First study: Emotion and Motivation study

Volunteers who speak English in the home required for emotion and motivation study.  Participation will require approximately 45 minutes of your time, and you will be entered into a prize draw for a $100 cash prize. We can also provide you with a personality profile.

An important part of personality is individual differences in how motivated we are by or how much we enjoy rewarding or pleasant things. Unfortunately, there is much disagreement in how exactly to conceptualise and measure these motivational and emotional tendencies. The aim of this study is to examine and evaluate measures of Motivational Desire and Affective Pleasure.

When you arrive at the Personality Processes Lab, you will be greeted and given some verbal information about the study. You will then complete a consent form and provide some basic demographics, along with a set of questionnaires assessing personality traits, and motivation- and emotion-related dispositions. Finally, you will be debriefed in full and will have the opportunity to ask any questions or learn more about our research. Participation will take approximately 45 minutes.

Please email Luke Smillie to volunteer.

Second study: The effects of the natural amino acid, tyrosine, on cognitive function of persons under stress

Healthy volunteers are required for investigation into the effects of the natural amino acid, tyrosine, on cognitive function of persons under stress.You will be requred for 5 hours during which time you will be briefly tested.

You will need to be free of any medications and in good health. You will be asked to attend the Department of Psychiatry, Austin Health (Heidelberg) for a short (1/2 hour) evaluation session in order to assess suitability for inclusion in the study. Following successful evaluation, you will be asked to attend on another convenient morning where you will be given a drink containing either tyrosine or a sugar solution (placebo i.e. a look-alike drug that contains no active ingredient). Two hours later, you will be asked to give a brief talk. During the day, blood tests and saliva samples will be collected and you will be asked to perform regular computerised tests of memory and thinking to investigate whether tyrosine may improve performance on these cognitive tasks. On completion of the study you will be reimbursed for the costs incurred in taking part in this study.

If you are interested and would like further information please email annp@unimelb.edu.au or telephone 94965680 or 94965511