Research Grant
[Cite as https://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP190102708]Researchers: Oren Griffiths (Chief Investigator) , Anna Thorwart (Partner Investigator) , David Luque (Partner Investigator) , Dr Thomas Beesley (Partner Investigator)
Brief description Expecting the unexpected: how people prioritise predictability. This project aims to investigate how people represent and use information about unpredictability in their environment. Seeing too much predictability is problematic, but seeing too little can also be a problem, for example inappropriate "learned helplessness" can occur, whereby people feel disempowered because the world is seen as random. Recent findings demonstrated a bias in fundamental learning that may maintain these inappropriate beliefs about unpredictability. This bias is not anticipated by formal theories of learning. The project will investigate how this bias is brought about by first formalising a novel theory of fundamental learning and then systematically testing its assumptions.
Funding Amount $180,000
Funding Scheme Discovery Projects
- PURL : https://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP190102708
- ARC : DP190102708