News and Community Engagement

PB researchers regularly present their work at international conferences , engage the community at various events, and provide opportunities for the public to participate in and learn about psychological research.

Joseph Ciarocchi

Joseph is frequently interviewed on radio and by newspapers and gives high profile talks throughout the world. For example, he will be giving the plenary/ presidential address for the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (opens in a new window)


Joseph’s book, Get out of your Mind and into your Life Teens (opens in a new window) has been an Amazon bestseller in Teen mental health.

His book entitled Mindfulness, Acceptance, and Positive psychology (opens in a new window) has been a bestseller in Behavioral Psychology.

Joseph conducts a community program called Imagine. This study seeks to empower four students within grade 9 at each of the 20 participating high schools to become active agents of change among their peers. Imagine students develop their emotional intelligence skills at the university and then return to their home school to put some prosocial intervention into play. For example, students might seek to increase random acts of kindness in the school, or reduce cyberbullying. Our experiences suggests that adolescents can make dramatic improvements to their social world.
Tamara Watson

Learn more about Tamara Watson in the press:

SBS World News Australia: What is laughter for? (opens in a new window)

The Conversation: I amuse you? Judging laughter is no joke for the brain (opens in a new window)

The Conversation: Neuromarketing for the compact Fairfax papers was a no- brainer (opens in a new window)
Ahmed Moustafa

Ahmed gives community lectures at high schools in Sydney on "how the brain works"

Learn more about Ahmed Moustafa in the press:

UWS News Centre: Computer modeling shows how medications play a part in the Parkinson’s experience

Around UWS: Parkinson's Progress
Peter Jonason

Learn more about Peter Jonason in the press: 

702 ABC Sydney: The Happiness Show (opens in a new window)

Sydney Atheists at UTS: Tactics for teaching evolution (opens in a new window)

Talks at Bradley University, Domincan College, and Temple University.

Lehmiller blog: Does playing hard to get pay off? (opens in a new window)

The Daily Telegraph: Why common sense beat dollars (opens in a new window)

Men's Health: Earn her trust (opens in a new window)

MX (Sydney): Rough appeal (opens in a new window)
Christine Kitamura

Since the late 90s Christine has provided expert comment on infants and speech development in a variety of media: Television (Chs. 2, 9, 10); radio (2BL: Sydney, Tasmania; 2GB; 2UE; Sydney; 6PR, Perth); newspapers (Australian, Sydney Morning Herald & Telegraph; Melbourne Age & Sun); magazines (Australian Parent Magazine) and online- see Infants to Adolescents, vol. 4, no.3 (opens in a new window) and in 2006 the Japanese newspaper, The Sankei Shimbun published an article on Baby Lab research showcased at the International Conference
on Infant Studies in Kyoto Japan. Media for the previous 3 years are detailed below.

2010 Media

 - Sydney Morning Herald, 23 Feb, 2010: Look who's talking now] baby calls shots
 - Sunday Telegraph 11 April, 2010: Making sense of baby talk
 - Today Show, Channel 9, 12 April, 2010 (syndicated): On talking to babies
 - ABC Radio, Tasmania, 24 April, 2010: On talking to babies
 - Sydney Morning Herald 18 May, 2010: Baby Talk Matters
 - Sunday Telegraph 16 May, 2010: Doing infant research the right way

2011

 - Channel Ten News (29 stations), 10 Aug, 2011: Music, language, bonding
 - 6.30 with George Negus (28 stations), 9 Aug, 2011: Music, language, bonding
 - Sydney Morning Herald, 7 Aug, 2011: Sing to me mum in the key of love.
 - Townsville Bulletin, 22 June, 2011: Research proves baby talk has real benefits.


2012

 - ABC Science selected Lam & Kitamura (2012) article  to highlight on their website (3/2012)
 - Documentary (Mysteries of the Voice) commissioned by ARTE in France and National Geographic, directed by Stephan Moore. Features an exploration of infant directed speech and the evolution of language through emotion.

MARCS Baby Lab was one of the eight case studies selected for presentation at the UWS Review of Community and Regional Engagement which was conducted in 2012.
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