To flee or not to flee: surviving on incomplete information. Even lowly animals, like the Australian fiddler crabs we will be investigating, are surprisingly competent in making the right decisions in complex situations. They actively acquire information and make good use of it to assure their immediate safety and their long term gains. Animals are exquisitely honed by evolution and we would benefit greatly by understanding what makes them so competent: on a theoretical level, we may learn about ....To flee or not to flee: surviving on incomplete information. Even lowly animals, like the Australian fiddler crabs we will be investigating, are surprisingly competent in making the right decisions in complex situations. They actively acquire information and make good use of it to assure their immediate safety and their long term gains. Animals are exquisitely honed by evolution and we would benefit greatly by understanding what makes them so competent: on a theoretical level, we may learn about efficient rules of good decision making and on a practical level, we may be able to design more flexible, robust and clever machines. Besides being useful in this wider context, the results of our research will thus also contribute to a new and 'sophisticated' appreciation of the cognitive design of animal.Read moreRead less
Understanding the school as an intergroup system: Implications for school reform and improving student and staff outcomes. This project applies a novel social psychological understanding of group processes and intergroup relations to Australian schools. The result is a new and promising framework that will be trialed and evaluated through this project. The central idea is that one's group memberships and associated norms and practices directly impact on the attitudes and behaviours of individ ....Understanding the school as an intergroup system: Implications for school reform and improving student and staff outcomes. This project applies a novel social psychological understanding of group processes and intergroup relations to Australian schools. The result is a new and promising framework that will be trialed and evaluated through this project. The central idea is that one's group memberships and associated norms and practices directly impact on the attitudes and behaviours of individual members. The aim is to change the relevant groups within a school and how they relate in order to build a more positive school climate and higher school identification and as a result, improve school outcomes (e.g., attendance, academic achievement, well-being).Read moreRead less