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Cognition
The research of many members of the academic staff is informed by cognitive principles, be it in the clinical, social, or even forensic and organisational domains. After all, Cognition is about how we analyse, integrate, and interpret information, which is relevant to most aspects of human behaviour. In addition to those whose research has a cognitive foundation, though, there are academics in the school whose research focuses directly on an understanding of cognitive processes themselves. This research ranges from analyses of memory, thought, language, and decision making, with specialists in each of these areas who have a strong international reputation. They are widely published and have been very successful in attracting research funding from a number of different sources. It is probably fair to say the School of Psychology has one of the strongest groups of cognitive researchers in Australia.
People Involved
Here is a list of the people within the school who are most involved in cognitive research. Follow the links for further information including publications. Brett HayesConcept formation and categorisation; Reasoning and decision-making; The development of memory; Eyewitness memory and suggestibility in children; Forensic interviewing with children; Information processing in children with developmental disabilities. Julie HenryEmotion, neuropsychological assessment, executive cognitive control, normal and abnormal adult ageing, schizophrenia, prospective memory. Skye McDonaldInvestigation of the nature of cognitive and other psychological disorders following brain injury in adulthood including acquired impairments of emotion, behaviour, language, visuospatial processing, perception, memory and learning and executive functions. Issues related to neuropsychological assessment and rehabilitation. Pragmatic language processes in normal and brain-injured adults. Communication disorders after brain injury. Chris MitchellAssociative and perceptual learning in humans. The role of attention in human learning and in affective responding. Cognitive analysis of indirect (“implicit”) measures of attitude. Ben NewellJudgement and decision making. Implicit/explicit distinction in human learning and memory. Marcus TaftWord recognition in reading and speech recognition. Individual differences in cognitive mechanisms involved in reading. Cross-language comparisons. Bilingual language processing.
Recent Representative Publications by Members of the Cognition Group
Brett Hayes
- Hayes, B. K., & Thompson, S. (in press). Causal relations and feature similarity in children’s inductive reasoning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
- Hayes, B. K. (2006). Knowledge, development and category learning, The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 46, 37-78.
- Hayes, B. K. & Heit, E. (2004). Why learning and development can lead to poorer recognition memory. Trends in Cognitive Science, 8, (8), 337-339.
- Hayes, B. K. & Younger, K. (2004). Category-use effects in children. Child Development, 75, 1-14.
- Hayes, B. K., Foster, K., & Gadd, N. (2003). Prior knowledge and subtyping effects in children's category learning. Cognition, 88, 177-199.
Julie Henry
- Ruffman, T., Henry, J. D, Livingstone, V & Phillips, L. H. (in press). A meta-analytic review of emotion recognition and aging: Implications for neuropsychological models of aging. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews.
- Bailey, P. E. & Henry, J. D. (in press). Growing less empathic with age: Disinhibition of the self-perspective. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences.
- Henry, J. D., Phillips, L. H., Crawford, J. R., Iatswaart, M., & Summers, F. (2006). Theory of mind following traumatic brain injury: The role of emotion recognition and executive dysfunction. Neuropsychologia, 44, 1623-1628.
- Henry, J. D., and Crawford, J. R. (2004). A meta-analytic review of verbal fluency performance following focal cortical lesions. Neuropsychology, 18, 284-295.
- Henry, J. D., MacLeod, M, Phillips, L. and Crawford, J. R. (2004). A meta‑analytic review of prospective memory and aging. Psychology and Aging, 19, 27-39.
Skye McDonald
- McDonald, S. (2007) Neuropsychological and social underpinnings of communication disorders after traumatic brain injury. In Ball, M.J & Damico, J. (Eds) Clinical Aphasiology- Future Directions. Sussex, UK: Psychology Press.
- Nash, S., Henry, J.D., McDonald, S., Martin, I., Brodaty, H., & Peek-O’Leary, M. (In Press) Cognitive disinhibition and socioemotional functioning in Alzheimer’s disease Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society
- McDonald, S. (2007) The social, emotional and cultural life of the orbitofrontal cortex. Brain Impairment, 8, 41-51.
- Saunders, C., McDonald, S. & Richardson, R. (2006) Loss of emotional experience after traumatic brain injury? Findings with the startle probe procedure. Neuropsychology, 20, 224-231.
Chris Mitchell
- Scully, A., & Mitchell, C.J. (in press) Extinction in learning and memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.
- Mitchell, C.J., Nash, S., & Hall, G. (in press). Human Perceptual Learning: Comparing Theories Drawn From Human Memory and Animal Learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory & Cognition.
- Mitchell, C.J., Lovibond, P.F., Minard, E., & Lavis, Y. (2006). Forward blocking in human learning sometimes reflects the failure to encode a cue-outcome relationship. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 59, 830-844.
- Mitchell, C.J., Killedar, A. & Lovibond, P.F. (2005). Inference-based retrospective revaluation in human causal judgments requires knowledge of within-compound relationships. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 31, 418-424.
Ben Newell
- Newell, B.R., Lagnado, D.A., & Shanks, D.R. (2007). Straight Choices: The Psychology of Decision Making. Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
- Newell, B.R. & Rakow, T. (in press). The role of experience in decisions from description. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.
- Lagnado, D.A., Newell, B.R., Kahan, S., & Shanks, D.R. (2006). Insight and strategy in multiple cue learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 135, 162-183.
- Newell, B.R. & Fernandez, D. (2006). On the binary quality of recognition and the inconsequentiality of further knowledge: Two critical tests of the recognition heuristic. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 19, 333-346.
- Newell, B.R. (2005). Re-visions of rationality? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 11-1
Marcus Taft
- Taft, M. (2004). Morphological decomposition and the reverse base frequency effect. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 57A, 745-765
- Taft, M. (2006). Orthographically influenced abstract phonological representation: Evidence from non-rhotic speakers. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 35, 67-78.
- Taft, M. (2006). Processing of characters by native Chinese readers. In P. Li, L.H. Tan, E. Bates, O.J.L. Tzeng (Eds.) Handbook of East Asian Psycholinguistics (Volume 1: Chinese). Pp.237-249. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Current Grants Held by Members of the Group
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Title (Chief Investigators)
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Source
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Years
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Total funding
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Ageing, inhibition and social control â steps towards improving the lives of older adults (von Hippel & Henry)
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ARC: Discovery Grant
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2007-2009
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$256,500
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Towards a model of emotional control: Assessment of patients with focal cortical injuries (Henry & McDonald)
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ARC: Discovery Grant
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2006-2008
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$195,000
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Communication and severe brain injury (Togher, McDonald & Tate)
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NH&MRC: Project Grant
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2006-2008
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$440,000
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As-if reasoning in categorization, reasoning and decision-making (Hayes & Newell)
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ARC: Discovery Grant
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2007-2010
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$271,000
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The development of causal induction (Hayes & Heit)
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ARC: Discovery Grant
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2006-2009
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$240,000
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The relationship between lexical processing strategies and adult reading proficiency. (Taft)
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ARC: Discovery Grant
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2006-2008
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$216,000
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Testing a unitary model of judgment under uncertainty. (Newell)
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ARC: Discovery Grant
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2005-2007
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$160,000
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Testing a cooperative model of human learning. (Mitchell & Lovibond)
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ARC: Discovery Grant
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2006-2008
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$210,000
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Discrimination learning in humans: Associative and attentional mechanisms (Mitchell & Hall)
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ARC: Discovery Grant
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2005-2007
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$135,000
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PhD Students currently supervised by Members of the Group
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Name
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Supervisor
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Topic
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Fiona MacDonald
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Ben Newell
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Decision making
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Megan Heffernan
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Ben Newell
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Probabilistic category learning
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Maurice Finn
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Skye McDonald
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Treatment for mild cognitive impairment
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Ariella de Sousa
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Skye McDonald
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Neuropsychology of empathy
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Minh Nguyen Hoan
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Marcus Taft
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Processing of English as a second language
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Naomi Sweller
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Brett Hayes
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Concept and category learning
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Lauren Kearney
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Brett Hayes
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Social Cognition
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Tiina Piira
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Brett Hayes
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Developmental category learning
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Yvonna Lavis
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Chris Mitchell
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Human perceptual learning.
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Betty Chang
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Chris Mitchell
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Attention in the Implicit Association Test
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Oren Griffiths
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Chris Mitchell
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Attention in learning and recognition memory
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Chris Ruthven
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Chris Mitchell
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Automatic behaviour
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Phoebe Bailey
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Julie Henry
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Social cognition and ageing
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Anna McCarrey
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Julie Henry
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Social cognition and ageing
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Claire Thompson
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Julie Henry
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Prospective memory and dementia
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Yael Perry
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Julie Henry
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Emotion regulation and schizophrenia
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Adam Lane
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Julie Henry
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Motivational enhancement and schizophrenia
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