School of Psychology Events

Psychology Colloquium: Postgraduate Prizes with talks by winners (University of Sydney Psychology)
2026-09-25 15:00 - 16:00 (Australia/Sydney)
Postgraduate Prizes with talks by winners (University of Sydney Psychology)

H. Tasman Lovell Memorial Medallion winner: Dr Matthew Blanchard (in absentia)

Faculty of Science Prize for Outstanding PhD Thesis nominee: Dr Tao Chen

Title: Behavioural Rigidity in Dementia: From Clinical Significance to Neurobiological Mechanisms

Abstract:

With the rapid ageing of the global population, dementia poses an increasing challenge to healthcare systems worldwide. Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common in dementia and are associated with faster disease progression, poorer quality of life and greater caregiver burden. Neuropsychiatric symptoms frequently co-occur, determining which symptoms should be prioritised for intervention remains a major clinical challenge. In particular, behavioural rigidity is increasingly recognised as a clinically important symptom, yet the rationale for prioritising it as an intervention target, together with its underlying neural and neurochemical mechanisms, remains incompletely understood.

In this talk, I will present a series of studies using transdiagnostic dementia cohorts to address these challenges. First, I will introduce a data-driven framework for prioritising co-occurring neuropsychiatric symptoms by quantifying their relative contributions to caregiver burden, thereby identifying behavioural rigidity as a priority intervention target. I will then present multimodal neuroimaging findings that provide new insights into the neural mechanisms underlying behavioural rigidity, followed by spatial neurochemical mapping using normative neurotransmitter maps to indirectly investigate its underlying neurochemical basis. Finally, I will discuss how integrating clinical, neuroimaging and neurochemical evidence can inform mechanism-informed strategies for developing targeted interventions for neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia.

Bio:

Dr Tao Chen is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney. His research focuses on understanding the neural and neurochemical mechanisms underlying neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia, particularly behavioural rigidity and cognitive flexibility. By integrating multimodal neuroimaging with computational approaches in transdiagnostic dementia cohorts, he aims to translate neurobiological insights into clinically meaningful intervention strategies for dementia.

Dr Chen received his PhD in Psychology from the University of Sydney, where his doctoral thesis passed examination without corrections, was nominated for the Australian Psychological Society (APS) Excellent PhD Thesis Award and received the Faculty of Science Prize for Outstanding PhD Thesis. He has authored more than 10 first-author peer-reviewed publications, with his work appearing in leading international journals, including Brain, Human Brain Mapping, and Clinical Psychological Science. He also serves as a reviewer for Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews and is a recipient of the 2026 Psychology Early Career “Pathway” Grant from the School of Psychology, The University of Sydney.

APS Award for Excellent PhD Thesis in Psychology nominee: Dr Amaani Hatoum

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A.H. Martin Scholarship winner: Olivia Avery

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Psychology Colloquium: Prof Kevin Dunn (Western Sydney University)
2026-10-09 15:00 - 16:00
Prof Kevin Dunn (Western Sydney University)

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Psychology Colloquium: A/Prof Michele Barnes (University of Sydney Engineering)
2026-10-16 15:00 - 16:00
A/Prof Michele Barnes (University of Sydney Engineering)

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Psychology Colloquium: Prof Anne Castles (Australian Catholic University)
2026-10-23 15:00 - 16:00
Prof Anne Castles (Australian Catholic University)

Title: Word learning in adolescent readers

Abstract:

Formal reading instruction typically concludes at the end of the primary school years, with children assumed to transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn”. Yet the results of both national and international studies show that as much as 30% of secondary school students still struggle with literacy, including at the individual word level. In this talk, I will describe recent research we have carried out on word learning in adolescent students, including on the effect of pre-existing vocabulary knowledge and level of exposure. I also discuss word learning in digital contexts, and report on experimental research conducted on facilitating word learning in noisy environments. The results will be considered in the context of theories of reading development and implications for classroom practice.

Bio:

Anne Castles is an ARC Laureate Fellow, based at the Australian Centre for the Advancement of Literacy at Australian Catholic University. Her research focuses on learning to read and reading disorders, with a particular interest in different processes in reading and how they are learned. Her Laureate research program explores the under-researched area of literacy in adolescents. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (FASSA) and the Royal Society of NSW (FRSN), and serves on the Editorial Boards of several major journals. In 2018, she served as President of Learning Difficulties Australia.

Psychology Colloquium: A/Prof Miri Forbes (Macquarie University)
2026-10-30 15:00 - 16:00
A/Prof Miri Forbes (Macquarie University)

Title: The Future of Mental Disorder Classification: Problems, Progress, and Possibilities

Abstract:

There is growing evidence of substantial limitations in traditional, categorical approaches to the classification of mental disorders like the DSM and ICD. In this talk I will examine the case for rethinking how we classify mental illness, and introduce the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP), which represents an emerging empirically derived alternative. The hierarchical and dimensional approach of the HiTOP framework offers promising solutions to the limitations of traditional approaches and offers new directions for research, assessment, and intervention. I will also address the challenges of changing our approach to classification, and explore why there are good reasons to be optimistic regardless.

Bio:

Miri Forbes is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychological Sciences at Macquarie University. Miri was awarded her PhD in Psychology in 2014, and went on to do a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Minnesota before returning to Australia for a Macquarie University Research Fellowship in 2018, followed by back-to-back NHMRC Investigator Grants funding her current program of research on improving the diagnosis, assessment, and classification of mental disorders. She is President of the international Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) Society, and a member of the Executive Board of the Macquarie University Lifespan Health and Wellbeing Research Centre.

Psychology Colloquium: Prof Jason Mattingley (University of Queensland)
2026-11-06 15:00 - 16:00
Prof Jason Mattingley (University of Queensland)

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