Specialist Research Laboratory

Learning and Development Laboratory

Research Activities

Our research program addresses issues to do with human curiosity, interest and information seeking. More specifically, we are exploring motivational and problem solving processes that are activated when students engage with (and disengage from) achievement tasks. The distinctive character of our research is the use of an innovative computer program, Between the Lines , to monitor in real-time how students select and apply thinking skills to novel problems. A wide range of students' actions and reactions, choices and decisions are monitored as they engage with tasks. The goal of this research is to identify psychological processes that support positive learning experiences for students of all ages.

Current Areas of Research

• Engagement with schooling: Influences of motivation processes on the development and application of independent thinking skills.
• Achievement goals, interest, and the cognitive processes that mediate their influence on learning.
• How adolescents cope with concerns: Relationships between coping style, self-efficacy, and emotions.
• Peer relationships and mathematics anxiety in adolescence.
• Childhood anxiety: Characteristic emotional competence patterns and parental socialisation factors.

Research Staff:

Associate Professor Mary Ainley

Research assistants:

• Michelle Andrews, Sarah Buckley, Jedda Graham

Research Collaborators:

University of Melbourne:

• Associate Professor Erica Frydenberg—Coordinator of the Educational Psychology Unit, and also the Master of Educational Psychology and Doctorate of Educational Psychology programs, Department of Learning and Educational Development, Faculty of Education
• Dr Gregor Kennedy—Head, Biomedical Multimedia Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences
• Jon Pearce—Senior Lecturer, Department of Information Systems
• Dr Jean Russell—Principal Fellow and Associate Professor, Centre for Applied Educational Research, Department of Education Policy and Management, Faculty of Education

Deakin University:

• Dr Chris Perry—Senior Lecturer, School of Scientific and Developmental Studies in Education, Faculty of Education

International:

• Associate Professor Suzanne Hidi—Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Department, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada
• Dr Markku Niemivirta—Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland

Lab Facilities:

The Laboratory is well-resourced to investigate student engagement with problems using different versions of the interactive computer program, Between the Lines . All of the versions of Between the Lines proceed in two main sections. The first section focuses on individual variables, including the student's individual interests and characteristics, while the second section engages the student in some kind of informative learning task.

Funding & Grants:

Current Research Students:

• Michelle Andrews (D Ed Psych) : "How adolescents cope with concerns: Relationships between coping style, self-efficacy, and emotions"
• Sarah Buckley (PhD) : "Peer relationships and mathematics anxiety in adolescence"
• Vicky Florey (PhD) : "The influence of parental trait empathy and child-specific parental empathy on parenting behaviours and child outcomes."
• Galit Hasen (D Psych (Child)) :"Childhood anxiety: Characteristic emotional competence patterns and parental socialisation factors"
• Georgina Roberts (D. Psych) : "The Relationship between Self-concept, Religiosity and Alcohol Use?"
• Effie Sgourakis (D.Psych) : "Developmental trajectories of early-onset and late-onset aggressive adolescents".