Project Title: Face categorisation in super-recognisers
Supervisor(s): A/Prof David White & Dr James Dunn
Description: People naturally categorise faces according to gender, ethnicity, expression and identity. The UNSW Face Research Lab have identified a group of ’super-recognisers’ with extremely high ability to recognise the identity of faces, but little is known about their abilities in categorising faces according to aspects other than identity. In this project the student will help to implement an experiment that tests super-recogniser’s ability to make speeded face categorisation judgments of gender, ethnicity, expression and facial first impressions (e.g. trustworthy V untrustworthy). By knowing whether super-recognisers are quicker to make these categorisations, we hope to develop a better understanding of super-recognisers superior face processing abilities. Results will also help to better understand why people form social categories — e.g. between different ethnic groups — that can bias the outcomes of real-world decisions, for example in legal and everyday social settings.
Experience: None
Project Title: Pathways to maladaptive decision-making
Supervisor(s): Prof Gavan McNally
Description: This project studies the different ways in which decision-making processes may be corrupted and contribute to maladaptive choices. It uses human, rat, and mouse models of choice to study the core psychological and brain mechanisms of choosing to pursue a reward despite adverse consequences. Depending on their interests, students will be exposed to behavioural training, AI-assisted behavioural phenotyping, computational modelling, in vivo fibre photometry, single and two-colour calcium imaging via head mounted microscopes, single cell spatial transcriptomics, and human behavioural data collection.
Experience: None
Project Title: Effective Communication of Climate Risk Information
Supervisor(s): Dr Omid Ghasemi & Prof Ben Newell
Description: Climate change is an undeniable reality with profound implications for our daily decision-making. In this project, our focus lies on individuals' choices when purchasing real estate properties that come with varying levels of climate risk. With the rise of websites and organizations providing climate risk assessments for properties, it becomes intriguing to explore how people incorporate this information into their decision-making and identify the psychological factors that influence their risk awareness. Furthermore, this project aims to enhance climate risk awareness by employing well-established psychological techniques. By doing so, we not only gain valuable insights into human judgment processes but also advance our understanding of how to effectively communicate risk information to the public.
Experience: None required.Some experience with computer programming / data analytics helpful.
Project Title: SciX 2024 - Mental Health and Cognition
Supervisor(s): Dr Jamie Dracup, A/Prof Steve Most & Dr Laura McKemmish
Description: This project is a chance to get involved with science outreach work this summer. For SciX 2024 a group of high school students will come onto campus for one week, during January. While on campus, these students will carry out an online research project as part of their HSC. This project will look into how mental health impacts the way that we feel and process information. You will help prepare and run this week, and will also carry out literature review and data analysis which will go beyond the more foundational work that the SciX students will do. This more complex work will contribute to publication of data collected during this SciX and in previous online studies. This is a great opportunity to share university level science with HSC students, while building your own skills.
Experience: Some experience with teaching/tutoring, statistical analysis of research data, and scientific literature review would be ideal. Note that this experience is not essential.
Project Title: Underpinnings of punishment avoidance
Supervisor(s): Dr Philip Jean-Richard-dit-Bressel
Description: When our actions have negative consequences, we are usually able to learn about this relationship to avoid making that action again in the future (“punishment learning”). Our research seeks to understand how this learning happens, when and why it fails, and how decisions regarding punishment are resolved, at psychological and neurobiological levels. We investigate these processes using state-of-the-art neuroscience techniques in rodent models as well as specially-designed tasks in humans.
Experience: None
Project Title: The role of attention in colour constancy
Supervisor(s): Dr Erin Goddard
Description: How do our brains separate raw colour information into different sources? The apparent surface colour of objects depends on how we interpret the lighting conditions of the scene (e.g. #theDress), a process known as ‘colour constancy’. To better understand the neural processes involved in these phenomena, this project will test the role of attention in the perceptual separation of different colour sources. The project will involve collecting measurements of perceived colour for human participants using a computer and specialised display. No prior experience is necessary: data collection and analysis will involve working with Matlab and some statistical analyses, but all required skills will be taught as part of the project. In the lab, we also investigate human visual perception using fMRI and magnetoencephalography (MEG), and summer students will have the option of also being involved in these experiments if they are interested.
Experience: None
Project Title: Applying time series analysis / machine learning methods to Magnetoencephalography (MEG) data
Supervisor(s): Dr Erin Goddard & A/Prof Gustavo Batista
Description: Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a non-invasive human brain recording method where neural responses can be measured while the participant views a stimulus and/or performs a task. This creates rich datasets (e.g. 160 sensors / channels from across the brain, recorded at 1000 Hz). To help gain insights into brain function, machine learning approaches can be useful for measuring the stimulus-related and/or task-related information in the neural signals. This project will involve extending on existing methods by trying out approaches from time series analysis on existing MEG datasets. This project is part of a collaboration between Dr Erin Goddard (Psychology), who uses MEG to address questions of visual neuroscience, and A/Prof Gustavo Batista (Computer Science), who is an expert in machine learning and time series analysis. In this project, the student will work with both Dr Goddard and A/Prof Batista to plan a new approach, write code to execute the analysis, and try it out by applying the approach to existing MEG datasets. This would suit a student with interest and experience in both psychology and computer science and/or machine learning.
Experience: Prior experience in coding in at least one of Matlab or python is required. If you are unsure whether you have enough experience, you are welcome to contact Dr Goddard at erin.goddard@unsw.edu.au
Project Title: Understanding Climate Anxiety
Supervisor(s): Prof Michelle Moulds & Prof Ben Newell
Description: Anxiety about climate change and its consequences for the planet has been widely reported, particularly in young people, and the topic has received increasing attention in the psychological literature in recent years. However, the way in which psychologists conceptualise, measure and address climate anxiety in therapy all remain areas of discussion and ongoing debate. This project will involve conducting a critical review of the existing literature on climate anxiety with the goal of providing an up-to-date overview and recommendations for directions of future research.
Experience: None required. Experience with rodent handling and wetlab work preferred.
Project Title: Exploration of infantile amnesia
Supervisor(s): Prof Rick Richardson
Description: Assist in behavioural training/testing of infant rats on a fear conditioning task. The project may involve examination of the impact of early-life adversity on memory, and/or the role of various neurotransmitters in the recovery of apparently forgotten infant memories.
Experience: None required. Experience with R software desirable.
Project Title: Emotional regulation in adolescence
Supervisor(s): Prof Rick Richardson
Description: Assist in behavioural training/testing of adolescent rats on a fear conditioning task. The project may involve examination of the impact of chronic stress on fear extinction and/or the impact of social buffering on fear expression/extinction.
Experience: None
Project Title: How are secondary fear memories encoded and consolidated in the brain?
Supervisor(s): Dr Nathan Holmes & Dr Jessica Leake
Description: Studies investigating the biological basis of fear memories typically use protocols involving a single dangerous event. In reality, traumatic experiences, such as abuse, are often repeated and this has implications for how fear memories are processed in the brain. Our laboratory has found that forming an initial fear memory depends on a cascade of biochemical processes in a specific region of the brain, the amygdala. This includes: 1) the activation of NMDA receptors, whose biophysical properties make them ideally suited to detecting coincidences between environmental stimuli and danger; and 2) synthesis of new proteins, which is thought to be critical for stabilization (or consolidation) of new fear memories so that they can be activated by appropriate retrieval cues. However, we have also shown that the same mechanisms are not required for forming a second, related fear memory. The goal of this research is to determine how secondary fear memories are encoded and stored in the brain. This goal will be achieved using a combination of behavioural and pharmacological manipulations in laboratory rats.
Experience: None
Project Title: The role of expectations in visual attention
Supervisor(s): Dr Kelly Garner
Description: We will be examining how learning about rewards, and building expectations, influences where and when people decide to pay attention, and assessing the impacts this has on perception. The role involves using eye-tracking methods to collect behavioural data, as well as recruiting participants and conducting some data analysis. This role is particularly well-suited for someone who would like to gain experience in eye-tracking methods and in asking questions about how we attend to the world around us.
Experience: Some experience with data analysis and coding is an advantage, but not necessary for the role.
Project Title: On how the brain combines previous experience to influence visual attention
Supervisor(s): Dr Kelly Garner
Description: You will join an existing project that is looking at how brain function and structure relates to how we pay attention. The role will involve adapting existing pipelines in functional and structural brain data analysis to address questions about how the brain combines different sources of learned information when paying attention. The role is particularly well suited for someone with some experience in coding and multivariate data-analysis, who is looking to learn more about neuroscience and brain imaging.
Experience: Some experience coding is required (Python, Matlab or R are of particular advantage), and experience in multivariate data analysis is a plus.
Project Title: The role of affect in placebo and nocebo effects
Supervisor(s): A/Prof Kate Faasse & Dr Kirsten Barnes
Description: This study will look at how affect influences the formation of placebo and nocebo effects. The student will be involved in developing and pilot testing an affect induction to induce positive, negative, and neutral affective states. Then, the affect induction will be used in an online experimental paradigm that uses low frequency noise exposure to generate placebo and nocebo effects. We aim to test whether positive affect can enhance placebo effects and block nocebo effects, and whether negative affect has the opposite effect. The low frequency noise paradigm has already been developed and tested in a number of studies. All data collection will be online, using Qualtrics software and the Prolific recruitment platform, which will enable us to run both studies quite quickly, so that the student gets experience in study design, recruitment, and some data analysis (appropriate to their career stage and experience).
Experience: Familiarity with placebo and nocebo effects is useful but not essential.
Project Title: Exploring the experience and management of side effects from antidepressants
Supervisor(s): A/Prof Kate Faasse & Dr Matthew Coleshill
Description: This survey study will explore the experience of side effects from antidepressants, support received from health professionals in managing the experience of side effects, as well as the acceptability of educational interventions to reduce the experience of nocebo-related side effects through a survey of people diagnosed with depression who have been prescribed antidepressants. The student will be involved in data cleaning and data analysis appropriate to their career stage and experience following completion of data collection in late 2022. The aim of the study is to better understand the type of support people taking antidepressants receive from health professionals to manage side effects (e.g. behavioural modification, dose titration, etc), as well as to examine the acceptability of primarily preclinical educational interventions to reduce nocebo-related side effects in a target clinical population.
Experience: Familiarity with, or an interest in, the nocebo effect, depression and its clinical management, and quantitative data analysis is useful but not essential.
Project Title: Modelling food insecurity in the rat
Supervisor(s): Dr Zhi Yi Ong
Description: The prevalence of food insecurity has steadily increased since 2014, with about 30% of the population worldwide currently food insecure. Food insecurity is associated with learning deficits and mental health issues, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Animal models are useful to dissect the neural mechanisms of food insecurity on subsequent behavioural changes. Thus, this project will involve generating a preclinical rat model of food insecurity to examine how food insecurity affects how, when and what one chooses to eat. The student will gain experience in developing rodent models and assessing feeding behaviours through a variety of behavioural tasks
Experience: Experience with rat handling is desirable though not necessary.
Project Title: Restoring gut-brain signal sensitivity to overcome overeating
Supervisor(s): Dr Zhi Yi Ong & Dr Kenny Ip
Description: Overeating is a major contributor to the increasing rates of obesity worldwide. Individuals with reduced gut-brain signal sensitivity are more likely to overeat and gain weight. Here, we will examine whether restoring gut-brain signal sensitivity can prevent overeating. This project will involve genetic manipulation strategies to restore gut-brain signal sensitivity, home-cage food intake monitoring and behavioural tasks to measure feeding behaviours.
Experience: Experience with rat handling is desirable though not necessary
Project Title: Psychological mechanisms underlying the mental health of adult refugees: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Supervisor(s): Prof Angela Nickerson
Description: This project would involve working in the Refugee Trauma and Recovery Program in the School of Psychology at UNSW. We are currently conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis to (1) identify which psychological mechanisms may be implicated in the onset and maintenance of mental health difficulties in refugees following trauma and (2) evaluate the quality of mechanism research in the refugee literature using a novel theoretical framework. This Vacation Research Scholarship would involve providing research support by (1) screening scientific research to determine their eligibility for inclusion in the review, (2) conducting manual searches of the literature (e.g., by backward citation searching), and (3) tabulating and synthesising research findings. This project would suit a student with an interest in refugee and human rights issues, who is interested in learning high-impact research methodologies that are intended to contribute to changes clinical practice, policy, and research practice. This research would lead to increased knowledge regarding the experiences of refugees, what mechanisms may be targeted to enhance their mental health and wellbeing, and hands on experience with systematic review and meta-analysis methodologies.
Experience: None
Project Title: Individual differences in sensitivity to anger provocation
Supervisor(s): Dr Elizabeth Summerell & Prof Tom Denson
Description: Aggression is most common in the presence of provocation. However, little is known about the specific situations or events that may provoke anger and/or lead to subsequent aggression. This project aims to develop a comprehensive taxonomy of anger provocations and provide a specific framework to organise and categorise these triggers. We will also examine individual difference factors that cause some individuals to be more sensitive to certain kinds of provocations.
Experience: None
Project Title: Evidence-based initiatives for equity, diversity, and inclusion in STEM
Supervisor(s): A/Prof Lisa Williams, Dr Sarah Ratcliffe & Dr Jessica Bergman
Description: To achieve equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in Australia, systemic changes are required. Funded by the Australian Government, this project is reviewing, informing, developing, and implementing evidence-informed, impact-focused initiatives for effective achievement of EDI in STEM. The research project involves examining trends in awarded research grants, assessing the effects of anonymised grant applications, and reviewing and evaluating initiatives supporting EDI in the STEM workforce. During the Summer Vacation Research Program selected students will develop skills in literature and data analysis, synthesis, and appraisal, and experience in applying research for structural-level change. The research conducted will contribute to evidence-based recommendations, tools, and initiatives supporting governments, organisations, and sectors to effectively achieve equity in STEM. The project is suited to students seeking to be a part of science supporting systemic changes for equity.
Experience: None