My current funded research activities fall into three distinct categories which reflect my research interests as described above: (i) Work Practices and Organisational innovation; (ii) The development of expertise on complex cognitive tasks; (iii) Occupational Health and Safety. Below are brief details of funding levels and research project details. More detailed information on current funded projects can be found in an Appendix and the end of the document.

1. Auditory-spatial short-term memory (With Dr. Murray Mayberry & Professor Dylan Jones). ($150,000). Funded by the Australian Research Council Large Grants Scheme.
2. An investigation of contextual factors influencing the effectiveness of self-managing work teams. (With Prof. J. Cordery). ($180,000). Funded by the Australian Research Council SPIRT (Strategic Partnership with Industry – Research and Training).
3. Technology and Work Practice Innovation. (With Prof John Cordery), ($938,000) Funded by the Meat Research Corporation. This funding has been used to support five research projects in various meat processing plants around Australia.
4. Individual differences in the development and utilisation of implicit and explicit skills for the diagnosis of faults in complex industrial systems. (Australian Research Council - 1995-1998 $120,000).
5. Management Practices and Return to Work (With G. Wood, Murdoch University) (WorkCover WA -1996-1998 - $155,000).
6. Changes in monetary payment and return to work behaviour: The effect of the 1993 changes in Workers Compensation Legislation ($65,000) (With G. Wood and P. Flatau, Murdoch University).
7. An assessment of motion acceptance criteria for human occupancy in the design of flexible structures. (Funded by the Australian Research Council) With Dr. C. Letchford, Civil Engineering, University of Queensland, 1996-1998, $90,000).
8. The relationship between psychosocial factors, crashes and infringement notices in young drivers. (With A/Prof. Konrad Jamrozik (UWA) and Dr. Mark Stevenson (Curtin University) (1996-1999, Healthways, $197,000).
9. The inter-disciplinary complex cognitive processes laboratory. University of Western Australia. University Initiatives Fund (with J. Cordery, J. Dunn, B. Goertzel, J. Hallmayer, M. Kalish, K. Kirsner, C. Lees, M. Martin-Iverson, M. Maybery, P. Michie, D. Morrison, R. Owens, N. Spadaccini, & R. Thomas) A$225,000, 1995. This project was funded by UWA teaching and research initiative fund. The primary aim was to develop a facility that would support research in cognitive science and human factors in process control and decision making.
10. An Investigation and identification of optimally productive arrangements of jobs and equipment/process technologies in the Australian Meat processing Industry (With John Cordery UWA) (Meat Research Corporation - $365,000 (1994-1997)).This project was undertaken in collaboration with Assoc. Prof John Cordery from the Department of Organisation and Labour Studies. The major objectives of the project were: (i) to conduct a program of research aimed at improving workforce productivity, health and well-being; (ii) to devise and demonstrate ways of improving workforce productivity in meat processing plants by the identification, implementation and evaluation of new approaches to work design within slaughtering, boning and packing processes; (iii) to identify and prove areas in which technology innovation will have a positive impact on productivity; (iv) to identify and devise methods for facilitating technological change in the meat processing industry.
11. Individual Differences in the development of a complex cognitive skill (1994-1995, ARC - $17,858). This project was concerned with the ability determinants of complex mental skill acquisition. Measures of cognitive capacity and style, information processing speed and psychomotor performance will be related to general levels of fault diagnosis performance and its sub-components at different levels of practice. Individual differences in speed of skill acquisition were also be examined.
12. Early Identification Models of Injury Duration and Evaluation of Rehabilitation Intervention (With Gavin Wood from Murdoch University) (Workers Compensation Commission WA, $165,000 was secured for 1993/1994). This funding was granted to continue our statistical work on the factors influencing return rates following work injuries. In this project we are developing early warning models of protracted worker injury and examining the role of rehabilitation in facilitating early return to work. We also developed, and continue to refine, a computerised decision support system to aid the selection of appropriate rehabilitation programs.
13. An Assessment of Motion Acceptance Criteria for Human Occupancy in the Design of Flexible Structures. In conjunction with Dr. Chris Letchford from Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland, $18,000 was secured from the Australian Research Council (ARC) for 1993 to investigate the effects of building vibration on work performance. The aim was to develop a set of motion acceptance criteria for human occupancy in flexible structures. This research is continuing with a PhD student (Roy Denoon)
14. The Design and Implementation of Intelligent User Interface Systems: The Role of Mental Models in C3I (Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence). This project is jointly funded by Australian Defence Industries and the Australian Research Council ($750,000). Kim Kirsner, Geoff Roy and Dan Milech made the original application. However, on the resignation of Geoff Roy and Dan Milech I was been as a principal investigator on this project.
15. The direct and indirect costs of workers compensation. In 1991 Gavin Wood (Economics, Murdoch University) and I received $35,000 from the Workers Compensation and Rehabilitation Commission (WA) to investigate the factors influencing costs and duration of work injuries.
16. The effects of psychological arousal on complex skill. In 1991 funding for $8000 was secured from the Australian Research Small Grants Scheme for this project.
17. The effects of job design on mental and physical well being in prison officers. In 1990 I received a grant from the Criminology Research Council of Australia ($37,000). This grant was given to support an extension to earlier research in which we investigated the effects of job design on physical and mental well being among Prison Officers.
18. Human Factors in Submarine Environments. With K. Kirsner, J. Dunn, and C. Macleod $150,000 was granted by the Australian Defence and Science Technology Organisation to look at the effects of stress in submarines on decision making of submariners.
19. The effects of changes to shift rostering systems on the workers of a Power Generation Plant in Western Australia". While working for Murdoch University I was a Research Associate of the WA Labour Market Research Centre. The Centre is comprised of a multi-disciplinary team that actively researches and consults within the business community in Western Australia. I collaborated with the Centre on this projects for which we were given $20,000.
20. Performance appraisal in the West Australian Police Force. In 1988 I received $30,000 to investigate issues regarding merit based promotion and performance appraisal in the WA police.
21. Fault Diagnosis Behaviour in Complex Systems. Special Research Grant ($7,000) from Murdoch University in 1988.
22. Aspects of human factors in speech technology. In 1986 $9,500 from Murdoch University to investigate the effects of stress and fatigue on recognition rates, adaptive algorithms and speaker independence of computer speech recognition devices.