesis that highly skilled reading depends on precisely specified stored knowledge about written words. This project will investigate how individual diffences in reading, spelling and vocabulary among expert readers influence the time course of early orthographic and semantic processes in word identification and the pattern of lecical and contextual influences on eye movements during sentence reading.Read moreRead less