CURRENT PROJECTS

Below is a brief description of a selection of projects currently underway in our lab. If you would like more information about our research and collaborations, please get in touch.

Project 1: Cognition and cannabis use

The overarching purpose of the Cognition and Cannabis Use Behaviour Project is to investigate whether individual differences in cognitive function are related to cannabis use in the general population.

What will I be asked to do?

1. Complete surveys and computer tasks online (45 minutes).

Receive $20 in the form of an e-gift card.

Who can participate? 

1. Aged 14 years or over.

2. People who use cannabis (recreational or medicinal).


Project 2: Error related processes and adaptive behaviour change

The ability to detect an error in performance is critical to ongoing and future goal-directed behaviour. Diminished awareness of performance errors has been associated with a loss of insight and poor functional recovery in several clinical disorders (e.g., attention- deficit/hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, addiction). Despite the clear imperative to understand and remediate such deficits, error awareness and its instantiation in corrective behaviour remains to be fully elucidated. Specifically, theories on the neural correlates of error awareness and the role of dopamine in error awareness are somewhat incomplete. Further, it is unknown what conditions elicit error awareness and what role – if any – error awareness affords in adaptive behaviour. This project aims to extend work on error awareness by investigating performance monitoring and learning using behavioural paradigms in healthy and clinical cohorts and to clarify the neural mechanisms underlying error awareness using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The current findings have the potential to inform a greater understanding of performance monitoring in a range of clinical conditions that are marked by impaired error awareness.

We are seeking participants to take part in a study examining the link between error processing and alcohol use.

What will I be asked to do? 

1. Complete an online survey (~30 mins)

2. Complete a computer-based task while having brain activity recorded during EEG (~2 hrs). The EEG session will take place at the University of Melbourne (Parkville Campus)

3. Complete a short computer-based task (~5 mins)

Receive $45 in the form of an e-gift card.

Who can participate? 

1. Aged 16 years or over

2. No neurological conditions

3. Normal or corrected-to-normal vision (including colour vision)

For further information, or to register your interest in this study, click on the link below:

https://q.surveys.unimelb.edu.au/jfe/form/SV_8FYdcWiAl1QoQOq


Project 3: Impulse control and alcohol use

The aim of this project is to advance our understanding of impulsive decision-making and impulse control. We seek to determine why some people are more impulsive in everyday life than others and under what circumstances they are prone to exhibit this heightened impulsivity.

You will complete this part of the study at home on your own desktop or laptop computer. Some of the tasks in this study will not work correctly on tablets or smartphones.
You will be given feedback on your cognitive performance and alcohol use. There is also second part of the study where you will be contacted by the research team by email to, if possible, organise a time to come into the lab for Part 2.