The School of Psychology Hosts a Presentation on the Psychology of Biculturalism and Mutliculturalism by Prof Benet-Martinez

The School of Psychology and Social and Organisational Psychology research group is proud of inviting you to a research presentation by Prof Veronica Benet-Martinez, Department of Political and Social Sciences Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain on Tuesday 11th of April 12-1pm, lecture theatre HB13, Hunter Building, Callaghan (video conferenced to Ourimbah Science Offices Seminar room).

PRESENTATION TITLE: Multi-cultural identities & minds: (Cross)cultural, socio-cognitive, and personality perspectives  

ABSTRACT: Cultural contact due to factors such as migration, globalization, and travel (among others) has made cultural diversity experiences an everyday phenomenon and led to unprecedented numbers of individuals who consider themselves bicultural or multicultural. What are the psychological consequences of these acculturative and identity processes? Using a framework that integrates acculturation, social-identity theory, and individual differences approaches, and that relies on laboratory experiments, and survey and social network methodologies, this presentation will review a program of research conducted to examine how multicultural individuals process and respond to dual cultural information (e.g., cultural frame-switching or CFS), how they integrate their different cultural identities into a cohesive sense of self (e.g., Bicultural Identity Integration, BII), how they maintain competing loyalties between different cultural groups, and the socio-cognitive and adjustment consequences of this type of experiences and identities. These studies, which are conducted with samples varying in culture/ethnicity, age, and generational status, enclave, reveal that: (1) cultural frame-switching effects exist for a wide range of behaviors (e.g., attributions, personality self-views, ethnic identity, self-construals, values, among others); (2) individual differences in BII moderate cultural frame-switching behavior so that biculturals high on BII respond to cultural cues in culturally-congruent ways while biculturals low on BII give contrastive responses; (3) differences in bicultural identity are linked to specific demographic, acculturation, personality, social-identity, cognitive, and wellbeing variables; and (4) biculturalism (relative to other acculturation strategies) is positively linked to (psychological and socio-cultural) adjustment.

BIOGRAPHY: Verónica Benet-Martínez is a Professor in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain. Her research centers on the psychology of multicultural identity and experiences across different national contexts (Europe, USA) and for different types of groups (e.g., immigrants, ethnic minorities, transnational adoptees). She is particularly interested in individual variations in bicultural identity structure and dynamics, and the interplay of social context and cognitive and personality factors in predicting both positive and negative outcomes from multicultural and intercultural experiences. She investigates these issues with experimental and correlational designs that rely on self-report, behavioral, and social-network data. She most recently published the “Oxford Handbook of Multicultural Identity,” which won the Ursula Gielen Global Psychology Award by the American Psychological Association. Before joining UPF, she held faculty positions in the psychology departments of the University of California (Riverside) and the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), and was a funded Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California (Berkeley). She obtained a Ph.D. in Social-Personality Psychology from the University of California (Davis). She is an appointed Fellow of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), was an associate editor for the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2009-2015), and has been an editorial board member for several top-tier personality, social, and cultural psychology journals. She was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the CUNY Graduate Center during the last spring 2016 term.


If interested in a one-to-one meeting with Prof Benet-Martinez around her visit, please contact her SOPRG host at stefania.paolini@newcastle.edu.au to make arrangements.

Visit and seminar by Prof Robert Goldstone from Indiana University, Thur April 6

Prof Robert Goldstone from Indiana University is visiting the UoN School of Psychology, and will give a seminar this Thur, April 6, 12-1pm, Keats room. Please find the title and abstract below.

Prof Goldstone is Distinguished Professor in the Psychological and Brain Sciences department and Cognitive Science program at Indiana University. His research interests include concept learning and representation, perceptual learning, educational applications of cognitive science, decision making, collective behavior, and computational modeling of human cognition.  

Mathematical Reasoning as a Literally Physical Symbol System 

Robert Goldstone

Indiana University, Department of Psychological and Brain Science and Program in Cognitive Science

Much of the power of mathematics comes from its generality and ability to unify prime face dissimilar domains.  The same combinatorics formula applies to sealing wax, cabbages, and kings with no customization needed, or even permitted.  By one account, analytic thought in math and science requires developing deep construals of phenomena that run counter to untutored perceptions.  This approach draws an opposition between superficial perception and principled understanding.  In this talk, I advocate the converse strategy of grounding mathematical reasoning in perception and action.  I will describe empirical evidence for perceptual changes that accompany learning in mathematics.  In arithmetic and algebraic reasoning, we find that proficiency involves executing spatially explicit transformations to notational elements.  People learn to attend mathematical operations in the order in which they should be executed, and the extent to which students employ their perceptual attention in this manner is positively correlated with their mathematical experience.  People produce mathematical notations that they are good at reading.  Perception, attention, and action routines are tailored to fit mathematical requirements.  Thus, for reasoning in mathematics (and science, but that’s another talk), relatively sophisticated performance can be achieved not only by ignoring perceptual features in favor of deep conceptual features, but also by adapting perceptual processing so as to conform with and support formally sanctioned responses.  These “Rigged Up Perception and Action Systems” (RUPAS) offer a promising general strategy for achieving educational reform.  Based on the theoretical foundation of RUPAS, we have begun to design, implement, and assess virtual, interactive sandboxes for students to explore algebra.

The School of Psychology hosts Prof Mary Peterson (object perception, gender equity in science)

The Faculty of Science/School of Psychology’s Equity and Diversity Group and the Cognitive Research Group are very proud to host two presentations by Professor Mary Peterson from the University of Arizona:

a science talk on object perception (Thursday 30 March) and a seminar + Q&A session on gender equity in science (Friday 31 March).

Presentation 1: Towards a New Understanding of Object Perception.

WHEN: Thursday 30 March, 12-1pm.

WHERE: Keats reading room, AVLG17.

Visual perception was long understood as a serial feedforward process in which, at a very early stage of processing, borders between regions in the visual input were assigned as bounding contours to the region on one side; this constituted object detection (aka figure assignment). The other region, lacking a shaping contour, was perceived as a locally shapeless ground to the object. On this feedforward view, object memories and semantics were accessed only after object detection occurred and only for objects ("figures"), not for grounds. Research in my laboratory shows that this traditional view is incorrect, and favors the alternative view that before object detection, a fast pass of processing activates multiple possible object hypotheses that could fit both sides of borders. These hypotheses compete for perception at high (e.g., perirhinal cortex of the MTL) and low (V1 and V2) levels of the visual hierarchy. The winner is detected/perceived; the loser is suppressed. In my talk, I will review some history and then summarize six recent experiments consistent with the view that object detection occurs via hierarchical Bayesian inference.

Presentation 2: Gender Equity in Science.

WHEN: Friday 31 March, 12-1pm.

WHERE: Keats reading room, AVLG17.

A short seminar on gender equity in science followed by an extended Q&A session on this and related topics. 

Professor Peterson has extensive experience in this area: she is one of the founding organizers of "Females of Vision, et al" (FoVea,https://www.facebook.com/FoveaVision/ founded in 2016), whose goal is to enhance the success of women in vision science; she secured a grant from the National Science Foundation to support FoVea's activities (2016 – 2019). She has been a member of the advisory board of Women in Cognitive Science (http://womenincogsci.org/) since its

inception in 2000, and more.

FREE LIGHT LUNCH will be provided following the Q&A session.

If you would like to meet with Professor Peterson during her visit to UON on Thursday 30 or Friday 31 March, please email your preferred time and day to guy.hawkins@newcastle.edu.au

Public Lecture at Maitland City Library

What is happiness anyway? A psychological and personal perspective.

Associate Professor Ross Wilkinson, PhD MAPS MCCLP

Date: 21^st March 2017

Time: 6:00pm

Venue: Maitland City Library

Overview:

What it is to be happy has been a topic of philosophical debate for over 2500 years. In this talk I will briefly outline the history of this debate and then focus on the recent contributions of psychology to this question. With the upsurge of interest in ‘positive’ psychology, research attention has turned to happiness and the factors that influence it. I will present an overview of the psychological approach to happiness as ‘wellbeing’ and show how subjective happiness varies around the world. The major factors that research has identified as contributing to both current happiness and a deeper and longer-lasting well-being will be discussed. Evidence-informed, practical strategies for increasing your own happiness and that of others will be presented.

Biography:

Associate Professor Ross Wilkinson is an academic and clinical psychologist based in the School of Psychology at the University of Newcastle where he is the Head of the Health and Clinical Psychology Research Group. He has over 25 years’ experience in both research and practice in psychology and has a long-standing interest in positive psychology. He has a research program focussed on the link between relationships and mental health and runs the Relationships and Psychological Health Laboratory (RaphLab). His other research interests include attachment, mindfulness, and perinatal mental health.

UoN School of Psychology ranked among the top 150 world-wide (QS ranking)

Well done to us!.. our report card should say ‘consistent improvement, highly promising’!

In 2014, we were 19^th in the Top 50 Under 50, but then we grew up and had to start playing in the big kids sandpit.

In 2015, we didn’t make it into the Top 200.

We crawled into the scale in 2016, when we were ranked in the Top 200 (151-200 range).

And, 2017 saw us jump up a notch into the Top 150 – really in there with the big kids now!

http://www.newcastle.edu.au/about-uon/qs-rankings/psychology

SOPRG PRESENTATION on trauma, self-growth, and social identity resources on Tue 21/03/17

The School of Psychology's Social and Organisational Psychology research group is proud of inviting you to a research presentation by Prof Orla Muldoon, University of Limerick, Ireland., on Tuesday 21st of March, 12-1pm, Keats reading room, Aviation building, Callaghan (video conferenced to Ourimbah Science Offices Seminar room).

PRESENTATION TITLE: ‘Healing ourselves’:  Negotiating psychological stress & trauma using shared social identities 

ABSTRACT: Conceptualisations of stress and psychological trauma largely rely on individualistic models of resilience and vulnerability.  This presentation will briefly outline the conceptual model that highlights a collective approach to stress and trauma. Specifically the role of  shared social identities and associated identity resources on adjustment to stress and trauma is outlined.  Using data from lab work, the impact of group membership on cardiac reactivity during the Trier Stress test it outlined.  Subsequently the role of identity resources in ameliorating post-traumatic stress in  post-conflict Northern Ireland and post-earthquake Nepal is outlined.  Finally the potential for identity resources to promote adjustment and adaptation to trauma is considered. First by considering role of social identity resources in promoting post traumatic growth  and  second  by presenting evidence of the positive  consequences of a collective crowd experience for those bereaved by suicide.  Discussion of the findings orient to the potential for this approach to support recovery and adjustment for those affected by trauma.


BIOGRAPHY: Orla Muldoon is Professor of Psychology at University of Limerick Ireland where she is also Director of the Centre for Social Issues Research.  She has a long standing interest in the role of group related experiences and identities on health and social development. She has published more than 70 papers on this topic subsequent to completing her  PhD on the impact of political violence n childhood in Queens University Belfast, Northern Ireland.  She is current editor of Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology and Co-editor of Political Psychology.  She is currently on sabbatical in Brisbane and Is keen to meet Australian colleagues as this is her first visit here.

If interested in a one-to-one meeting with Prof Muldoon around her visit, please contact her SOPRG host at emina.subasic@newcastle.edu.au to make arrangements.

JUST PUBLISHED: Age, Cognitive Decline, and Brain's White Matter

New research at UON’s Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory (FNL) has been featured in the latest issue of Research Australia’s online magazine, which showcases health and medical research (Insight, 2017, Issue 4, p. 14-15). 

Dr Todd Jolly’s PhD research indicates that the effects of cardiovascular health on cognition may be greater than the effects of age per se. This work was performed under the supervision of Associate Professor Frini Karayanidis within UON’s Priority Research Centre for Stroke and Brain Injury. The findings suggest the relationship between age and cognitive decline could be explained by brain white matter health. Moreover, older people who reported one or more cardiovascular risk factors show greater decline in brain white matter health and cognition than older adults with no risk factors. This work has implications for prevention of cognitive decline and theories of cognitive ageing. 

http://researchaustralia.org/inspire-magazine/

If Collectivists like Social Groups, and Cities are Social Groups, do Collectivists like Cities?

Do you like the place where you live? Maybe it's got great architecture, it's clean and crime free, the housing is cheap, and/or the nightlife is good? But maybe your liking for the place is also related to something else - your own tendency to identify with social groups? In some recent research, my colleagues and I investigated this issue by considering the relations between collectivism, city identification, and city evaluation.

Collectivism is a sociocultural orientation towards perceiving the self and others as belonging to social groups, and it influences the extent to which people identify with social groups. The more collectivist you are, the more strongly you identify with social groups.  Prior research has found that people who identify strongly with a place tend to like that place more. Hence, it is possible that people who are relatively high in collectivism identify strongly with the place that they live and, consequently, evaluate that place more positively.

To investigate this possibility, my colleagues and I sampled 1,660 residents of four cities in three countries: Newcastle, Australia; Sydney, Australia; Paris, France; and Istanbul, Turkey. Participants completed an online survey containing measures of collectivism, city identification, and city evaluation. We found that, within each city sample and across the combined samples, a specific measure of collectivism called collective interdependent self-construal was positively related to city evaluation. We also found that city identification mediated this relation. Hence, people's general tendency to construe social groups as part of their self (collectivism; e.g., “The groups I belong to are an important reflection of who I am”) predicted their level of identification with their city (city identification; e.g., "I identify with other people living in Sydney"), which in turn helped to explain their positive appraisal of that city (city evaluation).

A key limitation of our research is that it employed a cross-sectional correlational design, which prevented us from drawing clear conclusions about the causal direction of the relations that we observed. Future research should employ a longitudinal research design in order to provide clearer conclusions on this issue.

The present research results imply that the social psychological group processes that are responsible for people's identification with and evaluation of social groups based on gender, ethnicity, nationality, etc. may also apply to cities because, at their base, cities are social groups.

For further information please see the following journal article:

Rubin, M., Badea, C., Condie, J., Mahfud, Y., Morrison, T., & Peker, M. (2017). Individual differences in collectivism predict city identification and city evaluation in Australian, French, and Turkish cities Journal of Environmental Psychology, 50, 9-16 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2017.01.007

For a self-archived version, please click here.  

EQUITY&DIVERSITY SERIES: Benefits and risks of positive and negative intergroup interactions (Tue, 14/3, 12-1pm)

The School of Psychology's Social and Organisational Psychology research group is proud of inviting you to a research presentation by Dr Lydia Hayward, UNSW, on Tuesday 14th March 12-1pm, Keats reading room, Aviation building, Callaghan (video conferenced to Ourimbah Science Offices Seminar room). This presentation is part of our Equity and Diversity Series.

PRESENTATION TITLE: When and how does negative contact with outgroup members harm intergroup relations more than positive contact helps it?

ABSTRACT: Over 60 years of research has shown that positive interactions between members of different groups can reduce prejudice, however recent evidence suggests that negative contact may be having a stronger impact on intergroup relations, increasing prejudice more than positive contact is reducing prejudice (positive-negative contact asymmetry). In this talk, I will discuss several studies investigating: 1) the causal nature of these relationships; 2) whether this asymmetry also exists for racial minority group members; 3) how negative contact might work to increase prejudice; 4) whether negative contact has a potentially constructive influence on social change; and 5) how past contact experiences may colour the lens through which current real-world conflict is perceived. Results' implications for recent debates over prejudice reduction as a method of social change.

BIOGRAPHY: Lydia Hayward completed her PhD at the University of Queensland in 2016 and is now a postdoctoral researcher at UNSW working with Associate Professor Lenny Vartanian. She studies the predictors and consequences of prejudice and stigma. Currently, she is investigating how weight stigma experiences affect body image and motivation to engage in weight loss behaviours among people who are overweight and obese. During her PhD, she focused on the predictors of prejudice, understanding how positive and negative interactions with people from other racial groups predicts racism, intergroup emotions, and participation in collective action among members of advantaged and disadvantaged groups.


If interested in a one-to-one meeting with Dr Hayward around her visit, please contact her SOPRG host at Stefania.Paolini@newcastle.edu.au to make arrangements.

UoN to host the Experimental Psychology Conference (EPC) 2017

EPC is the annual meeting of the Australasian Society for Experimental Psychology. This meeting provides a forum for presenting new research across the broad spectrum of experimental psychology.

EPC has been held annually since the first meeting at Monash University in 1974. In large part, both the meeting and the Australasian Society for Experimental Psychology owe their existence to the leadership of Emeritus Professor Ross Day. This debt is acknowledged by the naming of the annual plenary lecture, given by a luminary of the society.

This year, EPC will be hosted by the School of Psychology of the University of Newcastle. The conference will take place in the Ramada Resort Shaol Bay, Wed 19/4 - Sat 22/4. Abstract deadline is coming very soon, March 10, 2017.

The organizing committee is delighted to announce that the plenary lecture will be given by Prof Andrew Heathcote, currently at the University of Tasmania, but a novocastrian at heart. Prof Heathcote is a world leader in the study of memory and decision-making models. He held full time positions at the UoN School of Psychology since 1991, and had been awarded the lucrative Australian Professorial Fellowship. He holds positions at both UTas and UoN.

Further details, links, and contacts can be found in the formal EPC-2017 webpage, here.

Researchers from UoN presented their work at the annual Mathematical Society meeting

Students and Staff from the School of Psychology at the University of Newcastle presented their research last week, at the annual meeting of the Australian Society of Mathematical Society, hosted in Brisbane by the University of Queensland.

Laura Wall, Zach Howard, and Paul Garrett from the University of Newcastle were among Research Higher Degree students from all over the world, presenting their research and furiously debating about LBA, SFT and other acronyms.  

HMRI Rare Diseases Public Seminar, Tuesday, 28 February 2017

Living with a rare disorder: Not such a rare experience

To mark Rare Disease Day 2017, HMRI and the Priority Research Centre GrowUpWell are hosting the HMRI Rare Diseases Public Seminar, Tuesday 28 February 2017. The event starts at 5:15pm, is FREE of charge, and offers FREE PARKING. 

Speakers and topics:

Dr Tracy Dudding-Byth | Matching faces: How using computer vision can help diagnosis of children with undiagnosed intellectual disability

Miss Jane Goodwin | A different but not so rare parenting journey: Exploring parents’ experiences of having a child with a rare disorder

Dr Aniruddh V. Deshpande | Surgeons and rare diseases in Newborn Children: Where we are and where we want to be

Dr Elizabeth Kepreotes | Rare disorders and advocacy in Australia today

The Hunter is home to many leading researchers and clinicians focused on improving the diagnosis, treatment and management of range of rare disorders. Research areas include: 

·         rare genetic diseases, and inherited forms of intellectual disability for which the genetic basis remains unknown; 

·         developmental disability (such as 22q11.2 deletion syndrome/VCFS);

·         kidney diseases and complex surgical diseases on lung function of growing children; and

·         factors that influence and impact upon parents' ability to cope and adjust to having a child with a diagnosed rare disease.

The seminar will be chaired by Dr Linda Campbell and Associate Professor Alison Lane, and will be followed by light refreshments.

Cost: FREE
Food: Sandwiches will be provided, with an optional gold coin donation always appreciated. Tea/coffee along with biscuits and fruit will also be provided.
Car Parking: Free car parking is available at the HMRI Building. If you require a Disabled Parking spot, or have special access requirements, please advise via registration below.

Event Schedule

·         5.15 pm – 5.30 pm: Arrival and refreshments

·         5.30 pm – 7.00 pm: Welcome and Researcher Presentations

·         7.00 pm – 7.30 pm: Informal question time, networking and refreshments (end of event)

To register please go here: https://hmri.org.au/events/hmri-public-seminar-rare-diseases

JUST PUBLISHED: Haven’t You Heard! Vowel Perception Involves an Evidence Accumulation Process.

As children, part of learning English involved uttering the proverbial ah, eh, ee, oh, oo – the vowels, which along with consonants, form the building blocks of the English Language. Overtime, we learn to easily distinguished between different vowels in speech. To make this discrimination we need to process a wealth of continuous information, such as the pitch, the duration, or the loudness of the sound and then make a discrete choice about what vowel we have heard. Researchers have found it difficult to reconcile the fact that listeners make discrete choices based on continuous information.

Graduate student Gabriel Tillman and Professor Scott Brown from the University of Newcastle along with Titia Benders (Macquarie University) and Don van Ravenzwaaij (University of Groningen) developed a cognitive process model that describes how continuous acoustic information leads to discrete phoneme decisions. In a nutshell, the model posits that people sample evidence from the sounds and this evidence accumulates until a decision threshold is crossed, which triggers an overt response.

The model accounted for choice and response time data from an experiment where Dutch listeners discriminated between Dutch vowels. With the model, the researchers could examine unobserved processes involved in the perception of Dutch vowels. They found that sound frequency information contributes more to the perception of vowels than duration information, that frequency was more important for some of the Dutch vowels than others, and that longer durations did not delay when participants started using information from the sound.

Read more about this study here:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310442605_An_Evidence_Accumulation_Model_of_Acoustic_Cue_Weighting_in_Vowel_Perception

Health and Clinical Psychology Research Group Seminar

START Caring for Carers: A psychological intervention for carers of people with dementia

Dr Michelle Kelly

When: Wednesday 7th December 12 noon
Where: Keats Room (AVLG17) - Psychology Building, Callaghan Campus (video to Ourimbah Science Offices)

Abstract: There are an estimated 1.2 million people involved in the care of a person with dementia and 7% of all Australians identify as being a carer for family or friends suffering from dementia. Whilst there are many challenges that carers face, increasing dependence and challenging behaviours associated with dementia are unquestionably difficult. Thus, the development of an effective intervention to support carers and optimise their capacity and opportunity to care is vital. Not only may this lead to an improvement in quality of life for the carer, but also for the person with dementia. This presentation will cover the development of a feasibility and acceptability study of an 8-session individualised psychological intervention for carers of people with dementia. The proposed study will take place within the University of Newcastle Psychology Clinics with interventions being delivered by students on placement. The research team hopes to receive feedback on the study with regards to study design but moreso, the challenges and ethical considerations of running such a project within a student training facility.

Bio: Dr Michelle Kelly is a Clinical Psychologist and a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology. Her research focus is on social functioning in clinical groups including dementia and traumatic brain injury. Michelle’s research also covers other areas of care in dementia such as the management of the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia and the effects of these on carers.

Animal cognition in a human-dominated world: Dr Andrea Griffin and co-editors from the University of Vienna bring to fruition the first special edition of the journal Animal Cognition.

A team of three co-editors led by Dr Andrea Griffin from the UoN School of Psychology has just completed the first special edition of the journal Animal Cognition on the topical issue of animal cognition in a human-dominated world. The special issue features 11 new studies showcasing new research findings and ideas within the field of animal cognition & Human induced fast environmental change (HIREC), introduced by an editorial piece by Griffin and her co-editors highlighting the current state of the field. Although all the papers are now available online, the issue will receive an ‘official’ launch in January 2017 by the publisher Springer.

The special issue arose as a consequence a symposium entitled Human impact: Behavioural and cognitive responses to human-induced environmental change co-organised by a team of six national and international researchers including Griffin at the 2015 International Ethology Conference (IEC), one of the biggest scientific gatherings of behavioural biologists worldwide.

The special issue pays tribute to current changes in the field of animal cognition. Traditionally focused on studying general mechanisms in a handful of model lab species, the field is currently mutating to one examining how a diverse range of animal species use their mental capacities in real-life contexts. As questions about how animals perceive, process, store and use information they extract from their environment begin to capture the fascination of biologists, so too is the growing desire to study cognition in the context of fast environmental change. Most telling of this growing trend is the observation that the symposium organised by Griffin and her colleagues on behavioural and cognitive responses to human-induced environmental change was one of the two largest 2-15-IEC symposiums alongside another dedicated to Avian Cognition.

As human populations expand and spread, they change surrounding landscapes both near and far. Whereas some animals go extinct, unable to adjust to new challenges, others thrive in these new ecosystems, taking advantage of myriad novel, yet unoccupied ecological, opportunities. Whether animals adapt or disappear is strongly influenced by their mental machinery, argues Griffin et al. in their editorial piece, urging biologists versed in animal cognition to play a prominent role in future wildlife management research.

The special issue describes how species from butterflies, amphibians, fish, to birds, used their cognitive abilities to adjust to environmental change, including research undertaken in the School of Psychology on the learning abilities of the introduced common myna. The issue figures research on how cognition and brain development can be affected by pollution and temperature rise, but also how researchers can harness animals’ cognitive abilities to help them adjust.

Griffin and her co-editors predict a rich future of interaction between fundamental research in cognition and applied HIREC-related research. The 11 featured articles will provide a catalyst for further advancement in the field of cognition and HIREC in the years to come.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-016-1051-9

Public forum, Mon 28/11 6:30pm, John Hunter Hospital: "Can we benefit from technology without being driven to distraction?"

Centre for Brain and Mental Health Research Public Forum

Royal Newcastle Lecture Theatre, JHH Hospital

Monday, 28th November 2016

6.30pm to 8.30pm (Light refreshments provided)

Completely FREE!

The title of the forum is Can we benefit from technology without being driven to distraction? We have two speakers, David Strayer from the University of Utah and Keith Nesbitt from the University of Newcastle discussing their research and the implications of their research.

Feel free to circulate the information to any friends, family or groups who you think may be interested in attending. For more information, please contact Annalese Johnson – annalese.johnson@newcastle.edu.au

Professor David Strayer

Why talking to your car may be hazardous to your health 

Professor David Strayer is a cognitive psychologist at the University of Utah, and Director for the Prevention of Distracted Driving. Prof. David’s interests lie in examining the effects of distraction in numerous situations, such as using cell phones while driving. Prof David’s research has also been featured in Discover Magazine’s 100 Top Science Stories in 2003 and 2005.

Dr Keith Nesbitt

Future Training - Simulations, Serious Games, Ambient technologies, Augmented and Virtual Reality – How will the next generation learn to make decisions?

Dr Keith Nesbitt is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Design, Communication and IT at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Dr Keith’s main areas of expertise include Human Interface Design and Information Visualisation with a particular focus on Perception and Cognition related to Computer Games and Virtual Reality.

EQUITY & DIVERSITY SERIES: presentation on social cohesion and workshop on research & industry engagement

Join us for a research presentation and a research-industry workshop by Prof Kate Reynolds, Australian National University, on Thursday 24th of November.

RESEARCH PRESENTATION: From alienation to contact and inclusivity norms: Building social cohesion in ethnically diverse communities 
by Katherine J. Reynolds, Benjamin M. Jones, Kathleen Klik & Sarah McKenna (The Australian National University); Luisa Batalha (Australian Catholic University) & Emina Subasic (University of Newcastle)

Thursday 24th November, 10-11am: Keats reading room, Aviation building, Callaghan (video conferenced to Humanities room: HO1.43, Ourimbah)


With communities becoming increasingly diverse, governments are focused on the need to strengthen social cohesion. Recent "home-grown" terrorist events have re-energised debates about the consequences of discrimination, alienation and beliefs that the system is illegitimate (not working for "us" or "we" do not belong here). Social and political psychology have progressed our understanding of the dynamics of intergroup conflict and co-operation and its consequences for (il)legitimacy, prejudice, violence and social cohesion. Drawing on these insights an Australian Research Council Linkage grant in partnership with the Australian Department of Social Services investigated the predictors of social cohesion (e.g., community ethnic diversity, positive contact, sense of threat) and the impact of community-based interventions on social cohesion. Key findings are that (i) contact and threat mediate the relationship between neighbourhood ethnic diversity and social cohesion (offering an extension to Putnam, 2007) and (ii) inclusivity norms and social identity processes play an important role in explaining the impact of community programs. Implications of the findings for theory, research and community and national-level efforts to build social cohesion will be outlined.

WORKSHOP: Research and industry engagement: Psychology, behaviour and public policy
by Katherine J. Reynolds



Thursday 24th November, 12-2.30pm: Keats reading room, Aviation building, Callaghan (video conferenced to Humanities room: HO1.43, Ourimbah)

In this workshop new developments at the interface between psychology and public policy will be outlined such as increasing use by governments of behavioural insights or "nudge" units. The strengths, limitations and challenges of such developments will be examined. The implications for researchers who are increasingly being encouraged to consider the wider impact of their work will also be discussed.

BIOGRAPHY:
Kate Reynolds is a Professor of Psychology at ANU with over 20 years experience in teaching and research supervision in social and organisational psychology. The broad research question that frames her work concerns the impact of groups and group norms on individual’s attitudes, well-being and behaviour. A group could be a team at work, an organisation such as a business or school, or an ethnic or national group so this research is relevant to many areas of psychology (education, organisational, political and social). 

Kate's research increasingly involves naturalistic settings such as organisations and community groups and she has lead several projects with Government in areas of ongoing school improvement through staff and student school climate and school identification (ARC Linkage with ACT Education Directorate), building community cohesion (ARC Linkage with Department of Social Services and formerly Department of Immigration and Citizenship) and the role of community norms in Cape York Welfare reform (Advisory role with Indigenous Affairs). 

She has experience in a number of leadership roles including as Associate Director (Engagement) in the Research School of Psychology (2015-2017), President of the International Society of Political Psychology (2016-2017), a member of journal Editorial Boards (e.g. Associate Editor, 2010-2012, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Co-editor Political Psychology, 2013-2015), and Chair of the ACT Education and Training Directorate Safe Schools Roundtable (2012-ongoing). She is also the incoming President of the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists (SASP 2017-2019).