Island Perspective: A critical examination into Tasmania's internationally recognised regional identity through the contribution of its contemporary studio furniture, 1970-2003. Contemporary studio furniture in Tasmania has a leading national reputation, and international recognition. This project will investigate the practice of the best of contemporary Tasmanian studio furniture to interpret its social and economic history as a reflection on an island culture. The outcomes will be a consolida ....Island Perspective: A critical examination into Tasmania's internationally recognised regional identity through the contribution of its contemporary studio furniture, 1970-2003. Contemporary studio furniture in Tasmania has a leading national reputation, and international recognition. This project will investigate the practice of the best of contemporary Tasmanian studio furniture to interpret its social and economic history as a reflection on an island culture. The outcomes will be a consolidated body of unique, hitherto undocumented knowledge from the 1970s to the present, which explores identity and place throught the diversity of individual design philosophy and furniture production. The significance of this knowledge will be its contributuon towards a dialogue between political, cultural and environmental positions on an island identity within a global context.Read moreRead less
Environmental Education and Marine Ecosystem Degradation: The Role of Site-specific Art as Communicative Strategy within Community Awareness-raising Programs. This project investigates a potential application of art as a medium of environmental education. In the context of a World Fish Center sustainable community fisheries project in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, we will deploy works of fine art specifically to communicate ideas and values concerning marine ecosystem degradation. An experienced ecolo ....Environmental Education and Marine Ecosystem Degradation: The Role of Site-specific Art as Communicative Strategy within Community Awareness-raising Programs. This project investigates a potential application of art as a medium of environmental education. In the context of a World Fish Center sustainable community fisheries project in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, we will deploy works of fine art specifically to communicate ideas and values concerning marine ecosystem degradation. An experienced ecological artist will project the issue into the public domain via large-scale video and trans-media installations. Visitor interviews will assess the impact of various modes of visual communication. We believe that visual communication can assist the development of environmental responsibility by shifting perceptions and is, then, of considerable policy value.Read moreRead less
Choice models for learning and memory. Life is filled with familiar choices that often require quick decisions about objects in the environment and the contents of memory. This project examines how we learn to make rapid and accurate choices and how we quickly asses the level of confidence we have in recognition decisions based on our memories.
The Shifting Locus of Artistic Practice: A survey and critical analysis of solo exhibitions in Australian public galleries, 1970-2000. The aim of this research project is to provide a critical analysis of the monographic solo survey exhibition and its significance as a primary mode of representation of the career development of Australian artists since the late 1960s. A suite of six thematically linked monographic exhibitions of mid- to late- career artists will be the focus and primary output o ....The Shifting Locus of Artistic Practice: A survey and critical analysis of solo exhibitions in Australian public galleries, 1970-2000. The aim of this research project is to provide a critical analysis of the monographic solo survey exhibition and its significance as a primary mode of representation of the career development of Australian artists since the late 1960s. A suite of six thematically linked monographic exhibitions of mid- to late- career artists will be the focus and primary output of the research. The goal will be to develop an innovative curatorial model to account for the oeuvre of the selected artists within the context of institutional developments in Australian art and culture in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century.Read moreRead less
Perceiving and tracking moving objects. Processing and tracking moving objects poses challenges for human perception. To succeed, visual processing must accumulate analyses of the object from its different positions. Perceptual experiments will reveal human limits and yield insights into the underlying mechanisms, providing a basis for understanding object tracking in tasks like driving.
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
How feedback can impair recognition judgments and undermine border security, criminal investigations, educational testing, and medical screening. If a customs officer learns that they have missed an explosive device while screening luggage, will this affect their judgment? In many scenarios, a person receives feedback about their recognition memory performance and has to try again without having another chance to study the material. Almost no research has examined the effects of feedback on reco ....How feedback can impair recognition judgments and undermine border security, criminal investigations, educational testing, and medical screening. If a customs officer learns that they have missed an explosive device while screening luggage, will this affect their judgment? In many scenarios, a person receives feedback about their recognition memory performance and has to try again without having another chance to study the material. Almost no research has examined the effects of feedback on recognition in the absence of opportunity for further study. This is problematic because many vitally important recognition decisions lack such opportunity. Using various scenarios (face recognition, security screening, multiple-choice testing, and medical screening) this project will demonstrate that feedback affects recognition performance differently depending on the nature of the recognition decision.Read moreRead less
Does binocular vision training enhance literacy among primary school children with poor reading? One in ten Australian children can not read well despite adequate intelligence and opportunity. This project aims to find out the extent that these reading problems reflect poor binocular vision (the eyes not working well together) and evaluate new treatments.
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.
Rapid motor responses in young and older adults. This proposal aims to contribute to our understanding of basic neural mechanisms mediating rapid motor actions across our lifespan. One in four Australians will be over the age of 65 by the year 2056. The project plans to investigate how changes in brain structure and function, as well as alterations in cognitive processing abilities that occur in older age, affect rapid choices between various alternative motor actions as well as our ability to s ....Rapid motor responses in young and older adults. This proposal aims to contribute to our understanding of basic neural mechanisms mediating rapid motor actions across our lifespan. One in four Australians will be over the age of 65 by the year 2056. The project plans to investigate how changes in brain structure and function, as well as alterations in cognitive processing abilities that occur in older age, affect rapid choices between various alternative motor actions as well as our ability to stop motor responses once they are planned. It plans to combine noninvasive brain stimulation with novel behavioural experiments and computational modelling techniques to develop fundamental new knowledge of the natural processes that characterise age-related changes in rapid motor actions.Read moreRead less