Promoting engagement with life in older adulthood. This project aims to examine engagement in meaningful activities among older adults. Increasing older adults' engagement could promote direct benefits for social integration, well-being and better quality of life. The project is expected to generate new knowledge on programs that effectively promote engagement, as well as evaluating a new tailored approach to promoting engagement that aligns with individuals' unique strengths, capabilities and ....Promoting engagement with life in older adulthood. This project aims to examine engagement in meaningful activities among older adults. Increasing older adults' engagement could promote direct benefits for social integration, well-being and better quality of life. The project is expected to generate new knowledge on programs that effectively promote engagement, as well as evaluating a new tailored approach to promoting engagement that aligns with individuals' unique strengths, capabilities and values. The findings aim to provide benefits for community organisations and aged care service providers adopting innovative approaches to promoting ageing well.
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Taking advice: Limits and potentials of social decision-making in older age. Older adults are increasingly victims of financial fraud and abuse. While well-intentioned advice has the potential to improve financial decision-making, ill-intentioned advice can lead to exploitation. This project will use extensive behavioural testing to establish the factors governing how much weight older adults give to advice depending on the type of advisor, the type of advice, and feedback about advice quality. ....Taking advice: Limits and potentials of social decision-making in older age. Older adults are increasingly victims of financial fraud and abuse. While well-intentioned advice has the potential to improve financial decision-making, ill-intentioned advice can lead to exploitation. This project will use extensive behavioural testing to establish the factors governing how much weight older adults give to advice depending on the type of advisor, the type of advice, and feedback about advice quality. The outcome will be a model of the influence of advice on decision-making in ageing. This will provide an evidence base to create best practice guidelines, interventions, and decision aids that will reduce exploitation and increase the independence and wellbeing of Australia’s rapidly ageing population.Read moreRead less
Reducing social frailty in late adulthood. Social frailty is one of the most troubling and potentially devastating threats to healthy adult ageing, and refers broadly to low social engagement status. This project aims to test how age-related changes in the abilities that allow us to perceive, interpret and process social information drive resilience and risk for this important threat to successful ageing, and then leverage these data to create a training tool that directly targets those abilitie ....Reducing social frailty in late adulthood. Social frailty is one of the most troubling and potentially devastating threats to healthy adult ageing, and refers broadly to low social engagement status. This project aims to test how age-related changes in the abilities that allow us to perceive, interpret and process social information drive resilience and risk for this important threat to successful ageing, and then leverage these data to create a training tool that directly targets those abilities identified as being most strongly linked to social frailty. Enhancing older adults' resilience to social frailty should generate significant and far-reaching benefits, including greater independence of ageing Australians, and reduced burden on health and welfare support infrastructure. Read moreRead less
Stereotype threat, disengagement, and wellbeing among older employees. This project aims to identify when and how stereotype threat leads to disengagement among older workers and consequences for their wellbeing. Expected outcomes include a better understanding of the factors that predict who will experience disengagement at work, withdrawal of effort, reduced job satisfaction, and increased likelihood of quitting as a result of demeaning age-related stereotypes. The project’s results should pro ....Stereotype threat, disengagement, and wellbeing among older employees. This project aims to identify when and how stereotype threat leads to disengagement among older workers and consequences for their wellbeing. Expected outcomes include a better understanding of the factors that predict who will experience disengagement at work, withdrawal of effort, reduced job satisfaction, and increased likelihood of quitting as a result of demeaning age-related stereotypes. The project’s results should provide a clearer theoretical understanding of stereotype threat and can be used to inform strategies for enhancing engagement at work. This project should benefit and improve the working lives of older employees.Read moreRead less
Reconnecting the ageing brain to enhance plasticity and motor learning. The ability to execute and learn skillful actions deteriorates with advancing age, but the cause remains elusive. The main aim of this project is to use new neurophysiological techniques to examine the age-related changes in brain function that contribute to reduced movement control in healthy older adults. The research will use multimodal approaches to reveal the causal role of age-related changes in specific brain networks ....Reconnecting the ageing brain to enhance plasticity and motor learning. The ability to execute and learn skillful actions deteriorates with advancing age, but the cause remains elusive. The main aim of this project is to use new neurophysiological techniques to examine the age-related changes in brain function that contribute to reduced movement control in healthy older adults. The research will use multimodal approaches to reveal the causal role of age-related changes in specific brain networks to motor behaviour and learning. The outcomes will provide significant new knowledge that may help to optimise the design of targeted interventions aimed at rejuvenating brain function and movement quality in the elderly.Read moreRead less
Ageing drivers: Cognitive ageing and technology. This project aims to enhance our understanding of whether cognitive changes associated with ageing impacts older drivers' use of emerging vehicle automation and assistive technologies. Through analysis of insurance claims databases, a large consumer survey and a naturalistic driving study, evidence will be obtained on how ageing and cognition interact with assistive technology. Findings will inform older drivers, government policy makers and indus ....Ageing drivers: Cognitive ageing and technology. This project aims to enhance our understanding of whether cognitive changes associated with ageing impacts older drivers' use of emerging vehicle automation and assistive technologies. Through analysis of insurance claims databases, a large consumer survey and a naturalistic driving study, evidence will be obtained on how ageing and cognition interact with assistive technology. Findings will inform older drivers, government policy makers and industry on ageing, cognitive changes and the use of assistive technology in vehicles. This will provide benefits for older drivers by promoting optimal driving which will enhance social engagement as well as safety. Read moreRead less
Integrative brain imaging technologies. This project aims to develop quantitative metabolic imaging using simultaneous magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET). The current generation of MR-PET scanners are capable of simultaneously acquiring MRI and PET data to enable quantitative anatomical, physiological and metabolic imaging. The project aims to develop new MRI methods for quantitative anatomical mapping, MR-based motion correction of dynamic PET scan data, and ....Integrative brain imaging technologies. This project aims to develop quantitative metabolic imaging using simultaneous magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET). The current generation of MR-PET scanners are capable of simultaneously acquiring MRI and PET data to enable quantitative anatomical, physiological and metabolic imaging. The project aims to develop new MRI methods for quantitative anatomical mapping, MR-based motion correction of dynamic PET scan data, and joint estimation of physiological and metabolic organ activity. These advances will create innovative imaging technologies for advanced biomedical imaging research with a particular emphasis in healthy ageing.
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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
To imitate or innovate: A new look at children's social learning strategies. Children learn many important things by copying others. But how do we best facilitate this where it’s culturally appropriate or encourage innovation to support more general learning? This developmental psychology project aims to provide answers, using novel experiments and comparisons of different cultural groups to show how children acquire skills while becoming valued community members. Expected outcomes include the r ....To imitate or innovate: A new look at children's social learning strategies. Children learn many important things by copying others. But how do we best facilitate this where it’s culturally appropriate or encourage innovation to support more general learning? This developmental psychology project aims to provide answers, using novel experiments and comparisons of different cultural groups to show how children acquire skills while becoming valued community members. Expected outcomes include the refinement of core developmental psychology theory, introduction of new experimental techniques, and strengthening of international collaborations. This should provide significant benefits to educators, policy makers, parents and those invested in understanding and improving the inter-generational transmission of knowledge.Read moreRead less
How childhood inattention affects the emerging cognitive landscape. This project aims to determine whether behavioural and cognitive inattention differentially map onto early and later developing cognitive skills such as numeracy and literacy. Lack of focus and concentration, distractibility, poor task completion and forgetfulness are common manifestations of inattention and can insidiously affect learning skills that need attention as a building block such as literacy and numeracy skills. Howev ....How childhood inattention affects the emerging cognitive landscape. This project aims to determine whether behavioural and cognitive inattention differentially map onto early and later developing cognitive skills such as numeracy and literacy. Lack of focus and concentration, distractibility, poor task completion and forgetfulness are common manifestations of inattention and can insidiously affect learning skills that need attention as a building block such as literacy and numeracy skills. However, how attention affects their acquisition, across development, is not fully known. The findings are expected to guide cognitive-based interventions to improve attention skills as a mechanism for improving children’s learning trajectories in the first years of schooling.Read moreRead less