Psychology Colloquium: Prof Ed Awh (University of Chicago)
2026-02-27 15:00 - 16:00 (Australia/Sydney)
Prof Ed Awh (University of Chicago)

Title: Content-independent pointers mediate storage in working memory

Abstract:

Although past neural studies of working memory (WM) have focused on stimulus-specific activity that tracks the stored feature values, a separate line of evidence has revealed neural signals that track the number of items in WM, independent of the contents of those items. Thus, a common neural signature of WM load has been identified for highly distinct visual features, and even across visual and auditory sensory modalities. Our working hypothesis is that these content-independent load signals reflect the operation of spatiotemporal “pointers” that enable the binding of stored items to the surrounding event context, a process that is critical for precise access online memories despite high levels of proactive interference. This hypothesis predicts that pointer deployment is a key limiting factor for WM capacity. To test this prediction, we applied representational similarity analysis (RSA) to EEG data to determine the number of pointers deployed across set sizes that ranged from 1 to 8 items. We observed a “neural load” function that rises with increasing numbers of stored items, while controlling for differences in sensory energy and spatial attention. Critically, this function differed sharply as a function of individual differences in WM capacity. Subjects with higher capacity showed a monotonic rise in the number of pointers deployed that leveled off at higher set sizes. By contrast, low capacity subjects showed an initial rise followed by a sharp decline in the number of pointers deployed at higher set sizes. This empirical pattern dovetails with past behavioral and neural studies that have documented increased costs for low capacity observers as the number of memoranda exceeds capacity. We conclude that content-independent indexing is a core component of individual differences in WM ability.

Bio:

I’m a cognitive neuroscientist who received a doctoral degree from the University of Michigan, training with Drs. John Jonides and Edward Smith. I then spent 2 years at UC San Diego, working with Dr. Hal Pashler, and Dr. Steve Hillyard. I took my first professor position at the University of Oregon in 1999, where I spent 16 years and developed a close collaboration with Dr. Ed Vogel. In 2015, Vogel and I both took positions at the University of Chicago where I still reside. My core research interests focus on working memory and attention, with an eye towards the intertwined nature of these constructs. I’ve been very interested in the sharp capacity limits that characterize working memory performance, and we have recently proposed that those limits may relate to limits on content-independent operations that serve to bind item representations to the observer’s current context. My talk will focus on the evidence supporting this broad hypothesis.

Psychology Colloquium: Prof Luigi Fontana (University of Sydney)
2026-03-06 15:00 - 16:00
Prof Luigi Fontana (University of Sydney)

Title: Promoting healthy longevity through lifestyle medicine: biological and behavioural mechanisms

Abstract:

Chronic diseases are often perceived as an unavoidable consequence of genetics or chance. Yet converging evidence shows that a large proportion of cardiometabolic disease, type 2 diabetes, and many cancers is preventable, and that the years lived with disability can be dramatically reduced through mechanism-focused lifestyle interventions. Modern healthcare has excelled at prolonging survival after disease onset, but too often this extends years characterized by multimorbidity, polypharmacy, reduced independence, and escalating costs.1

This lecture synthesizes human and translational evidence showing how lifestyle medicine can extend healthspan by targeting fundamental biological pathways that drive aging and chronic disease risk.2-4 Key interventions include optimizing diet quality and energy balance (e.g., a Mediterranean-like, minimally processed, fiber-rich dietary pattern), regular endurance and resistance exercise, and avoidance of smoking and harmful alcohol use.1, 5

Importantly, the effectiveness of these interventions in both clinical trials and real-world settings depends on adherence and long-term compliance, which are influenced by psychological and behavioral factors that remain incompletely understood. I will briefly discuss how improving health literacy—particularly through education—may help shape health behaviors and strengthen prevention. Finally, I will outline how integrating lifestyle medicine into proactive, personalized care can reduce disparities and support sustainable healthcare systems while aligning human and planetary health goals.6, 7

Key references:

1. Cagigas ML, Twigg SM and Fontana L. Ten tips for promoting cardiometabolic health and slowing cardiovascular aging. Eur Heart J 2024; 45: 1094-1097. DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehad853.

2. Green CL, Lamming DW and Fontana L. Molecular mechanisms of dietary restriction promoting health and longevity. Nature reviews Molecular cell biology 2022; 23: 56-73. 2021/09/15. DOI: 10.1038/s41580-021-00411-4.

3. Cagigas ML, De Ciutiis I, Masedunskas A, et al. Dietary and pharmacological energy restriction and exercise for healthspan extension. Trends Endocrinol Metab 2025; 36: 521-545. 20250502. DOI: 10.1016/j.tem.2025.04.001.

4. Fontana L, Partridge L and Longo VD. Extending healthy life span—from yeast to humans. science 2010; 328: 321-326.

5. Tosti V, Bertozzi B and Fontana L. Health benefits of the mediterranean diet: metabolic and molecular mechanisms. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A 2017; 73: 318-326.

6. Cheng K and Fontana L. Investing in value-based primary care: a pathway to sustainable healthcare. Eur Heart J 2024 20240710. DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehae404.

7. Fontana L, Fasano A, Chong YS, et al. Transdisciplinary research and clinical priorities for better health. PLoS medicine 2021; 18: e1003699. 20210727. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003699.

Bio:

Luigi Fontana is an internationally recognized physician scientist and one of the world’s leaders in the field of nutrition, metabolism and healthy longevity in humans. His pioneering studies on the effects of dietary restriction in humans have opened a new area of nutrition-related research that holds tremendous promise for the prevention of age-related chronic diseases and for the understanding of the biology of human aging.

Professor Fontana is the Leonard P. Ullmann Chair of Translational Metabolic Health at the Charles Perkins Centre, where he directs the Charles Perkins Centre Royal Prince Alfred Clinic and the Health for Life Research, Clinical & Educational Program. He is also a Professor of Medicine and Nutrition in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney and a Clinical Academic in the Department of Endocrinology at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

Professor Fontana was a Senior Scientist at the Italian NIH (ISS) and a Professor of Medicine and Nutritional Sciences at Washington University in St.Louis (USA), and co-director of the Longevity Research Program at Washington University. Fontana graduated with highest honors from the Verona University Medical School (1994), where he completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine (1999). He also received a Ph.D. in Metabolism and Clinical Pharmacology from the University of Padua Medical School (2003).

Professor Fontana has published over 180 manuscripts in prestigious journals including Science, Cell, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, BMJ, CA Clinical Journal cancer, Nature Reviews Mol Cell Biol, Cell Metabolism, Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol, Circulation, Journal American College of Cardiology, and PNAS ; 96.4% of his papers are in the top 10% most-cited journals (Google scholar total citations >39,000; h-index 90). He has been invited to present his work at international conferences and top medical schools and research institutes around the world, including Harvard University, Cambridge University, Yale University, Universitè Paris “Pierre et Marie Curie”, Max Plank Institute of Aging, Baylor College of Medicine, Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, National University of Singapore among others.

Dr. Fontana’s is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the 2009 American Federation Aging Research (AFAR) Breakthroughs in Gerontology Award and the 2011 Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging, the 2016 Vincent Cristofalo Award of the American Federation Aging Research, 2021 Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence of the University of Sydney, 2022 Honorary Member of the Italian Association of Hospital Gastroenterologists, 2022 Ordinary Non-resident Member of the Italian Academy of Medical and Surgical Sciences of the National Society of Sciences in Naples, and 2023 Ordinary Non-resident Member of of the Italian Pontanian Academy of Naples (founded in 1458). He was a Scientific Member of the Board of Directors of the American Aging Association (2014-2019), and since 2016, he is the Editor-in-Chief of ‘Nutrition and Healthy Aging’ and Associated Editor of ‘Geroscience’.

Professor Fontana believes that the time has come for a change in the conversation about chronic disease to a refreshed and repurposed model of health care, which emphasizes the power of mechanism based prevention and education to change potential to actual outcomes. Fontana is also an environmentalist. He wrote several highly-cited perspective articles and book chapters with Daniel Kammen, Walter Willett and Nicoletta Batini on the beneficial role of efficient use of energy and food in promoting human, environmental, and planetary health, and sustainable economic development. Fontana and colleagues believe that it is possible to substantially enhance human and environmental health, societal wealth and well-being, but this requires a profound transformation in the way we live, and a new prevention- and environment-centred healthcare, agricultural, industrial and economic system. They argues that most of the knowledge and technology to transform the world and begin a new industrial revolution already exist today. We only need to relinquish the idea of producing more energy, food, and other products at lower cost in favor of a new paradigm that opts for less but high-quality energy, food and materials for a healthier life and environment. They also claims that “both individual and societal wealth, happiness, and well-being do not depend merely on the acquisition of material goods and on economic growth, but are powered by our physical and psychological health, the quality of life and the richness of our social relationships, and foremost by the health of the environment that supports all life on earth, our Natural Capital that must be preserved”.

Major Media attention

Quoted in The New York Times, “Food for Holiday Thought: Eat Less, Live to 140?” by David Hochman, by David Hochman, Nov 23, 2003

Profiled on a NHK special documentary “Challenge the aging: You can live longer”, 2004

Quoted in The Washington Post, “Seeking the Low-Calorie Fountain of Youth: Severely Restricted Diets May Slow Aging Process” by Rob Stein, May 4 2004.

Quoted in Science “Lean, Hungry, and Healthy” by Constance Holden, Apr 23 2004(Science 2004;304:514)

Quoted in New Scientist “Eat less and keep disease at bay” by Anil Ananthaswamy, Apr 24, 2004 (New Scientist 2004;182:2444)

Featured in the Korean documentary “Secrets of Living, Aging, Illness and Death ” by Mia Lee (Korean Broadcasting Systems), 2005

Quoted in The Times of London, “Eat less — and live to 130” by David Mattin, Oct 3, 2005

Profiled in an Italian TV documentary on nutrition and longevity “Calorie restriction and aging” by Piero Angela (“SuperQuark” series), 2005

Quoted in The Wall Street Journal, “Reducing Your Daily Calories by 40%: The Science Behind ‘Starvation’ Diets”, by Tara Parker-Pope, Jan 31 2006.

Quoted in The Washington Post, “High Protein Diets May Boost Cancer Risk” by Steven Reinberg, Dec 7, 2006

Featured in the BBC4 documentary “Live longer: Caloric restrictions and ageing of the heart”, 2007

Quoted in Newsweek, “Never say die”, by Anne Underwood, Dec 12 2008.

Quoted in The New York Times Magazine “The Calorie-Restriction Experiment” by JON GERTNER, Oct 7 2009.

Quoted in the Los Angeles Time, “Permanent diet may equal longer life” by Karen Kaplan, July 9, 2009

Quoted in the Time Magazine, “Health Checkup: How to Live 100 Years – Eat Less, Live Longer?”, by Bryan Walsh, Feb 11 2010.

Quoted in New Scientist “Eat less, live longer?” by Laura Cassiday, Jun 3, 2010

Time Magazine – “9 Healthy Snacks That Prevent Overeating”, by Markham Heid, Aug 11, 2016.

Featured in the BBC2 Horizon documentary Eat, Fast & Live Longer by Michael J. Mosley, 2012

Featured in the ABC ‘Catalyst’ documentary “Staying Younger For Longer” by Jayne Parker, 2019

Featured in the ABC ‘Catalyst’ documentary “The Truth about Fasting”, 2021

Psychology Colloquium: Prof Agnieszka Tymula (University of Sydney)
2026-03-13 15:00 - 16:00
Prof Agnieszka Tymula (University of Sydney)

Title: Rationally Selected Utility – A New Theory of Choice

Abstract:

Traditional prescriptive decision theories from Pascal’s to Expected Utility have struggled to explain inconsistent human choices, leading to predictive models like Prospect Theory. This paper introduces a novel approach to understand why these behaviors occur, reconciling these observed “irrationalities” with a simple rational objective. Here we propose that the human nervous system, faced with limited cognitive capacity (a finite representational precision for the representation of reward value), optimally selects a task-appropriate utility function to either maximize long-run average earnings or to minimize errors. We argue that the utility functions we have measured are tools, sculpted by knowledge of the choice environment’s probabilistic structure and the decision-maker’s precision level, for optimally achieving a rational objective. Our results show that almost every experimentally observed utility function can be described as a near-optimal tool for achieving a maximization of objective earnings (a goal abandoned since Bernoulli) or for minimizing errors. We quantify the specific gains that result from adding cognitive capacity and find that these gains are quite small as long as the utility function is correctly adjusted to cognitive capacity. Our research provides a novel framework that offers a testable and foundational explanation for why human and animal decision-makers evolved the puzzling range of utility functions and risk attitudes that have been widely observed.

Bio:

TBA

Psychology Colloquium: Prof Phillippa Diedrichs (University of the West of England)
2026-03-20 15:00 - 16:00
Prof Phillippa Diedrichs (University of the West of England)

Title: Beyond journal articles: How research psychologists, industry and civil society joined forces to reach 140 million young people with evidence-based body image interventions.

Abstract:

Industries have long shaped body image, appearance ideals, and wellbeing, yet a persistent gap remains between scientific discovery and real-world application. Brands and businesses struggle to access academic expertise and evidence-based tools; researchers, meanwhile, often lack the platforms, resources, connections, and sometimes the confidence or appetite to translate their findings into practice. In the meantime, young people continue to be shaped by appearance pressures that harm their health and curtail their relationships, aspirations, and opportunities. The solution lies not in more research alone, but in a fundamentally different model of knowledge translation, one built on disruptive innovation, ethical industry partnerships, and task-shifting to community-led delivery.

Drawing on ten years of work spanning academia, global brands, civil society, and policy, this talk traces how evidence-based body image interventions were designed, scaled, and delivered to more than 140 million young people worldwide. It examines the realities of cross-sector collaboration candidly, including the processes, tensions, and hard-won lessons, so that researchers and practitioners can consider how similar approaches might strengthen the impact of their own work.

Bio:

Professor Phillippa Diedrichs, PhD, is a social scientist on a mission to create a world where no one is held back by how they look, their gender or identity. She’s an internationally recognised psychologist, researcher, author, and speaker specialising in body image, mental health and inclusion. Phillippa is a Professor of Psychology at the Centre for Appearance Research, UWE Bristol and founder of EVERYBODY Consulting, partnering with brands like Dove, Nike and Instagram to challenge beauty norms and drive social change. Her best-selling teen guide, The Body Confidence Book, is now published in five languages.

Psychology Colloquium: Dr Philip Jean-Richard Dit Bressel (University of NSW)
2026-03-27 15:00 - 16:00
Dr Philip Jean-Richard Dit Bressel (University of NSW)

Title: A cross-species paradigm for exploring persistent detrimental behaviour

Abstract:

A basic precept in psychology is that actions with positive consequences are repeated while actions with negative consequences are avoided. However, individuals vary immensely in their tendency to cease detrimental actions, with many persisting in self-destructive behaviour. Tasks used to study this often fail to reveal psychological roots for these inter-individual differences. We have sought to address this via rodent and human versions of a conditioned punishment task. Across studies, we have found that avoidance of negative consequences is bimodally distributed across individuals. We have found these differences in avoidance are not readily attributable to differences in appetitive or aversive motivation, nor differences in behavioural control. Rather, avoidance differences were driven by failures in Action-Punisher learning, indicating an overlooked source of maladaptive choices. Factors that interact with these tendencies, broader implications, and future directions will be discussed.

Bio:

Dr Philip Jean-Richard Dit Bressel is a Senior Lecturer at UNSW School of Psychology. His lab investigates the psychobiology of learning, decision-making, and behaviour, with a special focus on how we learn and make decisions about actions with negative consequences. His research program leverages complex behavioural tasks across species, precision neuroscience techniques (in vivo pharmacology, optical and genetic approaches for real-time neural measurement and manipulation), and advanced analysis methods.

Thriving With and Beyond Cancer: A World Psycho-Oncology Day Webinar
2026-04-09 13:00 - 14:00
Beyond the Clinical: Supporting Mental Health in Cancer CareCancer care is about more than just treatment, scans, and surgery. In honour of World Psycho-Oncology Day, the Psycho-Oncology Cooperative Research Group (PoCoG) invites you to a special webinar: Thriving With and Beyond Cancer.

Join us on Thursday 9 April to discover how psycho-social and supportive care clinical trials and implementation research are transforming the way we support the emotional and psychological needs of patients and their families.

This session is open to all – clinicians, researchers, students, and community members alike.

REGISTER HERE

When: Thursday 9 April, 1pm – 2 pm AEST

Where: Online (link provided upon registration)

Host: PoCoG (School of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Sydney)

CANCELLED: Psychology Colloquium: Prof Mark Dadds (University of Sydney)
2026-04-17 15:00 - 16:00
UNFORTUNATELY, MARK’S COLLOQUIUM HAS HAD TO BE CANCELLED AND WILL BE RESCHEDULED FOR LATER IN THE YEAR.

Prof Mark Dadds (University of Sydney)

Title: What is it to discipline a child; what should it be? Evidence, myths, and the moral high ground

Abstract:

Parental discipline of children is central to children’s moral development but is also the context for most abuse and violence. Time-out (TO) is a widely used parental discipline strategy developed as an alternative to physical punishment for children with behavioural problems and is now the 2nd most common discipline strategy. Despite strong research support, concerns have spread widely regarding adverse impact on child mental health (CMH) in part driven by evidence of widespread variability in how TO is implemented, and also with regard to its use with child from trauma and adversity backgrounds. I will present the results of several studies using a new measure of procedural implementation of TO by parents of children aged 2-8 years, to examine the relationship between use and implementation of TO and child mental health, attachment, moral development, and other outcomes. Data will include the first surveys of young adults who grew up in the Time-out generation. Overall, the findings suggest that TO is ……. you’ll need to come to hear this bit!

Bio:

Mark Dadds is Director of Growing Minds Australia, Professor of Psychology at the University of Sydney and Founding Co-Director of the Child Behaviour Research Clinic, which develops state-of-the-art treatments for children and adolescents with MH problems. He has received over $17M of NHMRC, MRFF and philanthropic funding since 2020. He has developed and directed several national intervention programs for children, youth, and their families, at risk for MH problems. His Integrated Family Intervention for Child Conduct Disorder (with D.Hawes) is implemented throughout the world in the form of a tertiary treatment and since 2020, online as Parentworks and FamilyMan, both developed in partnership with the Movember Foundation. The ABC 3-part documentary of his approach to treating early onset child mental health problems led to him being awarded the 2021 Inaugural APS Award for Media Engagement with Science. Other awards include Early Career Award from the Division of Scientific Affairs of the Australian Psychological Society, the Ian Matthew Campbell Award for Excellence in Clinical Psychology, Distinguished Career Award of the Australian Association of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy, the Eric Taylor Award for Translational Research into Practice, Association of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, UK, 2020, and in 2021, the APS President’s Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology. He has authored 4 books and over 280 papers on child and family psychology receiving over 39,000 citations in total and over 11,000 since 2020 on Google Scholar, and has given invited keynote addresses and skills training workshops to international audiences throughout the world. In 2021 he established Australia’s first Clinical Trials Network in Child and Youth Mental Health funded by the federal government and tasked with developing innovative methods for identifying and responding to early mental health problems in children. This CTN has since 2021 developed Australia’s first network of Early and Midcareer researchers in child and youth mental health, established over 14 flagship, funded and endorsed new research trials, established core methods support teams in Health Economics, Lived Experience and Co-design, Translation, and Statistical methods, and engaged ~100 research collaborators in child and youth mental health.

Psychology Colloquium: Dr Natalie Matosin (University of Sydney)
2026-04-24 15:00 - 16:00
Dr Natalie Matosin (University of Sydney)

Title: Decoding the impacts of stress on the human brain

Abstract:

Severe psychological stress is a global issue. The accumulation of recent geopolitical, environmental, and health crises has highlighted that stress has broad and substantial ramifications for global mental health. In this presentation, Dr. Natalie Matosin will present cutting-edge research on how stress and trauma affect the cytoarchitecture of the human brain, and how through studying this process, the lab is defining new brain cell types that have not been described before.

Bio:

Dr. Natalie Matosin is a Sydney Horizon and Al & Val Rosenstrauss Senior Research Fellow in the School of Medical Sciences, and Director of the MINDS Lab in the Charles Perkins Centre. With over a decade of international training in neurobiology, Natalie specialises in advanced techniques to explore brain complexities and disorders. Her lab’s pioneering research in spatial and single-cell histology aims to improve diagnostics and develop new treatments for mental health conditions, driving solutions from lab research to clinical applications.

Psychology Colloquium: Learning, Education, and Assessment Research Network (Psychology) (USYD)
2026-05-01 15:00 - 16:00
Learning, Education, and Assessment Research Network (Psychology) (USYD)

Title: TBA

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Psychology Colloquium: Prof Louise Sharpe (University of Sydney)
2026-05-08 15:00 - 16:00
Prof Louise Sharpe (University of Sydney)

Title: TBA

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Psychology Colloquium: Scientia Prof Kaarin Anstey (University of NSW)
2026-05-15 15:00 - 16:00
Scientia Prof Kaarin Anstey (University of NSW)

Title: TBA

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Psychology Colloquium: Dr Poppy Watson (UTS)
2026-05-22 15:00 - 16:00
Dr Poppy Watson (UTS)

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Psychology Colloquium: Dr Denise Moerel (Western Sydney University)
2026-05-29 15:00 - 16:00
Dr Denise Moerel (Western Sydney University)

Title: TBA

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Bio:

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