Ms Mydair Hunter

Phone: +61 8 82015870
Email:
Location: Social Sciences North (373)
Postal address: GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, South Australia

Qualifications

Bch Psychology (Hons), Dip App Sc (Nsg)

Honours, awards and grants

University Medal 2011
Gery Beswick Memorial Prize 2009
Chancellor's Letter of Commendation 2008

Research and supervision

Research interests

Prospective Memory in ADuLTS: The effects of stress and cognition on prospective memory in the fourth age.

My project will examine the relationships among cognition, affect, and physiological arousal in a sample of positively ageing oldest-old, that is those over the age of 85 years, pairing a week long time burst sampling study (ADuLTS) of daily stress hormone levels (cortisol) with daily-life outcomes. Specifically, the interaction of integrity of the HPA-axis and reactivity to stress on prospective memory and functional ability will be analyzed. Coupled with data from the ALSA, long-term predictors of intra-individual reactivity to daily stress in this very old cohort will also be explored.

Additional Research Interests
I also have a strong interest in sleep psychology, particularly the impact of established sleep patterns as predictors of cognitive frailty, morbidity and mortality in older adults, and also, the relationship between dementia and sleep disturbance in clinical populations of older adults.

Publications

Conference publications
Luszcz, M., Hoppmann, C., Gerstorf, D., Walker, R., Edwards, P. and Hunter, M. (2011). A week in the lives of oldest-old Australians: Initial findings from ADuLTS measurement burst study. In The Gerontological Society of America's 64th Annual Scientific Meeting, Boston, USA. Gerontological Society of America's 64th Annual Scientific Meeting, Boston, USA.
Lack, L., Hunter, M., Harris, J. and Gradisar, M. (2011). Is the treatment of insomnia impaired when OSA is also present. In 25th Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, Minneapolis, USA. 25th Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.


inspiring achievement