Colloquium Program, Semester One, 2008

The University of Melbourne, Department of Psychology

Special Colloquium : Thursday 17 July, 2.00pm - 3.00pm, Room 516 Redmond Barry Building

Dieting, overweight and obesity: self-regulation in a food-rich environment
- by Wolfgang Stroebe, Utrecht University, Netherlands

During the last decades the proportion of individuals who are overweight or obese has increased dramatically in most industrialized countries. Because obesity is not only associated with serious health problems, but results also in a social stigma, dieting has become a popular activity. But while it is easy to gain weight, it is very difficult to take it off. The question to be addressed in this presentation is why some people have such difficulties in losing weight or even only in maintaining their present weight. A theory will be presented which explains why self-regulation of weight can be difficult for chronic dieters in food-rich environments. According to this theory, the eating behaviour of chronic dieters (restrained eaters) is dominated by a conflict between two incompatible goals: enjoying palatable food and losing weight. While the dieting goal normally curbs the desire for eating enjoyment, this fragile balance is easily disturbed by attractive food cues, resulting in inhibition of the dieting goal. Supportive research is presented. It is argued that this theory can integrate earlier theories of self-regulation of eating.

Tuesday 1pm – 2pm Room 516 Redmond Barry Building

I teach but they don't learn: When reading instruction fails
- by Associate Professor Kerry Hempenstall, Division of Psychology, School of Health Sciences, RMIT University

When beginners don't make good early progress in reading, their attainment of adequate literacy and their general educational future are in jeopardy. Making up lost ground is more difficult than is usually anticipated, but focussed empirically-based intervention can make a marked difference. This colloquium will discuss the current research in which directions have been most fruitful for the low progress reader, with an emphasis on the roles of phonology and fluency. Both school-based and home-based interventions will be described.

A Neurobiological Model of Auditory Recognition, Streaming and Recall
- by Associate Professor Neil McLachlan, Department of Psychology, University of Melbourne

A broad range of human psychoacoustic and auditory neural responses will be better understood in relation to a neurobiologically plausible model of the mechanisms involved in auditory recognition, streaming and recall. This paper presents a first approximation to such a model. The principle feature of the model is the modulation of afferent auditory information by a cortico-thalamocortical oscillatory network that regulates the sequential correlation of afferent information with stored cortical representations, and the formation of an echoic trace in the thalamus. The model proposes that sound recognition is usually based on spectro-temporal patterns of activation along the tonotopic dimension of the auditory nerve, as this information is available at the cortex quickly and is less variable in exemplars of sound sources than periodic pitch, loudness and location. Information from these auditory fields may therefore be streamed and integrated across the tonotopic dimension in relation to stored representations of source type. As the specificity and certainty of the type of sound increases the spectro-temporal response fields of neurons in the thalamus and inferior colliculus are modified by corticofugal projections. The model presents neurobiologically plausible accounts of sound recognition, pitch and loudness streaming and integration, neural plasticity, auditory recall and hallucinations, the McGurk effect, and absolute pitch processing mechanisms. It is consistent with electrophysiological measurements of spectro-temporal response fields of auditory neurons in the mid-brain and cortex of animals, and imaging and lesion studies in humans

Interactions between brain development and the family environment during adolescence:  Implications for the emergence of depression
- by Associate Professor Nick Allen, Department of Psychology, University of Melbourne

The transition from childhood to adolescence is a formative period of human development where significant changes in cognition, affect and interpersonal behavior occur alongside significant biological processes such as puberty and major changes in brain structure and function. There are also notable changes in family relationships during this period as families attempt to re-negotiate their interactions so that the child’s role changes to one of greater autonomy and input into personal and family decision making. Significantly, the transition into early adolescence is also marked by a dramatic increase in the incidence of depressive symptoms and disorders, suggesting that developmental processes operative during adolescence may provide a uniquely informative window through which to understand vulnerability to depression. In this talk I will present data from the ORYGEN Adolescent Development Study on the way in which the family environment, brain development, and adolescent emotional functioning interact to place some individuals at heightened risk for depressive and other mental health problems. Our findings to date indicate that neurobiological and environmental risk factors are often correlated, and furthermore, that they interact with each other to confer greater risk for mental health problems. Understanding how family environments can be modified in order to reduce risk amongst those with biological and other risk factors is likely to present important opportunities for targeted prevention and early intervention.

Is There a Hierarchy of Social Inferences? The Ease and Speed of Judging Intentionality, Mind, and Morality
- by Professor Bertram Malle, Brown University, USA

In making sense of human behavior, people connect the observed with the unobserved—they find meaning in behavior by inferring mental states. This ability is essential for succeeding in the social world. Without mental state inferences, observed behaviors look indistinct, future behaviors are difficult to predict, and communicating with others becomes utterly perplexing.  But mental states are only one object of social inference: People also examine behaviors for whether they are intentional or not, assess the actor’s age, gender, and personality, and assign praise or blame.  Thus, social cognition includes many types of inference—broadly, about intentionality, mind, and morality.  I introduce a new experimental paradigm that allows the simultaneous study of these multiple social inferences and probes their relative ease, speed, and mutual interference.  Instead of verbal stimulus sentences, as is common, videotaped human behaviors serve as realistic and dynamic stimuli.  The first studies using this paradigm suggest a hierarchy of social inference, with judgments about social categories the easiest and fastest, followed by intentionality and goals. Inferences about beliefs and thinking are considerably slower and those about personality slower yet.

Working memory in the classroom
- Professor Susan Gathercole, Centre for Working Memory and Learning, University of York, UK         

Children’s working memory skills are highly predictive of their academic progress in key areas such as reading and maths. This lecture will identify the behavioural and cognitive characteristics of children with poor working memory including individuals with ADHD, and consider the role that working memory plays in learning. Recently developed methods for overcoming working memory problems in the classroom will be evaluated.


Battling Networks of Rival Environmental Social Movements
-Professor Pat Doreian, Department of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh

We map and combine two interorganizational networks. One forms part of the pro-environmental social movement network while the second features the strongly anti-environmentalist Wise Use movement. Data on each network were obtained through an expanding selection procedure. One started from the Turning Point Project (TPP) and the other network from the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise (CDFE). We regard both TPP and CDFE as trigger organizations defined as (i) being extreme with regard to debates over the environment and (ii) taking provocative steps to promote their cause. Such organizations take on additional importance by mobilizing both supporters and opponents. The TPP and CDFE have large mobilized inter-organizational networks around them reflecting a basic social divide in the United States regarding `society and environment'. While the FDE and CDFE have little in common beyond their emnity, it is reasonable to anticipate that the broader mobilized networks have some organizations in common as they appeal for legitimacy. However, there is very little overlap between the two large mobilized networks that take the form of linked organizational sets or overlapping organizational fields. We provide a description of the organizations in the tiny overlap of the two networks. We demonstrate also that the Wise-Use network is well connected to a variety of activist right wing foundations and think tanks. The Wise Use social movement is dedicated to advancing a radical pro-industry agenda that includes the destruction of the environmentalist social movement. The chances of reconciling the differences between these two movements seem bleak unless environmental problems assume an over-riding importance.