Dr Elizabeth Austin is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science (CHRIS), at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation (AIHI). She has a background in cognitive sciences, communication and learning theory. She received her PhD in Psychology from Macquarie University in 2017. 

My research is a product of my background in psychology and my current role in human factors and resilience, which has been enhanced by my ongoing collaboration with researchers in psychology and education. My overarching interest is in communication, with particular emphasis on the application of social psychology and human factors principles to interactions. From my background in psychology, which provided me with superb training in both psychology principles and experimental procedures, to my more applied work with clinicians in health care settings that I am developing in my current role, I have established a high-quality program of research, leading the translation and adaptation of Human Factors methods for application into the healthcare industry.

I am involved in the supervision of two current PhD candidates and one MRes Candidate, eight Medical Doctorate candidates, as well as undergraduate students enrolled in PACE and Psychology Honours units. My research track record is reflected in my history of both internal and external collaboration. My research outputs for 2020 include six peer-reviewed journal articles, including two first-author publications. Additionally, my findings contributed to the delivery of evidence-based healthcare through two literature review reports to local health districts and medical councils.

My current research program is primarily in the application of complexity science to healthcare and using social-psychological theories to understand hospital organisational culture. Specifically, examining Emergency Department sociotechnical systems and strategies for possible action. These projects will provide a greater understanding of Emergency Department functioning and a foundation for future projects to design and implement interventions to improve Emergency Department capacity.  

My PhD research program involved investigations of spatial communication and gesture, drawing on concepts and approaches from experimental work on memory and cognition. Specifically, my PhD explored the effects of gesture on spatial route directions recall, initially developed through my previous honours research with preschool children and adults. I am interested in the use of gesture when communicating familiar and novel route directions; the use and consequences of gesture production for task performance; and the effects of gesture presentation on listener task performance. I am especially interested in how the use of gesture is developed across the lifespan. 

I continue to be involved in research examining the role of gesture across the life-span in a range of areas including, second language acquisition and Piagetian Conservation Reasoning development. I am a member of the Centre for Children's Learning in a Social World and hope to continue to examine the role of gesture in different contexts, including Emergency Departments. 

I have lectured in post-graduate and undergraduate statistics courses in Psychology on topics such as research design, power and sample size analysis. I am also involved in the supervision of Masters of Research and Honours Students.