Friday 27 September 2013

Good News from the School

We are now well into the year and the Good News keeps on coming. Our new Head of School, Simon Dennis, has settled in and making is mark on the direction of the School.

Student News

Thesis Outcome

Melissa Prince Has received the outcome of her thesis and has been invited to lodge an electronic copy on NOVA. After this her qualification of PhD (Psychology) will be formalised

Elise Mansfield – Awaiting formal approval from Office of Graduate Studies and then invitation to lodge an electronic copy on NOVA. After this her qualification of PhD (Psychology) will be formalised   

The following Masters of Clinical Psychology students have had their thesis accepted and are awaiting formal awarding of their degree

Eliose Fallon and Lisa Phillips

Submission of Thesis

Toni Metelerkamp has submitted her thesis for examination for the degree of Doctor of Clinical and Health Psychology

Scholarships and funding

Amy-Lee Seward won the first Seascape & Beyond scholarship for honours research on suicide prevention.

Chloe Britts, honours student, won a Shaping Futures scholarship.
Student publications

Clinical doctorate candidate Owen Lello, supervised by Dr Keith Harris, has just published his first paper.

Cocchiniab, G., Lello, O., McIntoshc, R. D., & Della Salac, S. (2013). Phantabulation: A case of visual imagery interference on visual perception. Neurocase: The Neural Basis of Cognition. doi: 10.1080/13554794.2013.826689

Staff News

Our academics to have been busy with numerous publications and other achievements. These include:

Fellow of the Social Sciences Academy

Emeritus Professor Pat Michie has been elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Election to the Academy is a great honour and recognition by your peers, but also as an opportunity to contribute to the important work of the Academy in promoting the advancement of the social sciences. Congratulations Pat.

Promotion and Secondment

Deb Hodgson has received a promotion to Professor and is undertaking a secondment to Acting PVC Research position.

Invitation to join NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Suicide Prevention
 Dr Keith Harris has been invited to join the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Suicide Prevention (CRESP)  http://www.cresp.edu.au/ . Dr Harris is active in suicide prevention research and is currently working with other investigators at CRESP to improve our understanding of suicide-risk individuals and how information technologies can be employed to help prevent and treat suicidal behaviours  http://www.cresp.edu.au/people/dr-keith-harris

Awards

Mark Rubin has been awarded the Australian Government’s Office for Teaching and Learning (2013) Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning.

Media and Community

Former Student, Sharna Jamadar has been selected as one of the finalists for the University of Newcastle 2013 Young Alumni Award. The recipient will be announced at the University of Newcastle Alumni Awards gala dinner on Tuesday 22 October at Newcastle City Hall.

Peter Walla was invited by Sanitarium (food company) to talk about neuroconsulting, in particular affective neuroscience relevant to the industry.

International Profile

Cornelia Herbert, a very active early career researcher from Germany (emotion and the self) visited in August.

Refereed Journal Articles

Published Articles

Greig, A. J., Patterson, A. J., Collins, C. E. &  Chalmers, K. A. (2013). Iron deficiency, cognition, mental health and fatigue in women of childbearing age: a systematic review. Journal of Nutritional Science, vol. 2, e14. doi:10.1017/jns.2013.7

Guez, D. (2013). Henry et al. (2012) homing failure formula, assumptions, and basic mathematics: a comment. Frontiers in Physiology, 4. doi:10.3389/fphys.2013.00142
Mavratzakis, A. , Molloy, E. & Walla, P. (2013). Modulation of the Startle Reflex during Brief and Sustained Exposure to Emotional Pictures. Psychology, 4, 389-395.

Walla, P. , Rosser, L. , Scharfenberger, J. , Duregger, C. & Bosshard, S. (2013). Emotion Ownership: Different Effects on Explicit Ratings and Implicit Responses. Psychology, 4, 213-216.

Guez, D., and Audley, C. (2013). Transitive or Not: A Critical Appraisal of Transitive Inference in Animals. Ethology 119, 703–726.

In Press Articles

Hawkins, G. E., Marley, A. A. J., Heathcote, A., Flynn, T. N., Louviere, J. J., & Brown, S. D. (in press) Integrating cognitive process and descriptive models of attitudes and preferences. Cognitive Science

Timora, J.R. and Budd, T.W. (In Press) Dissociation of Psychophysical and EEG Steady-State Response Measures of Cross-Modal Temporal Correspondence for Amplitude Modulated Acoustic and Vibrotactile Stimulation. International Journal of Psychophysiology.

Justin Timora (Bill Budd) and Guy Hawkins (Andrew Heathcote) are PhD students (Guy has submitted and is awaiting examiners reports)

Book Chapters 

Peter Walla and Jaak Panksepp (2013). Neuroimaging Helps to Clarify Brain Affective Processing Without Necessarily Clarifying Emotions, Novel Frontiers of Advanced Neuroimaging, Prof. Kostas Fountas (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-51-0923-5, InTech, DOI: 10.5772/51761. Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/books/novel-frontiers-of-advanced-neuroimaging/neuroimaging-helps-to-clarify-brain-affective-processing-without-necessarily-clarifying-emotions

Peter Walla, Aimee Mavratzakis and Shannon Bosshard (2013). Neuroimaging for the Affective Brain Sciences, and Its Role in Advancing Consumer Neuroscience, Novel Frontiers of Advanced Neuroimaging, Prof. Kostas Fountas (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-51-0923-5, InTech, DOI: 10.5772/51042. Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/books/novel-frontiers-of-advanced-neuroimaging/neuroimaging-for-the-affective-brain-sciences-and-its-role-in-advancing-consumer-neuroscience
(Shannon Bosshard and Aimee Mavratzakis are Peter’s PhD students)

Grants

Chalmers, K. A. & Karayanidis, F. (2013). Assessment of Children's Working Memory. NSW TechVouchers Scheme & ebilities Pty Ltd, $29,662.

Chalmers, K. A. & Karayanidis, F. (2013). Assessment of Children's Working Memory. Faculty of Science & IT SIRF Grant, $8,495.