Speed of Information Processing Across the Ages: the Structure of Cognitive Abilities in Children, Adults, and the Elderly. Does speed information processing determine intelligence? The study addresses this question by examining the structure of cognitive abilities and speed of processing in children, adults, and the elderly. The project will advance theory by testing whether speed of processing mediates developmental cognitive change during childhood and old age. Outcomes include contributing t ....Speed of Information Processing Across the Ages: the Structure of Cognitive Abilities in Children, Adults, and the Elderly. Does speed information processing determine intelligence? The study addresses this question by examining the structure of cognitive abilities and speed of processing in children, adults, and the elderly. The project will advance theory by testing whether speed of processing mediates developmental cognitive change during childhood and old age. Outcomes include contributing to a complete model of cognition, laying the foundations for a future major longitudinal study which will provide evidence on the direction of causality between speed of processing measures and cognitive abilities, and provide norms for a computerised, commercial test battery.Read moreRead less
Predicting health, well-being, and educational success in emerging adults: An 8 year longitudinal study. This project will inform the community about factors that affect the psychological, physical, academic, and employment outcomes of emerging adults. It will improve our knowledge of why some young people do not reach their full potential. The project will provide a comprehensive assessment of factors associated with well-being across several domains. It will better equip and assist professiona ....Predicting health, well-being, and educational success in emerging adults: An 8 year longitudinal study. This project will inform the community about factors that affect the psychological, physical, academic, and employment outcomes of emerging adults. It will improve our knowledge of why some young people do not reach their full potential. The project will provide a comprehensive assessment of factors associated with well-being across several domains. It will better equip and assist professionals to identify early those youth at risk of having poor psychological, health, and employment prospects post-school. The project will inform the development of intervention programs for young people and maximise their overall adjustment and well-being several years later.Read moreRead less
Learning how people read: Models, brains, big data and maths. Aims: This project aims to understand how people read. We will use novel mathematical methods, experimentation, brain imaging and computational modelling to adjudicate between model predictions.
Significance: This project expects to develop methods to understand and test important aspects of reading.
Expected outcomes: Expected outcomes are the development of novel methods for understanding complex models and the collection of data t ....Learning how people read: Models, brains, big data and maths. Aims: This project aims to understand how people read. We will use novel mathematical methods, experimentation, brain imaging and computational modelling to adjudicate between model predictions.
Significance: This project expects to develop methods to understand and test important aspects of reading.
Expected outcomes: Expected outcomes are the development of novel methods for understanding complex models and the collection of data that can extend and falsify current models of reading.
Benefits: These developments will significantly increase our understanding of how people read and what causes dyslexia. This work will also provide new ways to evaluate complex computational psychological models.Read moreRead less
How are beliefs altered by data? Robust Bayesian models for human inductive learning. This project applies state of the art mathematical models to study how people think and reason, and how we can make good guesses about the future. The goal is to understand how the human mind can operate so effectively in real environments, when even the most powerful computers struggle to handle the complexities of everyday learning problems.
Learning and choosing in a complex world. How do people make choices in a complex world? Making good choices requires expertise, but people must often forego rewards in order to acquire this knowledge. This is the essence of an "explore-exploit dilemma": to maximise rewards across a long time frame, people must take the time to explore and learn now. Empirically, this project aims to unify much of the existing psychological literature and extend it to cover richer, more complex problems. Theoret ....Learning and choosing in a complex world. How do people make choices in a complex world? Making good choices requires expertise, but people must often forego rewards in order to acquire this knowledge. This is the essence of an "explore-exploit dilemma": to maximise rewards across a long time frame, people must take the time to explore and learn now. Empirically, this project aims to unify much of the existing psychological literature and extend it to cover richer, more complex problems. Theoretically, the project aims to use tools from machine learning to compare human decision making to optimal planning models.Read moreRead less
The prediction of sleep/wake behaviour based on physiological and social factors. The prevalence of shiftwork has increased in Australia over the last few decades. Shiftworkers obtain less sleep, have greater difficulty maintaining good relationships, have poorer health, and are more likely to be injured at work than others. Using the largest dataset of its kind, we will substantially contribute to understanding the relationships between work hours, sleep, performance and safety. Ultimately, the ....The prediction of sleep/wake behaviour based on physiological and social factors. The prevalence of shiftwork has increased in Australia over the last few decades. Shiftworkers obtain less sleep, have greater difficulty maintaining good relationships, have poorer health, and are more likely to be injured at work than others. Using the largest dataset of its kind, we will substantially contribute to understanding the relationships between work hours, sleep, performance and safety. Ultimately, the project will answer a question critical to workplace safety - how much time off between shifts is needed to be alert and safe at work? The project will also produce tools to help industry design fatigue-friendly rosters, improving the safety, productivity and general well-being of shiftworkers in Australia and overseas.Read moreRead less
Using large scale modelling to understand reading development and dyslexia. This project aims to construct a computational model of reading that makes quantitative predictions about reading behaviour and dyslexia. It will test theories of reading development and dyslexia based on what they predict in terms of reading performance, predictions which many theories of dyslexia do not make. The model will be in English, French and Italian, which offer rich and constraining data to test the model. The ....Using large scale modelling to understand reading development and dyslexia. This project aims to construct a computational model of reading that makes quantitative predictions about reading behaviour and dyslexia. It will test theories of reading development and dyslexia based on what they predict in terms of reading performance, predictions which many theories of dyslexia do not make. The model will be in English, French and Italian, which offer rich and constraining data to test the model. The project is expected to explain the link between reading performance and underlying influences and why dyslexia manifests differently in different languages.Read moreRead less
Human Decision-Making Processes and Outcomes in the Oil and Gas Industry. A new theoretical framework, including a new Decision Taxonomy and the development of a new measure of decision quality, will be used to underpin a study of decision processes and outcomes in the oil & gas industry, and to explore the relationship between them. Processes and outcomes will be evaluated in both a controlled laboratory setting that replicates the characteristics of real decision environments, and by analysing ....Human Decision-Making Processes and Outcomes in the Oil and Gas Industry. A new theoretical framework, including a new Decision Taxonomy and the development of a new measure of decision quality, will be used to underpin a study of decision processes and outcomes in the oil & gas industry, and to explore the relationship between them. Processes and outcomes will be evaluated in both a controlled laboratory setting that replicates the characteristics of real decision environments, and by analysing actual historical decisions made in oil & gas and other industrial settings. If successful the results will ultimately lead to the safe, responsible and optimal performance of the oil & gas industry in particular, and for other industries with similar characteristics.
Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100750
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$395,106.00
Summary
Associative learning and fluid intelligence: Computational and neurogenetic analyses. This project investigates genetic contributions to associative learning, one of our most fundamental abilities. Associative learning allows us to navigate in our environment, predict future events and make appropriate decisions. Electrophysiological measures will be used to study learning processes precisely and to investigate their relationship to polymorphisms in genes that regulate neural function. This rese ....Associative learning and fluid intelligence: Computational and neurogenetic analyses. This project investigates genetic contributions to associative learning, one of our most fundamental abilities. Associative learning allows us to navigate in our environment, predict future events and make appropriate decisions. Electrophysiological measures will be used to study learning processes precisely and to investigate their relationship to polymorphisms in genes that regulate neural function. This research will further understanding of the mechanisms that generate individual differences in learning ability and will have applications for educational techniques and behavioural interventions.Read moreRead less
Expecting the unexpected: how people prioritise predictability. This project aims to investigate how people represent and use information about unpredictability in their environment. Seeing too much predictability is problematic, but seeing too little can also be a problem, for example inappropriate "learned helplessness" can occur, whereby people feel disempowered because the world is seen as random. Recent findings demonstrated a bias in fundamental learning that may maintain these inappropria ....Expecting the unexpected: how people prioritise predictability. This project aims to investigate how people represent and use information about unpredictability in their environment. Seeing too much predictability is problematic, but seeing too little can also be a problem, for example inappropriate "learned helplessness" can occur, whereby people feel disempowered because the world is seen as random. Recent findings demonstrated a bias in fundamental learning that may maintain these inappropriate beliefs about unpredictability. This bias is not anticipated by formal theories of learning. The project will investigate how this bias is brought about by first formalising a novel theory of fundamental learning and then systematically testing its assumptions.Read moreRead less