Professor Gabrielle Weidemann

Psychology (School of Social Science and Psychology)

Biography

I received my PhD in 2005 from the University of New South Wales in the area of behavioural neuroscience. My PhD research was concerned with mathematical modelling of savings and recovery after extinction of a classically conditioned response in the rabbit. I have also collaborated on research projects examining the neurobiological and neuropharmacological mechanisms of learning and memory in animals with researchers at the University of New South Wales and the University of Michigan.

More recently I have been conducting research examining associative learning and classical conditioning processes in human participants. I have received funding for research projects examining the role of higher order cognitive processes in the acquisition and expression of eyeblink conditioning and the role that conscious expectancy plays in mediating the conditioned response in a variety of different conditioning paradigms.

I am also interested in the role that associative learning and memory play in the acquisition of likes and dislikes. In examining learning and memory I use a variety of different behavioural measures (e.g. reaction times) and physiological responses like skin conductance, heart rate, facial EMG, eyeblink responses, startle responses, and blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal in the brain measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).