Academic Staff and Research Interest 2010
It is not always possible for staff to agree to supervise all students who wish to work with them. The main reason for this is the desire of staff to ensure that all students get appropriately intensive supervision. If staff has too many students, all the students suffer. For this reason we recommend that you contemplate topics from more than one staff member in the early phases of discussion.
To speak with any staff members about potential supervision, please email them for an appointment or follow any specific directions they have provided below.
Students should note that not all of the following staff will be available in a particular year.
Professor Mike Anderson
(telephone - 6488 3264: email - mike@psy.uwa.edu.au)
I have supervised a number of Honours projects in recent years – ranging from the development of morality in children through to looking at the relationship between “executive functions” and speed of processing. Please note that I would consider joint supervision arrangements with my colleagues in the School’s Neurocognitive Development Unit (Murray Maybery, Allison Fox and Donna Bayliss) that could be accommodated within Project KIDS (if you don’t know what this is, ask around or email me). Likely projects for 2008 could include:
- exploring further the relationship between intelligence and a number of tasks such as the attentional blink and goal neglect
- following up some work on dual task performance in children and its relationship to speed of processing, development and executive functioning
- relationship between fluid intelligence, speed of processing and working memory
- inspection time and evoked potentials
- developing measures of empathy in children
- sex differences in intelligence
Professor David Badcock,
(telephone - 6488 3243: email - david@psy.uwa.edu.au
The way we see determines how we are able to interact with the environment. The focus of my research is on human visual performance. My current research examines both the contribution of early visual pathways to individual tasks and the extent to which common neural and perceptual processes are involved in motion, pattern and position coding. The processes are investigated using both normal and clinical groups of observers. Currently the laboratory group is running long term projects examining how humans perceive both the speed and direction of the type of motion produced by moving through the environment, the processes that allow us to determine the location of objects within the environment, the processes that help us to detect and group large scale structure in the visual world and also one aiming to determine the nature of the long-lasting changes that arise as a consequence of migraine headaches. I also have a collaborative project with Murray Maybery on visual processing in Autism.
Dr. Donna Bayliss
(telephone – 6488 3850: email: donna@psy.uwa.edu.au)
Much of my recent research has focused on individual and developmental differences in working memory and how these differences relate to higher-level cognitive skills such as reading and mathematics. In particular, I am interested in examining whether the ability to consolidate information is important for working memory performance. Research has shown that the process of consolidation is abnormally slow in patients with schizophrenia, which may compromise their ability to perform tasks that require the rapid processing of information such as language comprehension. I am interested in whether this slowing is also evident in people who show high levels of schizotypy. I also have an interest in the development of cognitive inhibition in children and whether this is associated with factors such as goal neglect, which is the failure to act in accordance with the goals of a task, even though the goals are known and understood.
Dr. Romola Bucks
(telephone - 6488 3232: email - romola@psy.uwa.edu.au)
My research addresses aspects of how age and disease affect our cognitive and emotional skills. I work with people who have short term conditions, such as a cold, or those with longer term changes in ability either as a result of normal ageing or of degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. I have a particular interest in the degree to which individuals are aware of their difficulties, and the implications of those difficulties. This interest extends to studies exploring how awareness of emotional responses, in the self and in others, and our responses to these emotions, may change with age or disease and how this may relate to our emotional well-being (mood). Entirely unrelated to the above, with colleagues in the UK, I have been developing a new scale to measure body dissatisfaction in young men; a growing problem associated with eating and exercise disorders, and would also welcome students wishing to work in this field.
Dr. Sue Byrne
(telephone – 6488 3579: email – sbyrne@psy.uwa.edu.au)
My research interests lie in the field of clinical psychology. I have a particular interest in eating and weight disorders and I have a strong background in both research and clinical work in this area. My previous research has included projects investigating body image in adolescents, eating disorders in elite athletes, and cognitive-behavioural models of bulimia nervosa. I have recently returned to Perth after spending four and a half years at Professor Christopher Fairburn’s Centre for Research into Eating Disorders at the University of Oxford, U.K. During my time in Oxford, I was involved in research which aimed to develop and test a new cognitive-behavioural treatment for obesity. My current research projects include a series of studies looking at the problem of weight regain in obesity, and a large prospective cohort study which aims to identify factors influencing the development and persistence of childhood obesity.
Dr. Ullrich Ecker
(telephone 6488 3266; email ullrich.ecker@uwa.edu.au)
People are faced with new information all the time, and often new information invalidates old information held in memory, which hence needs to be updated. How this updating process works (or fails!) is the main focus of my current research. Some of the main questions are: How is memory updating related to working memory capacity and intelligence? How does the emotional valence of information influence its updating? What if people “want” to keep believing something that is actually incorrect?
Another area of my research is concerned with binding in working memory. Different parts of the brain process and store different aspects of information (e.g., the colour and shape of an object, a face and the corresponding name, the spatiotemporal context of an encounter) and this information needs to be bound to allow for coherent perception and memory. Students interested in this area should contact me via email.
Visit www.cogsciwa.com for more details about our projects.
Dr. Nicolas Fay
(telephone – 6488 2688: email - nfay@psy.uwa.edu.au)
Human communication is a complicated process involving a number of systems that work in concert (i.e. verbal & nonverbal). While we tend to communicate with ease, it’s not clear how we do this. “How it works” (i.e., the process), and our perception of communicative ability (read prowess) are two questions my research addresses.
With respect to question 1, I’m interested in how we communicate across a range of modalities e.g. verbal, gesture, and graphical. Current projects include the following: the interactive construction of graphical conventions (e.g., writing systems) and the benefits they offer (e.g., computer icons & road signs); a [human] simulation of the pantomimic origins of sign language and its development; and an empirical investigation of the proposition that spoken language evolved from manual communication (i.e., gesture) and subsequently migrated to the mouth (i.e., speech).
As for question 2, in collaboration with A/Prof Andrew Page, I am currently investigating the perceived and actual communicative proficiency (speaking & listening) of persons who suffer from social anxiety.
Prospective students should contact me by email to arrange a time to discuss possible projects.
Associate Professor Janet Fletcher
(telephone - 6488 3275: email - jan@psy.uwa.edu.au)
My main research interests are in the area of language and literacy development. Over a number of years I have been looking at the impact of language difficulties and disabilities on the acquisition of academic skills and the capacity for effective social interactions. Together with Dr Steve Heath and Dr John Hogben I have also been examining the range of factors that underpin reading accuracy and comprehension difficulties and ways of intervening at an early age to reduce the likelihood of these occurring. Currently we hold an ARC Linkage grant designed to develop and test a program to provide parents with the skills to support their children’s literacy development.
Dr. Allison Fox,
(telephone - 6488 3265: email - afox@psy.uwa.edu.au)
My research interests include examination of the timing and neural substrates of psychological processes with neuroimaging techniques, such as the event-related potential (ERP). These techniques are used to further understanding of both normal and impaired functioning. ERPs can provide valuable additional information about how people process stimuli, particularly in cases where overt behavioural responses cannot be reliably obtained. Projects currently underway include investigation of the long-term effects of aging, development, and substance abuse on cognitive functioning, as well as delineation of the nature of the processes contributing to error-monitoring, inhibition, memory, and perception using ERPs. Students interested in pursuing Honours projects in 2009 in these areas are invited to the ERP lab meeting (venue 2.19 main Psychology building) 10 till 10.45am every Wednesday of semester 2 to meet other students working in these areas, or to drop by my office (1.35 main Psychology building) during consultation times.
Dr. Davina French,
(telephone - 6488 3015: email - davina@psy.uwa.edu.au)
I will not be available to supervise Honours students in 2009
Professor Geoff Hammond,
(telephone - 6488 3236: email - geoff@psy.uwa.edu.au)
My lab is using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to study the function of motor cortex in controlling voluntary movement in conscious behaving humans. Brief high-intensity magnetic pulses delivered through a coil positioned on a subject’s scalp over the motor cortex excite underlying neurons and evoke a burst of electromyographic activity in the corresponding muscles. The size of the motor-evoked potential (MEP) reflects the excitability of the corticospinal system. A variant of this procedure, using paired TMS pulses shows the activity of inhibitory and excitatory circuits within motor cortex. These intracortical circuits control the output of motor cortex (and so shape and refine the movement that is produced) and are instrumental in the capacity of the motor cortex to reorganize with experience. Studies are in progress on the motor cortical mechanisms of manual dexterity and handedness (the asymmetry of manual dexterity) and on use-dependent reorganization of motor cortex. You don’t need a background in neurophysiology to do a project in this area, but you should be interested in relating brain organization to behaviour. Make a time to talk with me if you’re interested in a project in this area.
Dr. Linda Jeffery
(telephone - 6488 3096: email - linda@psy.uwa.edu.au)
My research focuses on how we process faces. Faces are rich in social information and our ability to extract this information at a mere glance is crucial to human social interaction. Faces help us determine an individual’s identity, sex, ethnicity and attractiveness, as well as providing insights into how people are feeling and what they are attending to. Yet all faces are remarkably similar as visual patterns, so we rely on very subtle differences and variations between them to make all these judgements. Trying to understand the mechanisms underlying an ability we usually take for granted is fascinating in its own right and may also provide insights how such processes break down, as in autism. I am currently investigating the role of adaptive coding mechanisms, which are revealed by face aftereffects, in face perception. My particular focus is on determining how these mechanisms mature in children. In addition I am also interested in individual differences in face perception skills and whether they are related to other underlying abilities, such as empathy and general cognitive ability.
Professor Stephan Lewandowsky
(telephone - 6488 3231: email - lewan@psy.uwa.edu.au)
Have you ever wondered why you forget a stranger’s name within seconds of them being introduced to you? Are you interested in how we become expert at classifying stimuli (e.g., X-rays) into categories (e.g., healthy or abnormal?)
If so, you might be interested in the research currently being pursued in the Cognitive Science Laboratory:
- Memory and time. Do you forget because time passes? Or is forgetting due to interfering events irrespective of how much time has passed?
- Memory updating. When you are told that the moon is made of green cheese, and later on someone tells you it’s actually a dead rock, what will you actually remember?
- Working memory and categorization. Working Memory (WM) is considered to be the "engine of cognition"; a flexible system dedicated to the processing of information and its retention for brief intervals. Accordingly, WM capacity predicts many high-level cognitive abilities, e.g. reasoning or reading. But does it also predict how people learn to categorize objects?
Visit www.cogsciwa.com for more details about our projects.
Dr. Vance Locke
(telephone: 6488- 3272: email – vance@psy.uwa.edu.au)
My major research focus has been examining prejudice-linked differences in the activation and use of stereotypic information, adopting a cognitive perspective. Recent research has assessed the automatic and strategic activation of stereotype-related information while individuals, high and low on measure of prejudice towards the target group, have made judgments about the target group. I have also investigated the role of encoding biases for stereotypic information in maintaining and reinforcing stereotype usage in high-prejudice individuals. Other research interests are in the area of social psychology, in particular on an investigation into the role of stereotypes in judgments of offenders’ guilt by mock jurors and the role of attention and encoding biases in memory for stereotype congruent information.
Dr. Shayne Loft
(joining us in 2009: email – s.loft@psy.uq.edu.au)
1. Remembering to perform our intentions (plans), or “prospective memory”, is an integral part of our daily cognition. The primary role of this research program is to build an understanding of the cognitive processes that support prospective memory. I have two experimental paradigms set up that are ideal for honours students to run - one using an air traffic control task and another using a more basic task.
2. In many work contexts individuals monitor dynamic displays to make decisions regarding the future relative position of objects. In air traffic control (ATC), for example, controllers predict whether aircraft will violate minimum separation. This project will test how memory and attention interact in determining performance, in terms of how attention dictates how past aircraft events are remembered, and how attention is directed by past aircraft events.
3. There is a growing need for training in the workplace. Training is expensive, so it is vital that trainees learn rapidly. Ability is important, but it is not enough. The key question is; how do we motivate trainees? This is a great challenge because trainees can be motivated by different things at different time points throughout training. This project aims to determine how trainers should match goal-setting interventions to the stage of training in order to achieve the best outcomes, at the quickest rate.
Dr. Andrea Loftus
(telephone: 6488- 3249: email – andrea.loftus@uwa.edu.au)
My research spans a number of different areas including; perception and attention, behavioural neuroscience, vision and human motor control. The broad aim of my research is to improve understanding of how mechanisms of selective attention alter the salience of space and how this in turn affects how we interact with the environment. This question is addressed through the study of neurologically healthy adults and those affected by stroke and Parkinson’s Disease. I have a particular interest in post-stroke hemiparesis and unilateral neglect, and how integrated behavioural-physical therapy techniques may benefit stroke survivors. These neuropsychological investigations are complemented by research into representations of space in healthy adult and infant humans. I have recently been involved in the Parkinsons’ Centre (ParkC) project aimed at improving our understanding of the disease progression, identifying subtypes of Parkinson’s disease and what this means prognostically, and influencing `best practice’ for altering the natural progression of Parkinson’s.
Professor Colin MacLeod
(telephone - 6488 3273: email - colin@psy.uwa.edu.au)
Clinical theorists have attributed emotional disorders to cognitive idiosyncrasies, while cognitive theorists have developed models which suggest that emotional states will be associated with pervasive information processing biases throughout the cognitive system. Both clinical and cognitive models predict the existence of processing biases favouring emotionally congruent information in attention, comprehension and memory. Current research uses cognitive-experimental paradigms to test such hypotheses, and focuses on several related questions including: To what extent are such biases automatic? What is the relative involvement of state and trait variables? Is susceptibility to mood congruency effects a vulnerability factor for emotional disorders? The most recent extension to this work includes assessing the causal basis of this association, by evaluating the possibility of modifying emotional vulnerability through the direct manipulation of selective information processing.
Associate Professor Murray Maybery,
(telephone - 6488 3255: email - murray@psy.uwa.edu.au)
Three areas of possible research projects are as follows. (1) Working Memory. Here our current work is focused on memory for the multiple features of events, such as the “what”, “who”, and “where” of speech. Contrary to many current models of working memory, we have been able to demonstrate that these features are remembered in integrated form rather than as discrete features. Feasible honours projects would be to (a) investigate this “binding of features” for particular pairs of features, either within a modality or across the visual and spatial modalities, such as with memory for faces and voices (b) investigate the development of memory binding in children, or (c) investigate whether some forms of psychopathology relate to impairment in binding features in memory (see area 3 below). (2) Autism. It is typically not feasible in the Honours year to test samples of children with autism, but it is possible to assemble samples of adults who score in the extremes on an Autism Quotient questionnaire. Current cognitive accounts of autism, and also accounts based on the influence of testosterone, can be addressed using these samples. (3) Auditory hallucinations. Again, rather than work with hallucinating patients, it is more feasible for Honours students to select groups of adults in the general population who report high versus low frequencies of hallucinations. Much of our research has focused on explaining auditory hallucinations in terms of (a) a deficit in memory binding (loosing the context that allows us to identify an auditory memory as a memory and not current experience) and (b) an impairment in inhibition (accounting for the intrusiveness of the voices). Students thinking of working with me should initially contact me by email indicating which of the three area(s) are of interest. We will then arrange either individual or small-group meetings.
Neil McLean
(telephone - 6488 3580: email - neil@psy.uwa.edu.au)
A national program for the treatment of Fear of Flying provides the vehicle for a research program focusing on the nature and management of anxiety. Studies completed within this treatment and research program have focused on risk evaluation and anxiety, the role of heuristics in assessing risk, self schema change after treatment for anxiety, and the cognitive processes associated with high trait anxiety. Related research focuses on the psychological factors influencing human performance and participation in sport and the performing arts. Thought processes which influence performance of professional athletes and musicians have been identified and intervention programs to address theses factors are under evaluation. Other research has focused on factors which inhibit people from adopting and maintaining exercise. A second strand of research centres on the cognitive processes underlying disorders of appetite. Studies have looked at the social and intra-personal factors at the basis of eating disorders with a particular emphasis on eating problems in elite athletes. Other research has been directed to the development of programs designed to help people modify their alcohol consumption.
Associate Professor David Morrison
(telephone - 6488 3240: email - davidm@psy.uwa.edu.au)
Three lines of research are currently being pursued: (i) increased use of advanced technology has meant that human operators are required to perform tasks that are demanding of mental rather than physical skills. This research program has considered various problems associated with information display, selection and training of process-control operators; (ii) a second line of research is concerned with the effects on physical and mental well-being of different forms of job design. The moderating and mediating influences of job demands, supports, and constraints and various aspects of personality are being investigated for their impact on health; (iii) the third research program is examining the factors that influence cost and duration of work injuries following accidents at work.
Dr. Lisa Nimmo
(telephone - 6488 3256: email - lisan@psy.uwa.edu.au)
My main research interests are in cognition. The fact that memory, (a) deteriorates over time, (b) is fallible, and (c) can be distorted through experimental manipulations is what makes the study of this human capacity so interesting. So how is it that we remember over the short term? One suggestion is that much like long-term memory, short-term retention is cue-driven. Although much is known about memory, and few would deny that short-term memory is cue driven, the role of retrieval cues when remembering over the short term remains unclear.
Topics that my students and I are currently investigating include:
- What role do retrieval cues play when remembering over the short term?
- Does long-term memory influence performance when remembering over the short term?
- How do today’s nonwords (nonsense syllables) become tomorrow’s words?
Associate Professor Andrew Page
(telephone - 6488 3577: email - andrew@psy.uwa.edu.au)
My interests concern clinical psychology, but specifically the disorders of anxiety and depression. I aim to improve treatments by understanding how therapies bring about their effects and the nature of the clinical conditions. Specific research questions include:
- What thought processes cause psychological problems and how can we change them?
- What is the nature and best treatment of phobias?
- How does exposure to feared stimuli reduce anxiety?
I am also involved in a number of hospital-based research projects and the social phobia research and treatment program, run from the Clinical Psychology Unit at UWA.
Professor Gillian Rhodes
(telephone - 6488 3251: email - gill@psy.uwa.edu.au)
Faces provide a wealth of cues that guide interpersonal interactions and most individuals can distinguish thousands of faces despite their perceptual similarity. In the Facelab we study all aspects of face perception, in attempt to answer the following questions:
- What perceptual mechanisms underly our ability to discriminate and recognize faces?
- Why are other-race faces harder to recognize?
- What makes a face attractive and why do we have the preferences we do?
- What can face aftereffects and illusions tell us about the neural and computational mechanisms of face perception?
- How is face processing disrupted in autism spectrum disorders?
Dr. Werner Stritzke,
(tel: – 6488 3578: email – werner@psy.uwa.edu.au)
Current research focuses on the development of a model of craving applicable to a broad range of appetitive behaviours including addictions and eating disorders. Specifically, the role of ambivalence in understanding and treating excessive appetites is emphasised. Projects include (a) laboratory experiments examining reactivity to appetitive cures, (b) surveys investigating affective and motivational aspects of abstinence or restraint, and (c) studies of the processes involved in children’s evolving attitudes and decisions about substance use and non-use.
Dr. David Van Valkenburg
(telephone – 6488 3257: email – dvanv@psy.uwa.edu.au)
The input to our ears is an undifferentiated stream of variation of pressure, and yet our experience of the world is organized — we hear the world segregated into perceptually discrete voices, instruments, and sounds. I am interested in learning how the brain accomplishes this. My research, therefore, revolves around auditory perception. Primarily, I am interested in a class of phenomena known as auditory stream segregation, which is to say that I am interested in how the brain organizes auditory input to produce phenomenological parts and wholes. I am also interested in cross modal (vision/audition) attention and integration, as well as exploring the perceptual basis of various sound and musical illusions.
Dr. Michael Weinborn
(telephone – 1739: email – mweinbo@psy.uwa.edu.au)
My current research interests are focused on issues of clinical decision-making and symptom validity testing in neuropsychological assessment. A particular focus has been on determining the usefulness of measures meant to assess test taking effort and validity in special populations, including those with mental retardation or severe mental illness. I am also interested in better identifying and measuring neurobehavioral skills that historically have not been adequately addressed by traditional clinical neuropsychological tests. These include tasks associated with frontal systems functioning, such as emotional perception, social awareness, problem-solving, and prospective memory.
Dr. Elliot Wood
(telephone - 6488 1151: email - elliot@psy.uwa.edu.au)
Current research interests are in a variety of areas relevant to organizational psychology, including (but not necessarily limited to) studies that explore the definition, antecedents, and consequences of employee engagement in the workplace, studies that provide an understanding of the way in which control and autonomy are conceptualized and perceived by employees and managers, research that seeks to understand the definition, causes and impact of workaholic-type behaviour in the workplace, and studies that focus on corporate community involvement with specific reference to the impact of participation in employee volunteering programs on employees’ job-relevant attitudes. | 
