School of Psychology Events

Psychology Colloquium: Prof Tim Slade: The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use: an overview and deep dive
2023-09-08 15:00 - 16:00 (Australia/Sydney)
Prof Tim Slade (USYD)
Abstract
The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use promotes excellence, innovation and collaboration by bringing together world-leading researchers, clinicians, people with lived experience and community to share skills, synergise data, harness new technologies and trial innovative programs to prevent and treat mental and substance use disorders. This talk will provide a brief overview of the centre, it’s major activities and some exciting projects planned and currently underway. I will then focus more specifically on one of our epidemiology projects, a prospective observational cohort study tracking the young adult outcomes of those supplied alcohol by their parents. Parental supply of alcohol is a relatively common practice in Australia, believed by some parents to be an effective means of teaching their children to drink responsibly. Contrary to this common belief, research suggests that parental provision of alcohol to adolescents is associated with elevated risk of subsequent alcohol use severity and problems. What remains unclear is what mechanisms connect parental supply of alcohol to later alcohol-related harms. In a critical step toward identifying prevention targets, this study used causal mediation analysis, employing robust methods to minimise risk of bias, to test potentially causal mediators of the relationship between parental supply of alcohol and subsequent harms among adolescents. The implications of the findings for prevention of alcohol related harms will be discussed.

Psychology Colloquium: Dr Alexis Whitton: How artificial intelligence-enhanced adaptive trials can accelerate personalised mental health treatment research
2023-09-01 15:00 - 16:00
Dr Alexis Whitton (UNSW)
Abstract
In the face of escalating rates of depression among young people, effective and scalable treatments are urgently required. Although a range of different interventions have been found to be effective, the pivotal question is Which treatments yield the greatest benefit, and for whom?
This talk explores a new approach to answering this question, describing the potential of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven adaptive trials to deliver more efficient and personalised treatments. Compared to traditional randomised controlled trials, AI-driven adaptive trials require fewer participants, reach a conclusion earlier, and can identify interactions between intervention effects and individual characteristics, making them a powerful trial design for personalised treatment research.
The ’Vibe Up’ trial is the first application of AI-driven adaptive trial methodology in digital psychological therapy research. Over 12 sequential ‘mini-trials’, >1200 university students with elevated symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress were allocated to receive one of three digitally-delivered psychological or behavioural therapies – mindfulness, physical activity, sleep hygiene – or an ecological momentary assessment control. AI-driven response adaptive randomisation was used to optimise allocation of participants to each trial arm. Over the 12 sequential mini-trials, an underlying mathematical model learned which intervention was most effective for individuals with different symptom profiles. Results indicated that treatment effects differed significantly between subgroups of individuals, supporting a personalised treatment approach. Importantly, treatment effects estimated by the AI model were found to differ from the clinical predictions made by an independent sample of mental health clinicians.
This talk will distil key insights gained from the Vibe Up study, and spotlight the potential of AI-driven adaptive trials in personalising scalable interventions for common mental health conditions.

Psychology Colloquium: Dr Laura Bradfield: Striatal and hippocampal neuroinflammation has unique consequences for neuron-glia interactions and action selection
2023-08-25 15:00 - 16:00
Dr Laura Bradfield (UTS)
Abstract
Neuroinflammation has been observed in the striatum and hippocampus of individuals with psychiatric disorders and neurodegenerative diseases to different extents, but whether this causes the behavioural disturbances experienced by such individuals or is simply another symptom of their disease is unknown. In our lab we have begun to piece together causal evidence from studies in rats and mice that neuroinflammation in the dorsal striatum, ventral striatum, and dorsal hippocampus alters goal-directed action and choice behaviours in a region-specific manner. Specifically, we injected the endotoxin lipopolysaccharide in each region to induce neuroinflammation in separate cohorts of animals and then tested them on a range of behavioural assays. Rats with dorsomedial striatal neuroinflammation demonstrated aberrant intact goal-directed control in a range of conditions under which control animals did not, such as when fed a high-fat high-protein home chow, or after training that otherwise induced habits. By contrast, ventral striatal neuroinflammation abolished goal-directed action control. In dorsal hippocampus, neuroinflammation produced an acceleration of goal-directed action control in females and a facilitation of Pavlovian approach behaviour in male mice. Immunohistochemical analyses linked the expression of astrocytes but not microglia in the striatum to changes in behaviour, whereas both microglia and astrocyte expression in dorsal hippocampus were associated with behavioural changes. Consistent with these findings, chemogenetically altering the activity of astrocytes in both striatal regions abolished goal-directed action control, whereas this was only partially true for the dorsal hippocampus. Evidence from cell culture experiments confirmed that the activation of both microglia and astrocytes caused neuronal excitation in hippocampal neurons. Together, these results reveal that region-specific differences in neural-glial interactions that result from neuroinflammation lead to different profiles of choice behaviour in a manner that could give insight into the mechanisms underlying psychiatric diseases and neurodegenerative disorders.

Psychology Colloquium: A/Prof Mac Shine: Noradrenergic modulation of brain network topology and energy landscape dynamics mediates conscious resolution of perceptual ambiguity
2023-08-18 15:00 - 16:00
A/Prof Mac Shine (University of Sydney)
Abstract
Perception is thought to rely upon evolving activity within a recurrent, distributed thalamocortical network whose interconnections are modulated by bursts of noradrenaline. To test this hypothesis, we leveraged a combination of pupillometry, fMRI and recurrent neural network modelling of an ambiguous figures task. Shifts in the perceptual interpretation of an ambiguous image were associated with peaks in pupil diameter, implicating noradrenergic gain alteration in the perceptual switch. We trained a 40-node recurrent neural network to perform a similar perceptual categorisation task, manipulated the gain of the RNN to mimic the effect of noradrenaline and observed an earlier perceptual shift as a function of heightened gain. We then used a dimensionally-reduced form of the RNNs activity to develop two novel predictions: perceptual switches should occur with peaks in low-dimensional brain state velocity and with flattened energy landscape dynamics. We used whole-brain fMRI data to confirm these predictions. These results confirm the core role of the noradrenergic system in the large-scale network reconfigurations that mediate perception.

Psychology Colloquium: Dr Ashley Luckman: Investigating reason-based decision-making in the attraction effect and its dimensional extensions
2023-08-11 15:00 - 16:00
Dr Ashley Luckman (University of Exeter)
Abstract
Reason-based accounts of decision-making, such as Query Theory, have been successfully applied to a range of binary preferential choice phenomena, such as default, framing and immediacy effects. In a series of Experiments we explore the role reasons play in multi-alternative choice, particularly the attraction effect. In Experiment 1 we find reasons supporting the target option were generated earlier and in greater quantity than those supporting the competitor, as predicted by Query Theory. This replicates in Experiment 2, when we extend the attraction effect to more complicated stimuli with more attributes. In Experiment 3, we investigated the causal relationship between reasoning and choices by exogenously manipulating the order in which participants generated their reasons. As predicted, the size of the attraction effect was a function of this query order manipulation. Finally we explore the structure of the reasons people generate, and how they relate to attentional processes measured through mouse-tracking/lab methods.

Psychology Colloquium: Dr Nathan Holmes: How does the brain integrate sensory and emotional information?
2023-05-24 12:00 - 13:00
Dr Nathan Holmes (UNSW)
Abstract
Animals and people integrate information acquired at different times when responding to novel situations or problems. For example, after being attacked by a boy at school, a child may become fearful of places where the boy had been previously encountered; and after learning the relationship between a particular sound and danger, an animal may become fearful of places where it had previously heard that sound. In the laboratory, this type of integration can be studied using sensory preconditioning protocols in which animals (rats) integrate innocuous sensory information acquired at time 1 (e.g., a sound is paired with a light) with emotional information acquired at time 2 (e.g., the light is paired with brief but aversive foot shock) and, thus, express fear to a stimulus that was never paired with danger at time 3 (e.g., the sound). The project that I will describe uses sensory preconditioning protocols to examine how the brain integrates sensory and emotional information. Specifically, I will present a series of experiments which show that the way in which rats integrate sensory and emotional information depends on characteristics of the stimuli to which they are exposed (e.g., their familiarity) and has consequences for learning about the danger. These experiments are part of a larger research program which aims to advance our understanding of how fear is processed in the mammalian brain. The findings will be discussed with respect to this program and different theories of information processing.
Bio
Nathan Holmes is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and Senior Scientia Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of New South Wales. He is interested in how the mammalian brain processes different types of information; and how motivational states, like fear, change the way the brain processes information. Specifically, Nathan examines how fear influences the processing of innocuous information (e.g., the relation between a sound and a light); how fear spreads across a network of linked memories; and how an established fear memory is updated to include new information. The aim of his research is to develop a theory of how fear influences information processing in the brain, with a particular focus on cells and circuits of the medial temporal lobe.

Psychology Colloquium: Dr Celia Harris: Memory Scaffolding: From Theory to Practice
2023-05-17 12:00 - 13:00
Dr Celia Harris (Western Sydney University)
Abstract
Theoretical approaches from philosophy and cognitive science emphasise how experience, cognition, memory, and self are embedded within and distributed among the social and material environment. This ‘scaffolding’ perspective implies that the characteristics of the social and material environment are critical for cognition. This perspective provides new avenues for supporting people to age well, by maintaining and even enhancing cognitive, psychological, and social functioning. In this talk, I discuss evidence from lab-based and field-based research on the ways in which the social and material environment can support memory as we age, including recent extensions to interventions within aged care.
Bio
Celia Harris is Vice Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow at the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour, and Development at Western Sydney University. She was awarded her PhD in 2010 from Macquarie University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Centre on Autobiographical Memory Research at Aarhus University, Denmark, before returning to Macquarie as a Macquarie University Research Fellow and then an ARC Discovery Early Career Research Fellow. Celia’s research focuses on memory in context, aiming to better understand the processes involved in bringing memories to mind and how memory retrieval can be supported by our social and technological environment. She aims to use new knowledge of retrieval mechanisms to develop innovative ways of supporting memory in contexts where it is needed most, like aged care and dementia care settings.

Psychology Colloquium: Dr Sophie Li: Sleep Ninja®: An app to help teens improve their mood with a better nights sleep
2023-05-10 12:00 - 13:00
Dr Sophie Li (Black Dog Institute)
Abstract
Rates of depression are increasing among adolescents. A novel way to reduce depression is by improving sleep. We evaluated whether an app-based intervention for insomnia improved sleep and depression, and whether changes in insomnia mediated changes in depression. We conducted a 2-arm single-blind randomised controlled trial at the Black Dog Institute. Adolescents 12–16 years (N=264) experiencing insomnia symptoms were randomly allocated to receive Sleep Ninja, an app-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy program for insomnia, or to an active control group involving weekly text message sleep tips. Assessments took place at baseline, 6 weeks (post-intervention) and 14 weeks (post-baseline). Co-primary outcomes were symptoms of insomnia and depression at post-intervention (primary endpoint). Intent-to-treat analyses were conducted. The results of the RCT will be presented, along with secondary analyses of the data aimed at examining rumination as a potential mediator between insomnia and depression symptoms.
Bio
Dr Li is a Clinical Psychologist and Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Black Dog Institute. Her current research focuses on understanding the mechanisms underlying psychopathology and treatment effects, including the effect of transdiagnostic factors such as repetitive negative thinking, sleep disturbance and technology use on disorder development and treatment. She recently led the evaluation of Sleep Ninja®, a smartphone app for adolescent insomnia and also led the development of ClearlyMe®, a cognitive-behavioural therapy smartphone app for adolescent depression and anxiety, which is currently under evaluation. Dr Li also works as a clinical psychologist in private practice.

Psychology Colloquium: A/Prof Stefan Volk: Last Place Aversion: Relative Status Striving of Low Status Individuals
2023-05-03 12:00 - 13:00
A/Prof Stefan Volk (USYD Business School)
Abstract
Most modern workplaces place high value on teamwork in advancing the goals of the organization, and much research effort has been devoted to understanding and optimizing organizational and team dynamics and behavior. A notable conflict within organizational goals is incentivizing employees to improve both individual and team performance whereas in reality it is not always possible to improve personal status without a cost to the team or organization or vice versa. Desire for personal improvement and ascending in status can be achieved by adding value through extra effort, or by cheating and can have positive or negative impacts on the individual, team and organization. While the dynamics of how individuals strive to improve their status when ranked in the middle of a team, or to retain their status when ranked at the top of a team, has been studied before, little research to date has investigated status striving in relation to individuals ranked at the bottom of a team – i.e. what people do to get out of last place. Thus, it is unclear what behavioural strategies individuals would use to improve their status relative to the team, such as putting in extra effort, or cheating. Further, it is thus far unknown whether conflict between individual and team status affects their status striving – i.e. whether individuals would be willing to put in more effort or sacrifice their teammates in order to get out of last place – and whether these behaviours can be modified.

Psychology Colloquium: Ashleigh Morse & Iseult Cremen: Behavioural insights in practice: using evidence to improve the delivery of public services
2023-04-26 12:00 - 13:00
Ashleigh Morse & Iseult Cremen (NSW Department of Customer Service)
Abstract
Policymakers in Australia and the world over are increasingly using evidence and data to guide policy decisions. The NSW Behavioural Insights Unit (BIU) partners with NSW Government agencies to use the latest evidence and data to help them deliver better services to citizens. We combine evidence from behavioural sciences and behavioural economics with the experience of service agencies and customers to identify and evaluate what works, when and why to change behaviour.
Ashleigh Morse and Iseult Cremen from the NSW BIU will show how behavioural insights has been used to drive better customer experience and improved outcomes in key Government priorities over the past decade. Using case studies from the NSW Behavioural Insights Unit, they will illustrate the evolution of behavioural insights from ‘nudges’ to data-driven solutions to support regulation and policy design.
Bios
Dr Ashleigh Morse is a Senior Behavioural Advisor in the NSW Behavioural Insights Unit, where she has worked since March 2022. She completed her Bachelor of Psychology (Hons) at Sydney University in 2012, and her PhD in behavioural neuroscience in 2017. In her PhD, she investigated the role of delta-opioid receptors on cholinergic interneurons in the nucleus accumbens shell in mediating specific Pavlovian-Instrumental Transfer (PIT). She then worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Wassum Lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she used optogenetics and activity-dependent gene expression techniques to locate specific reward memories in the basolateral amygdala. Ash left academia and spent two years working in the Sydney office of the Behavioural Insights Team, where she learned to apply a range of research methods to public policy areas from education to justice. She then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Matilda Centre for Research in Substance Use and Mental Health (USyd) to develop a new model of care to help emergency services workers in NSW manage alcohol and other drug use.
Dr Iseult Cremen is a project manager at the NSW Behavioural Insights Unit (BIU). Iseult is currently leading the BIU’s work on Gender and Behavioural Insights. Prior to her role in the NSW Government, Iseult worked as a behavioural science consultant and researcher at both The Behavioural Architects and The Behavioural Insights Team in Sydney, working on a range of behavioural challenges with public sector clients. Iseult has led field experiments and research projects in the areas of gender and diversity, transport, energy and the environment, industry and health.
Iseult has long been passionate about behaviour change for good using experimental and empirical research approaches. She holds a BA and a PhD in Psychology from Trinity College Dublin. Iseult chose to pursue a career in behavioural insights due to its applicability to real-world contexts and exploring outcomes using in-context evaluations.

Psychology Colloquium: A/Prof Fiona Kumfor: The role of social cognition in neuropsychology
2023-04-19 12:00 - 13:00
A/Prof Fiona Kumfor (USYD)Abstract
Historically, neuropsychologists have focused on examining traditional cognitive domains such as attention, memory and visuospatial ability. However, people with some neurological conditions can perform well on traditional neuropsychological tests, despite having difficulties in everyday life. This is particularly the case in frontotemporal dementia, where the earliest changes are in behaviour and personality. In this talk, I will discuss the potential role of tests of social cognition in improving the diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia. I will also outline how social cognition impairment manifests in everyday life. Finally, I will discuss how this work might be applied in other neurological conditions which are also characterised by changes in behaviour and personality.
Bio
Fiona Kumfor is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology, a NHMRC Career Development Fellow and a Clinical Neuropsychologist. Her work focuses on improving the diagnosis, management and quality of life of people living with neurological conditions, especially younger-onset dementia. She has published >90 papers and has received >$5.2M in funding. She is currently member-at-large for the International Neuropsychological Society and Vice-President of the Australasian Society for Social and Affective Neuroscience.

Psychology Colloquium: Dr Lindsay Squeglia: Adolescent Alcohol and Cannabis Use: Using Neuroscience to Inform Treatment and Outreach
2023-04-05 12:00 - 13:00
Dr Lindsay Squeglia (Medical University of South Carolina)Abstract
Adolescent alcohol and cannabis use is pervasive and affects the developing brain. Substance use prevention and treatment efforts are typically underutilized and only modestly effective. Utilizing neuroscience in prevention and treatment efforts can make tangible differences in substance use outcomes. Findings from recent neuroscience-informed adolescent substance use treatment interventions will be presented, as well as promising results from a youth-focused, neuroscience-based outreach and educational program.
Biography
Dr. Squeglia is an Associate Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina, co-Director of the Youth Collaborative, and current Fulbright Scholar at University of Sydney. Her research focuses on: (1) understanding the effects of substance use on brain development and (2) using neuroscience to improve adolescent substance use disorder interventions.
https://education.musc.edu/MUSCApps/facultydirectory/Squeglia-Lindsay

(Special time/place!) Psychology Colloquium: Prof Richard Lucas: Can Happiness Change?
2023-03-23 16:00 - 17:00
SPECIAL TIME (THURSDAY 4-5PM) AND PLACE (SUSAN WAKIL HEALTH BUILDING) CLICK HERE TO REGISTERProf Richard Lucas (Michigan State University)
Abstract
For many years, psychologists have debated whether or not happiness is impacted by our life circumstances. Some argue that life events, such as getting married or becoming unemployed, affect our happiness, whereas others argue that happiness is more or less fixed — regardless of what’s happening in our lives, our happiness is determined by our personality. The scientific results are messy and often contradictory. In this talk, I take a critical look at the science of happiness, identify flaws in the scientific record, and present new results from studies following large, representative samples of people over many years. These results show that happiness isn’t fixed – it can and does change in response to changing life circumstances, often in ways that match people’s intuitions. A more rigorous science of happiness is vital to developing better public policy, interventions, and tools for people to increase their own happiness.

Psychology Colloquium: Dr Katharina Helming: Mentalizing and the problem of coordination
2023-03-15 12:00 - 13:00
Dr Katharina Helming (Department of Philosophy at Leipzig University)Abstract
Common knowledge, that is the ability to know things together, underlies uniquely human forms of coordination. However, there is a puzzle in the existing literature about how to characterize this kind of knowledge. Traditionally philosophers propose that common knowledge requires the ability to compute higher-orders of embedded knowledge states (i.e. I know that you know that I know that you know and so forth at infinitum that X). However, more empirically oriented accounts suggest that recursive mindreading is cognitively too demanding and thus not a plausible basis for human coordination. Instead, common knowledge is said to be achieved either on the basis of short-cuts or an arbitrary cut-off within the spiral of embedded knowledge states. But on such accounts, it remains an open question if and when (after how many steps) certainty about knowing things together can be achieved. The aim of this talk is to propose a new solution to this debate. By drawing on empirical literature across fields such as developmental, social and comparative psychology as well as linguistics I will investigate how people actually solve coordination tasks. A review of the literature shows that there is a reoccurring structure of embedded knowledge states that people use to cooperate successfully in different areas. More specifically, empirical data suggests that people actively generate three levels of embedded knowledge coordinate. Such tertiary structures are known as a “three way handshake” in computer science and can be redescribed as a mutual acknowledgment about content in social interactions. It is concluded that certainty about knowing things together in coordination is achieved based on a non-arbitrary cut-off within embedded knowledge states. The broader implications for the evolution of social cognition are discussed on this basis.

Psychology Colloquium: Dr Susan Nolan: Sex, Gender Expression, and Gender Identity: Embracing Variability, Ending Discrimination, and Enhancing Psychological Well-Being
2023-03-08 12:00 - 13:00
Dr Susan Nolan (Seton Hall University (USA); University of New South Wales (Australia))Bio:
Susan Nolan is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Seton Hall University (USA). She is Past President of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology, and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science. Susan is conducting a project on global psychology higher education at the University of New South Wales from January through May 2023 as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar. She was also a Fulbright Scholar in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2015-2016, and received the Fukuhara Award for Advanced International Research and Service from the International Council of Psychologists.
Sex, Gender Expression, and Gender Identity: Embracing Variability, Ending Discrimination, and Enhancing Psychological Well-Being
A recent Pew survey found that although about 90% of people in the U.S. report that they know someone who is gay, lesbian, or bisexual, only about 40% report knowing someone who is transgender. The percentage of people who report knowing someone who is intersex seems to be even lower. Although parallel data in other countries are scarce, the pattern is likely to be similar in other Western countries. As psychology instructors and researchers, we can expand our discussions of the variability among humans in terms of sex, gender expression, and gender identity in introductory and advanced psychology courses as well as in our research. This presentation will explore ways in which instructors might incorporate research, as well as stories of people from underrepresented groups, with the goal of reducing stigma and increasing understanding, awareness, and empathy. There is an urgent need for discussions of these and related topics due to the far-reaching psychological repercussions of prejudice and discrimination.

Psychology Colloquium: Consent, assent, and competence determination in dementia care
2023-03-01 00:00
Dr Hojjat Soofi, University of SydneyBio:
Dr Hojjat (Hoji) Soofi is a Lecturer in Bioethics at Sydney Health Ethics (School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health). He is a pharmacist by training and an early career bioethics researcher. He received his PhD and MRes in bioethics from Macquarie University in October 2021 and April 2018, respectively. He is also an alumnus of Erasmus Mundus Master of Bioethics (KU Leuven, Radboud University Nijmegen, and the University of Padua). Before joining Sydney Health Ethics in January 2023, he was an MQCR Postdoctoral Fellow at Macquarie University Research Centre for Agency, Values, and Ethics (CAVE).
Abstract:
I present a strand of my current research program on ethics in dementia care. It involves investigating issues around competence determination. I aim to develop a hybrid externalist/internalist account of competence determination. The account would be externalist in the sense that welfarist considerations can be relevant to judgments of competence inasmuch as they trigger pursuing further evidence of the values of people with dementia. That is, the riskier a decision appears to be, the more stringent the standards of appraising evidence are to be applied. The prosed account would also have internalist elements: the aim is to investigate the individuals’ internal aspects of decision-making and identify what they value (most). I then connect these to another direction of my research on assent: I present an argument to the effect that decisional incompetence should not be conflated with (and does not entail) the inability to ‘assent’ to care.

Psychology Colloquium: Towards domain-general predictive coding: Linking motor and sensory attenuation using TMS and EEG, Dr Dominic Tran, University of Sydney
2022-11-11 15:00 - 16:00
Dr Dominic Tran, University of Sydney.I will briefly discuss my DECRA application on response inhibition and then I wanted to share some exciting data recently collected in the lab on predictive coding:
The brain’s response to sensory input is modulated by prediction. For example, sounds that are produced by one’s own actions, or those that are strongly predicted by environmental cues, elicit an attenuated auditory evoked potential measured with EEG. It is thought that this form of sensory attenuation to stimulation produced by one’s own actions is the reason we are unable to tickle ourselves. We examined whether the neural response to direct stimulation of the brain is attenuated by prediction in a similar manner using combined EEG and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied over the primary motor cortex. The findings provide compelling evidence that predictive coding is governed by domain-general properties across distinct neural systems and has shared mechanisms responsible for all forms of predictive learning.
Bio:
Dr Tran conducts research in behavioural and cognitive neuroscience. His research expertise is in learning, memory, and cognition and uses behavioural and neurophysiological methods (e.g., transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroencephalography) to investigate the relationship between brain and behaviour. Dr Tran is interested in understanding how our past experiences shape our beliefs, actions, and habits. Dominic is also an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) recipient.

This is a Hybrid event so you can join in person or via the Webinar link below:
HEYDON LAURENCE LECTURE THEATRE 217 (DT ANDERSON) (You are encouraged to please wear a mask if attending in person)
Zoom Webinar Link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/87311249955

Psychology Colloquium: Dr Kiley Seymour: This talk will not take place as scheduled and has been postponed until 2023.
2022-11-04 15:00 - 16:00
Dr Kiley Seymour, Senior Lecturer in Psychological Science, Western Sydney University
Bio:
My research aims to advance both our basic understanding of human brain function and brain dysfunction through the development, application, and translation of innovative neuroscientific methods. I combine visual psychophysics and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI and MR-Spectroscopy) to investigate the neural basis of conscious visual perception and the brain mechanisms underlying altered states of consciousness, such as those experienced in psychosis (e.g., hallucinations and delusions). Recently, my interests have extended to the field of neurolaw, where I aim to examine the degree to which the Australian system of criminal justice is compatible with the lessons of modern neuroscience.
This is a Hybrid event so you can join in person or via the Webinar link below:
HEYDON LAURENCE LECTURE THEATRE 217 (DT ANDERSON) (You are encouraged to please wear a mask if attending in person)
Zoom Webinar Link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/82022571425

Psychology Colloquium: The Sally Andrews Lecture on Cognitive Psychology. The magic of reading: How vision and language interact to transform inkmarks into ideas. Dr Aaron Veldre, University of Sydney & Macquarie University
2022-10-28 15:00 - 16:00
Dr Aaron Veldre, Research Associate, School of Psychology, University of SydneyBio:
Dr Aaron Veldre is a postdoctoral research associate in the School of Psychology at The University of Sydney and the School of Psychological Sciences at Macquarie University. His research uses eye tracking, computational modelling, and behavioural paradigms to investigate the cognitive processes underlying language comprehension. He currently works on two ARC-funded projects investigating the coordination of vision, attention, and linguistic processing during online reading in younger and older adults, and on the development of a complete computationally implemented model of reading.
Abstract:
Reading is a remarkable acquired skill that is fundamental to educational and vocational success in modern societies. But it is a relatively recent cultural invention—writing systems have existed for less than 6000 years and literacy has only been a widespread skill for about 200 years. Reading is therefore not part of our genetic blueprint and relies on neural systems that evolved for other purposes. A complete theory of reading needs to describe how perceptual, linguistic, and oculomotor processes are precisely coordinated to support the rapid extraction of meaning from print. In this talk, I will present evidence from a series of recent studies characterizing how readers allocate attention in the fovea and parafovea to identify words and decide when and where to move their eyes. I will also describe work investigating the impact of ageing that provides insight into the balance between perceptual and linguistic processes during reading.
This is a Hybrid event so you can join in person or via the Webinar link below:
HEYDON LAURENCE LECTURE THEATRE 217 (DT ANDERSON) (You are encouraged to please wear a mask if attending in person)
Webinar Link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/89638045313

Psychology Colloquium: Affective Neuroscience, Professor Elaine Fox, University of Adelaide
2022-10-21 15:00 - 16:00
Professor Elaine Fox, Head of School, School of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of AdelaideBio:
Elaine Fox, PhD, is a psychologist and author and became Head of the School of Psychology at the University of Adelaide, Australia in early 2022. Originally from Dublin, most of her academic career has been in the UK. Following a 5-year period working at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand after her PhD studies in Dublin, she moved to the UK to take up a Senior Lectureship at the University of Essex in 1994. Promoted to Professor in 2000, she became the Head of the School of Psychology and Centre for Brain Science there from 2007 to 2011. She moved to take up a Professorship of Psychology and Affective Neuroscience at the University of Oxford in 2012 and became a Fellow at University College, one of Oxford’s oldest colleges shortly afterwards.
Elaine is a leading scholar on the science of resilience, wellbeing and mental health and her work was awarded with a prestigious European Research Council Advanced Investigator fellowship from 2013-2019 to set up a large study at the University of Oxford investigating why some people are emotionally vulnerable (to anxiety, depression, & addictions) while others are resilient. She was appointed to a national role by the UK Department of Research and Innovation in 2019 as the Impact & Public Engagement Co-ordinator for eight UKRI-funded Mental Health Networks, which she held alongside her Oxford Professorship until her move to Australia in February 2022.
Apart from her academic work, Elaine is an engaging writer and speaker with a passion for the science behind how our mind works. Her first book RAINY BRAIN SUNNY BRAIN describes the fascinating science and stories behind why some of us are optimistic and resilient while others take a more pessimistic slant on things. Translated into more than 20 languages, it is a bestseller in several countries. Her new book SWITCHCRAFT: Harnessing the Power of Mental Agility to Transform Your Life is being published worldwide in 2022. Switchcraft is a highly accessible introduction to the science of flexibility and explains why it so critical to become as mentally agile as we can. It is packed full of helpful ways to cope with a complex and uncertain world. Like having your own personal life coach, Switchcraft shows you how you can not only survive, but also thrive in a constantly changing and uncertain world.
Abstract:
The CogBIAS longitudinal study provides a rich dataset on mental health, wellbeing, and resilience through adolescence. Data was collected from a starting sample of 504 and a wide range of variables were assessed when adolescents were approximately 13 (n=504), 14.5 (n=450) and 16 (n=411) years of age. Investigations using growth mixture modelling revealed four distinct developmental trajectories for anxiety and depressive symptoms and we found that these trajectories were closely related to changes in cognitive biases, specifically interpretational and memory biases. Further analysis evaluated the role of cognitive biases in resilient functioning, which was measured in terms of ‘better than expected levels of functioning’ in response to significant adversity. Once again, cognitive factors were associated with resilient functioning. Specifically, selective biases in memory and resilient functioning were found to be reinforcing mechanisms across the different assessment points. Finally, a moderated network modelling analysis revealed that good mental health – flourishing – was associated with higher levels of positive memory and interpretation biases and with lower levels of negative memory biases. Of particular interest, network connectivity decreased with higher positive mental health ratings. We conclude that cognitive biases, negative and positive, are important emotion regulation mechanisms that underpin resilience, good mental health as well as anxiety and depression symptoms in a cohort of adolescents.
This is a Hybrid event so you can join in person or via the Webinar link below:
HEYDON LAURENCE LECTURE THEATRE 217 (DT ANDERSON) (You are encouraged to please wear a mask if attending in person)
Webinar Link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/84533278727

Psychology Colloquium: No Colloquium
2022-10-14 15:00 - 16:00

Psychology Colloquium: Seeking signatures of perceptual experience in human visual cortex. Sam Schwarzkopf, University of Auckland
2022-10-07 15:00 - 16:00
Associate Professor Sam Schwarzkopf, School of Optometry & Vision Science, University of AucklandBio:
Sam did a neuroscience degree at Cardiff University and subsequently decided to stay there also to do his PhD with Frank Sengpiel where he used optical imaging to investigate experience-dependent plasticity of visual cortex. Subsequently, he did a brief postdoc project at the University of Birmingham, where he moved into human neuroimaging and cognitive neuroscience. In 2008, he moved to University College London to postdoc with Geraint Rees and developed a research interest in individual differences. In 2012, he was awarded a ERC Starting Grant and set up his own lab at UCL. In 2017, he decided he had enough of Brexit, crowds, air pollution, and the banana republic that the UK had become and moved to the School of Optometry & Vision Science at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, although he still maintains an active affiliation at UCL.
Overview:
In this talk, I will present the results of three studies using population receptive field (pRF) modelling to better understand how representations in human visual cortex generate our perceptual experience. First, we estimated the neural signature of the famous Muller-Lyer illusion in V1 supporting a low-level explanation for this effect. Next, we established that pRF sizes in visual cortex can be modulated by adaptation, an effect that is consistent with behaviourally measured modulation of spatial frequency perception. Beyond visual object size, this finding has implications for the perception of blur and recognising fine spatial detail. Finally, we also used a novel data-driven method for estimating pRFs to map the retinotopic structure of the physiological blind spot in detail. We then used these maps to ask if there is a neural correlate of perceptual completion in early visual cortex.

This is a Hybrid event so you can join in person or via the Webinar link below:
HEYDON LAURENCE LECTURE THEATRE 217 (DT ANDERSON) (You are encouraged to please wear a mask if attending in person)
Webinar Link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/87579289391

No Colloquium this week, Mid Semester Break and PsychFEST
2022-09-30 15:00 - 16:00

No Colloquium this week due to the Teaching Retreat
2022-09-23 15:00 - 16:00

Psychology Colloquium: Visual Perception and Metacognition
2022-09-16 15:00 - 16:00
Prof. Derek Arnold, University of QueenslandAbstract:
When people make decisions, they experience a level of confidence in relation to their decisions. In visual perception, these levels of confidence are typically accurate – we tend to be more confident about decisions that are more precise. This insight into the quality of the information that has informed our decisions is known as metacognitive sensitivity. The most popular means of estimating metacognitive sensitivity is based on signal-detection-theory (SDT). In this talk, I will explain why I believe SDT-based analyses of confidence are fundamentally flawed. I will also outline how measures of confidence can be used as a research tool, to help distinguish between situations where perception has been changed and situations where people have merely been biased to reach different conclusions about perceptually ambiguous inputs.
Bio:
Prof. Derek Arnold studied at Macquarie University before taking up positions as a postdoctoral research fellow at University College London and the University of Sydney. He took up a continuing position at the University of Queensland in 2006. He has held a sequence of ARC funded research fellowships and Discovery Project funding. He has published in some of the world’s leading outlets for perceptual neuroscience, including Nature, PNAS, Current Biology and Proceedings of the R. Soc. Lond. B. His’ research broadly focusses on visual perception, with specific focuses on temporal perception and confidence in perceptual decisions.
This is a Hybrid event so you can join in person or via the Webinar link below:
HEYDON LAURENCE LECTURE THEATRE 217 (DT ANDERSON) (You are encouraged to please wear a mask if attending in person)
Webinar Link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/83403319532

Psychology Colloquium: Social Cognition, bench to clinic
2022-09-09 15:00 - 16:00
Dr Michelle Kelly, Senior Lecturer, School of Psychological Sciences, University of NewcastleBio:
Dr Michelle Kelly is a Clinical Psychologist and a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Newcastle. Her research focus is on social functioning in clinical groups including dementia and traumatic brain injury. She also works closely with carers of people with dementia and brain injury to support them in their roles. Michelle collaborates with researchers at the National Ageing Research Institute in Melbourne, University of New South Wales and University College London in this work. She also work closely with clinicians in public health settings, aged care service providers and not for profit organisations.
Abstract:
Social cognition refers to the sum of processes that allow individuals to pay attention to and process other people’s emotions, intentions and actions in order to behave in socially appropriate ways. This includes reading emotions from peoples facial expressions, tone of voice and body language, as well as utilising and applying social knowledge to understand, predict and respond to others’ behaviour. Examination of social cognition occurs through self- and informant-report, as well as more objective performance based tests and physiological measurement. Despite advances in assessment of social cognition and emerging evidence for treatment programs, most clinicians still fail to examine this area of cognition, and rarely is it treated. This has implications for personal and workplace relationships. In this talk I will discuss some of the work we are doing, from bench to the clinic and pose some potential solutions to these problems.

This is a Hybrid event so you can join in person or via the Webinar link below
HEYDON LAURENCE LECTURE THEATRE 217 (DT ANDERSON) (You are encouraged to please wear a mask if attending in person)
Webinar Link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/87591868247

Psychology Colloquium: Consciousness
2022-09-02 15:00 - 16:00
Professor Jakob Hohwy, Monash University.Bio:
Professor Jakob Hohwy is the Director of the Monash Centre for Consciousness & Contemplative Studies. M3CS received a $12M philanthropic grant from the Three Springs Foundation. The Centre aims to conducts philosophical, neuroscientific and psychological research in consciousness and contemplative science. The Centre aims to make contemplative practices central to our conscious connection with each other and our environment, helping us better solve the many challenges the world confronts.
I conduct interdisciplinary research in the areas of philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience. In M3CS and in my Cognition & Philosophy Lab we study: the science of consciousness (what is consciousness, how does it arise in the brain, what is the nature of the self, how do contemplative practices change the mind and connect to action?); theoretical neurobiology (what are the foundational principles of brain function, what does that tell us about the human mind?); decision-making and rationality (what is rationality and how do we form rational decisions, how can decisions be wise, or compassionate?); psychiatry and neurology (understanding conditions such as autism, substance abuse, eating disorders, borderline personality disorder, Parkinson’s disease). I collaborate with neuroscientists and psychologists from Monash University and around the world.
This is a Hybrid event so you can join in person or via the Webinar link below:
HEYDON LAURENCE LECTURE THEATRE 217 (DT ANDERSON) (You are encouraged to please wear a mask if attending in person)
Webinar Link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/82271977002

Psychology Colloquium: Where are the self-correcting mechanisms in science?
2022-08-26 15:00 - 16:00
Professor Simine Vazire, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of MelbourneAbstract:
We often hear the self-correcting mechanisms in science invoked as a reason to trust science, but it is not always clear what these mechanisms are. Some quality control mechanisms, such as peer review for journals, or vetting for textbooks or for public dissemination, have recently been found not to provide much of a safeguard against invalid claims. Instead, I argue that we should look for visible signs of a scientific community’s commitment to self-correction. These signs include transparency in the research and peer review process, investment in error detection and quality control, and an emphasis on calibration rather than popularization. We should trust scientific claims more to the extent that they were produced by communities that have these hallmarks of credibility. Fields that are more transparent, rigorous, and calibrated should earn more trust. Metascience can provide scientists and the public with valuable information in assessing the credibility of scientific fields.
Bio:
Simine Vazire is a professor in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne. She has two lines of research. One examines people’s self-knowledge of their personality and behaviour and another examines the individual and institutional practices and norms in science, and the degree to which these norms encourage or impede self-correction and credibility. She is a board member of PLOS and the Berkeley Institute for Transparency in the Social Sciences, was a member of the US National Academy of Science study committee on replicability and reproducibility, and co-founded the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS). She is Editor in Chief of Collabra: Psychology and has served as editor at several other journals.
This is a Hybrid event so you can join in person or via the Webinar link below:
HEYDON LAURENCE LECTURE THEATRE 217 (DT ANDERSON) (You are encouraged to please wear a mask if attending in person)
Webinar Link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/85943288395

Psychology Colloquium: Long-COVID what is it and what role can psychology play?
2022-08-19 15:00 - 16:00
Professor Andrew Baillie, The Sydney School of Health Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of SydneyBio:
Andrew is a clinical psychologist and Professor of Allied Health with Sydney Local Health District and The Sydney School of Health Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine and Health. He works within SLHD to build Allied Health Research Capacity. He also convenes the Academic Implementation Science Network for Sydney Health Partners, and the Long-COVID Australia Collaboration. Andrew collaborates with the Matilda Centre for Research in Substance use and Mental Health, the Edith Collins Centre (Translational Research in Alcohol, Drugs and Toxicology; and the Sydney Institute of Women Children and their Families. He also works with Drug Health Services at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Psychology Team at RPAVirtual. Prior to joining the University of Sydney in 2017 he was director of the Clinical Psychology program at Macquarie University.
Abstract:
Long-COVID is a recently described syndrome that follows a COVID-19 infection in around 5-10% of people. Because COVID-19 is so widespread Long-COVID may become the largest single source of disability. This presentation reviews the experience of Long-COVID and research on the epidemiology, assessment, and treatment of Long-COVID and provides an update on the gaps and opportunities for psychological research.
This is a Hybrid event so you can join in person or via the Webinar link below:
HEYDON LAURENCE LECTURE THEATRE 217 (DT ANDERSON) (You are encouraged to please wear a mask if attending in person)
Webinar Link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/84941881499

Psychology Colloquium: There and Back Again: Bleed from Extraordinary Experiences
2022-08-12 15:00 - 16:00
Dr Tom van Laer, Associate Professor of Narratology, University of SydneyAbstract:
From re-enactments to pilgrimages, extraordinary experiences engage consumers with frames and roles that govern their actions for the duration of the experience. Exploring such extraordinary frames and roles, however, can make the act of returning to everyday life more difficult, a process prior research leaves implicit. The present ethnography of live action role-playing explains how consumers return from extraordinary experiences and how this process differs depending on consumers’ subjectivity. The emic term “bleed” captures the trace that extraordinary frames and roles leave in everyday life. The subjective tension between the extraordinary and the ordinary intensifies bleed. Consumers returning from the same experience can thus suffer different bleed intensities, charting four trajectories of return that differ in their potential for transformation: absent, compensatory, cathartic, and delayed. These findings lead to a transformative recursive process model of bleed that offers new insights into whether, how, and why consumers return transformed from extraordinary experiences with broader implications for experiential consumption and marketing.
Bio:
Membership Executive Manager of the Association for Consumer Research. He is an expert on the science of how storytelling works. His research is published in leading and highly-regarded academic journals, including the Journal of Consumer Research, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of Service Research, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Management, et cetera. In addition to opinion pieces he has written for the Guardian, he has appeared on the ABC, Nine Network, Network 10, SBS, in the Age, the Australian, Australian Financial Review, Sydney Morning Herald, Newsweek, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, the Independent, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and on national TV and radio stations in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK, among other news outlets.
Previously, Tom has been Reader of Marketing at City University of London, UK, a consultant of the European Commission, and a visiting scholar at several Australian Group of Eight universities. He holds a doctorate (PhD) in marketing from Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Though he has won awards for his academic research, teaching, and media exposure, Tom counts winning his high school’s story recital competition in 1995 as his most impressive accomplishment.
This is a Hybrid event so you can join in person or via the Webinar link below:
HEYDON LAURENCE LECTURE THEATRE 217 (DT ANDERSON) (You are encouraged to please wear a mask if attending in person)
Webinar Link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/s/83771973924
