Developing a Unified Theory of Episodic Memory. This project aims to develop a model of episodic memory and to apply the model to both adult and child development data. Unlike current approaches, the model is expected to address multiple memory tasks including item recognition, associative recognition, source recognition and cued recall, and also aims to address reaction time data, allowing different sources of interference causing forgetting in adults to be identified. By addressing both encodi ....Developing a Unified Theory of Episodic Memory. This project aims to develop a model of episodic memory and to apply the model to both adult and child development data. Unlike current approaches, the model is expected to address multiple memory tasks including item recognition, associative recognition, source recognition and cued recall, and also aims to address reaction time data, allowing different sources of interference causing forgetting in adults to be identified. By addressing both encoding and retrieval processes, the model can assess how changes in different sources of interference modulate performance through the trajectory of early development. Hierarchical Bayesian estimation aims to enable a simultaneous account of multiple tasks and support future deployment in applied contexts.Read moreRead less
The Psychology of Misinformation—Towards A Theory-driven Understanding. The project aims to develop a psychological theory of misinformation effects. Misinformation influences people’s memory, reasoning and decision-making even after corrections – it thus poses a significant challenge for science and society. Through the combination of systematic experimentation with theory-driven computational modelling, the project will strive to concurrently consider individual-level cognition and the impact ....The Psychology of Misinformation—Towards A Theory-driven Understanding. The project aims to develop a psychological theory of misinformation effects. Misinformation influences people’s memory, reasoning and decision-making even after corrections – it thus poses a significant challenge for science and society. Through the combination of systematic experimentation with theory-driven computational modelling, the project will strive to concurrently consider individual-level cognition and the impact of sociocultural context. It is anticipated that this novel integrative approach will substantially expand our understanding of misinformation effects, and that this theoretical progress will result in the formulation of specific communication strategies to reduce the impact of misinformation on society.Read moreRead less
A statistical decision theory of cognitive capacity. This project aims to investigate the limited capacity of the human cognitive system to form representations of the things in the world around us and to make decisions about them in real time. Its goal is to provide an integrated theory of cognitive capacity based on the statistical properties of cognitive representations and the decision processes that act on them. Its expected outcome will be a unified metric for cognitive capacity that will ....A statistical decision theory of cognitive capacity. This project aims to investigate the limited capacity of the human cognitive system to form representations of the things in the world around us and to make decisions about them in real time. Its goal is to provide an integrated theory of cognitive capacity based on the statistical properties of cognitive representations and the decision processes that act on them. Its expected outcome will be a unified metric for cognitive capacity that will allow us to quantify how cognitive load affects the speed and accuracy of decision making. It will benefit the design and evaluation of high workload real-time decision systems and will contribute to the selection and training of users of such systems.
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Using cognitive models to understand memorability of real world images. This proposal aims to understand and make predictions about which real world images -- specifically living things, objects, and human faces -- that people will remember remember via an integration of cognitive models of memory and machine learning techniques. Computer vision models and similarity scaling techniques will be used to produce psychological representations of the images. These representations will then be integra ....Using cognitive models to understand memorability of real world images. This proposal aims to understand and make predictions about which real world images -- specifically living things, objects, and human faces -- that people will remember remember via an integration of cognitive models of memory and machine learning techniques. Computer vision models and similarity scaling techniques will be used to produce psychological representations of the images. These representations will then be integrated with cognitive models of memory, which predict that images are more likely to be recognized if they are similar to each of the representations in memory. Large scale memory and similarity rating datasets will be used to develop and test the model.Read moreRead less
Learning from our mistakes: How and when complex decisions fail. The project aims to develop a novel mathematical framework, augmented by simulations and a set of experiments, to study when and how people commit errors. The modern environment bombards us with signals, such as radio and television advertisements as we sit at home or warning lights and car honks as we cross the road. Despite years of psychological research, it is not entirely clear how efficiently people cope with increasing amoun ....Learning from our mistakes: How and when complex decisions fail. The project aims to develop a novel mathematical framework, augmented by simulations and a set of experiments, to study when and how people commit errors. The modern environment bombards us with signals, such as radio and television advertisements as we sit at home or warning lights and car honks as we cross the road. Despite years of psychological research, it is not entirely clear how efficiently people cope with increasing amounts of information nor is it clear whether they process multiple signals simultaneously (in parallel) or one after the other (serial). The project offers new measures, based on the rate and pattern of error responses, to supplement the commonly used response times. The combination of a theoretical framework, based on mathematical and computational work, with empirical data to test the models, may deliver a better understanding of human performance and its limitations.Read moreRead less
Human Scheduling of Perceptual Tasks. This project aims to develop a novel approach for synthesising how people prioritise information with theories of attention and decision making. Characterising inefficient scheduling in the tradeoff between the difficulty and the cost/benefit of different subtasks will allow the development of a formal computional model that generalises statistical models of rank order data to a theory of the timing of scheduling decisions and task completions. Outcomes incl ....Human Scheduling of Perceptual Tasks. This project aims to develop a novel approach for synthesising how people prioritise information with theories of attention and decision making. Characterising inefficient scheduling in the tradeoff between the difficulty and the cost/benefit of different subtasks will allow the development of a formal computional model that generalises statistical models of rank order data to a theory of the timing of scheduling decisions and task completions. Outcomes include benchmark data from a novel paradigm for studying perceptual decisions and behavior and a model which can explain and predict human scheduling. This project aims to benefit industry by allowing for the simulation of information prioritisation by human agents in complex environments.Read moreRead less
Organization and Plasticity of Visual Processing in a Miniature Brain. To recognise objects a brain must have an internal representation of most likely object appearance. Two ways in which brains may posses this information include a hard wired template system, and/or the neuroplasticity to learn novel objects. Recent investigations on honeybee vision show that this animal can learn to recognise very difficult objects, although currently we do not know how the miniaturised bee brain manages thes ....Organization and Plasticity of Visual Processing in a Miniature Brain. To recognise objects a brain must have an internal representation of most likely object appearance. Two ways in which brains may posses this information include a hard wired template system, and/or the neuroplasticity to learn novel objects. Recent investigations on honeybee vision show that this animal can learn to recognise very difficult objects, although currently we do not know how the miniaturised bee brain manages these tasks. This project will reveal changes that occur in the processing of visual objects by the bee's brain with increasing experience, with potential applications including robotics or building interfaces between sensors and biological systems.Read moreRead less
Improving the diagnosticity of eyewitness memory choices. Eyewitness identification error is common and costly. This project aims to improve the quality of information provided by eyewitnesses, and the ability of police officers and triers of fact (e.g., juries, judges) to evaluate this information. Laboratory investigations will determine how best to test memory and confidence to achieve this aim. A new class of cognitive models will provide a unified account of response accuracy, response time ....Improving the diagnosticity of eyewitness memory choices. Eyewitness identification error is common and costly. This project aims to improve the quality of information provided by eyewitnesses, and the ability of police officers and triers of fact (e.g., juries, judges) to evaluate this information. Laboratory investigations will determine how best to test memory and confidence to achieve this aim. A new class of cognitive models will provide a unified account of response accuracy, response time, and confidence, suitable for application to computerized testing scenarios. The models and testing methods validated in the laboratory will be refined for application in eyewitness memory settings, facilitating better evaluation of identification evidence, and potentially reducing wrongful convictions.Read moreRead less
Accuracy and cost-effectiveness of technology-assisted dietary assessment. This project aims to compare leading methods for technology-assisted dietary assessment. Excessive cost and questionable accuracy limit the routine use of dietary assessment and undermine decision making in Australia. This project intends to compare three technology methods of assessing diet with the current standard recall method used in population surveys in order to confirm if the use of food images and automated metho ....Accuracy and cost-effectiveness of technology-assisted dietary assessment. This project aims to compare leading methods for technology-assisted dietary assessment. Excessive cost and questionable accuracy limit the routine use of dietary assessment and undermine decision making in Australia. This project intends to compare three technology methods of assessing diet with the current standard recall method used in population surveys in order to confirm if the use of food images and automated methods provide new approaches to improve accuracy and consumer acceptability. Expected outcomes of this project include more accurate and acceptable methods of assessing dietary intake. These findings will inform decision making for researchers, policy makers and practitioners in Australia, and potentially lead to more regular population surveillance.Read moreRead less