Please come and join us for a research presentation by Dr Michelle Kelly
WHEN: Tuesday 1st March, 12-1pm
WHERE: Keats Reading Room, Psychology Building, Callaghan (Video link to Ourimbah Science Offices Meeting Room)
WHAT: Research presentation by Dr Michele Kelly (School of Psychology, the University of Newcastle) entitled “Novel Ways of Examining Social Cognition
ABSTRACT: The way that we interact with others in our social world is crucial to our health and wellbeing. Despite this, research into the mechanisms underlying successful social interaction is only in its infancy, particularly when it comes to assessing an individuals’ social cognition. Social cognition refers to how we pick up on cues in our social world, for example, how we read emotions from another person’s face, tone of voice or posture, the ability to think about another person’s thoughts (referred to as theory of mind), how we express empathy, and how we make decisions in social situations. Whilst we know that many clinical populations such as those with Schizophrenia, dementia or acquired brain injury have social cognition impairments, there is a paucity of tools to assess these functions. I will discuss some of the experimental and clinical tools available and new ways of looking at the problem.
BIO: Michelle Kelly is Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the School of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Australia. Michelle’s research focuses on the investigation and development of tools for assessing social cognition in healthy populations, as well as clinical groups including those with a diagnosis of dementia and those who have sustained a traumatic brain injury. Michelle is a member of the Priority Research Centre for Generational Health and Ageing and the Priority Research Centre for Brain and Mental Health.
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