Summer Research Program

Understanding Organisational Stakeholders’ Cognitions in Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work

Supervisor: Associate Professor Kirsten Way

Duration: 6 Weeks

Considerable research effort has been expended on understanding the antecedents and outcomes of exposure to psychosocial hazards at work. Comparatively less research has, however, focussed on how the psychosocial risk is understood and managed by key workplace stakeholders (managers, inspectors, OHS professionals), and what drives their actions in applied workplace settings.

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The cognitive and neural bases of creative thought: an aging study

Supervisor: Professor Gail Robinson

Duration: 6 Weeks

Creative thought - the ability to generate novel and appropriate ideas - is fundamental to human advances throughout history and adaptive daily functioning. Despite universal interest in creativity, we are still far from understanding its cognitive and neural bases.

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Reviewing the evidence on the intergenerational effects of adversity, and the supports available to parents.

Supervisor: Dr Carys Chainey

Duration: 6 Weeks

Dr Chainey is currently conducting reviews across two programs of work. One is a systematic review that is part of a program of research on the intergenerational links between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), parenting, and wellbeing. The second review is part of a program of work exploring the usability of evidence-based parenting programs (EBPS), i.e., the extent to which these programs meet the needs of their users (e.g., practitioners, parents, service providers).

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Supporting the next generation of parenting and family science professionals

Supervisor: Dr Carys Chainey

Duration: 6 Weeks

This project is examining the impact of a self-directed audio guided brief compassion focused intervention on compassionate behaviour. Participants in the study are randomised to a compassion focused intervention or a control condition with is focused on rhythmic breathing. At time 2 the participants come to the lab and complete a behavioural task that assesses compassion. Our prediction is that those in the compassion intervention should engage in more compassionate behaviour than the control condition (the breathing condition). For this study we require you to help with the data collection, this will include meeting participants, acting as an experimenter, and study confederate. You will be working alongside Dr Chase Sherwell and Dr James Kirby. This study was funded by the US Mind & Life Institute.

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How children think about thinking

Supervisor: Dr Jon Redshaw

Duration: 6 Weeks

In the current project, we will examine how metacognition develops and influences children’s behaviour. One possible method is to ask children to make predictions about uncertain outcomes and then rate their confidence in those predictions. Another possible method is to present children with cognitive problems and examine whether they modify the task stimuli to make the problems easier to solve (i.e., cognitive offloading).

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Remembering to remember: Prospective memory function in every day life.

Supervisor: Dr Sarah Coundouris

Duration: 6 Weeks

Prospective memory (PM) is the fundamental neurocognitive capacity that allows us to form a future intention and then remember to execute that intention at a later point in time, or to ‘remember to remember’.

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Collaborative project for journalism/communications students (or those with journalism/communication experience) to develop a podcast/vodcast and blog translating research findings for a community audience

Supervisor: Professor Winnifred Louis

Duration: 6 Weeks

The task will be to work with others to create a podcast/vodcast and a blog based on research conducted by researchers within the Social Change Lab. They will be for the purpose of translating research findings for a community audience.

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Literature Review & Infographic

Supervisor: Professor Winnifred Louis

Duration: 6 Weeks

The project will focus on a specific topic relevant to the research areas covered by researchers in the Social Change Lab. You will be asked to explore and engage previous research on the topic. This project involves looking at the psychological research as well as interdisciplinary research in other areas. The specific research topics for the projects will be advised closer to the time.

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Robot Companions: Boosting Performance or Raising Stress?

Supervisor: Professor Eric Vanman

Duration: 6 Weeks

As robots increasingly integrate into various aspects of human life, understanding their influence on human behaviour and performance becomes critical. Previous studies have shown that the presence of others can affect task performance, but little is known about how robots, as non-human entities, may impact this dynamic. This project seeks to explore the psychological and physiological effects of robot presence during task performance.

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Investigating the Effectiveness of Mind-Body Therapies for Enhancing Pain Management, Reducing Burnout, and Improving Wellbeing in Competitive Athletes

Supervisor: Associate Professor Mel Day

Duration: 6 Weeks

Competitive athletes constantly strive to achieve peak performance while carefully managing the risks of burnout and injury. A critical challenge they face is determining when to push through pain and when to pull back. Misinterpreting pain as mere muscle soreness can lead to severe injuries and prolonged recovery periods.

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How does normal adult ageing influence social cognitive function?

Supervisor: Dr Sarah Grainger

Duration: 6 Weeks

Social cognition refers broadly to our ability to detect, understand and respond appropriately social cues in our environment. This includes understanding what others are thinking (i.e., theory of mind) and being able to recognise what someone is feeling (i.e., emotion recognition).

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The Role of Attention in Threat-Bias and Predictive Mechanisms.

Supervisor: Associate Professor Alan Pegna

Duration: 6 Weeks

It is thought that threatening faces are prioritised over other visual information and can be processed independently of attention. This is beneficial for survival as rapid processing and orientation towards threat could save an organism precious milliseconds to react. However, is it valuable to prioritise threat when we can predict its presence?

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Do we look like our pets? The impact of dog ownership on the perception of social traits.

Supervisor: Associate Professor Jess Taubert

Duration: 6 Weeks

When we see a person, we very quickly form an impression of them. These impressions can be very intrusive and known to influence judgements in a variety of different situations (e.g., job interviews and criminal proceedings). But are these impressions changed by the presence of an animal companion? For example, when you are seen with a pet dog, are you imbued with their attributes?

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Are people living with post-traumatic stress more susceptible to face pareidolia?

Supervisor: Associate Professor Jess Taubert

Duration: 6 Weeks

As social primates, we are hypersensitive to faces and face-like patterns in the environment. Sometimes we even see faces where none exist, like on a piece of burnt toast or on the trunk of a tree. This phenomenon is known as face pareidolia, and it is a very common visual illusion that we share with newborn infants and monkeys.

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Understanding the hidden costs of long working hours on mental health and well-being

Supervisor: Dr Tim Ballard

Duration: 6 Weeks

This project examines how the amount of time people spend at work affects their mental health and wellbeing. More than half the world’s population currently work. At the same time, 15% of working aged adults live with a mental health condition.

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The epidemiology of cannabis use: patterns of use and its association with psychological and physical health

Supervisor: Dr Tesfa Yimer

Duration: 6 Weeks

This project will investigate patterns of cannabis use and its associations with other drug use, socio-demographic characteristics, psychological and physical health related outcomes. We will use the 2022-23 National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS) and earlier datasets. Epidemiologic and statistical methods will be employed to answer our research question.

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Acceptability and Feasibility of a Family Intervention for Autistic Children Who Are Bullied

Supervisor: Professor Matt Sanders

Duration: 6 Weeks

We are conducting a clinical case series to investigate the acceptability and feasibility of Resilience Triple P for mainstream primary school students in Australia who have been diagnosed with ASD and are bullied by their peers. We will recruit approximately 10 families and they will complete Resilience Triple P. Children, parents, and teachers (if applicable) will complete assessments

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International Gaming Study 2024

Supervisor: Dr Daniel Stjepanovic

Duration: 6 Weeks

This summer project is focussed on furthering our understanding of video gaming and video gaming disorder. Students will work on existing data from the International Gaming Study 2024 (IGS24), helping with data analysis, literature reviews, manuscript and powerpoint presentation preparation.

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Addictive behaviours in young people – from alcohol, nicotine to gaming

Supervisor: Associate Professor Gary Chan

Duration: 6 Weeks

Addictive behaviors in young people have become a growing concern in public health, particularly as these behaviors can have long-lasting impacts on mental and physical health. This research project aims to explore the prevalence, determinants, and consequences of various addictive behaviors among young people, including alcohol use, nicotine consumption (including vaping), and gaming addiction.

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Youth and Nicotine: Exploring Patterns and Influences Across Borders

Supervisor: Associate Professor Gary Chan

Duration: 6 Weeks

This project aims to examine the uptake and use patterns of nicotine delivery products (including cigarettes, vapes, and other novel products) among youth across different countries with varying regulatory environments. The research will utilize data from large-scale surveys such as the ITC Youth Tobacco and Vaping Survey, National Drug Strategy Household Survey in Australia, and Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health in the US.

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Promoting compassionate action in children via storybook interventions

Supervisor: Associate Professor James Kirby

Duration: 6 Weeks

Recent findings using the compassionate responding paradigm suggest that preschool children will not help a distressed target (puppets or adults) when it is costly to do so. This summer project will focus on piloting or collecting early data for a novel study aimed at testing if reading a storybook that promotes compassionate behaviour translates to greater costly compassionate helping using the same experimental paradigm.

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Examining the effects of visual predictions in the brain

Supervisor: Professor Jason Mattingley

Duration: 6 Weeks

The brain receives more sensory information than it can use to guide behaviour, creating the need for mechanisms that promote efficient coding of incoming signals. According to predictive coding theory, the brain stores an internal model of the sensory world and updates this model only when new sensory information deviates from what is “expected”.

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Thriving Youth Project

Supervisor: Dr April Hoang

Duration: 6 Weeks

This project aims to identify the socio-ecological factors that drive or support better outcomes for young people, and families living in disadvantaged communities. The results will provide evidence for future interventions aimed at breaking the cycle of deep and persistent disadvantage in Australia.

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Loneliness in childhood

Supervisor: Dr Kana Imuta

Duration: 6 Weeks

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the scientific literature on the impacts of loneliness on well-being has experienced significant growth. Despite this, the vast majority of studies have focused on developmental periods of adolescence and beyond, with still a limited understanding of how we first come in touch with feelings of loneliness in childhood.

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What is consent? an evaluation of community awareness material targeting multicultural communities. STUDY 2 – Developing a survey instrument

Supervisor: Dr Faiza El-Higzi

Duration: 6 Weeks

This project is part of a wider program of research in domestic and family violence in multicultural communities, focusing on coercive control.

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Can we use AI to educate young people about substance use?

Supervisor: Dr Tianze Sun

Duration: 6 Weeks

This project explores the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) to minimise the harms associated with youth substance use and promote healthier choices. You will be tackling complex questions like "Can AI-generated content effectively educate young people about the harms associated with e-cigarette use?" and "How do we leverage this new technology to promote health while addressing ethical issues surrounding AI?"

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