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Autism Research Initiative

Research that really connects

Our research team benefits from a complementary relationship between research and clinical care. Cross-disciplinary research that straddles the boundary between discovery and care is essential to understand where research is needed for us to invest in autistic people as members of the community.

Lived experience is at the heart of this initiative and contributions from the community and from autistic academics are being fostered. This means that our research reaches outside of the university and impacts not only autistic people directly but their community, structures, and the governments they live under. Our dual focus on research and clinical care is deeply centred in early identification, screening, and diagnosis for children, as well as developing clinical supports for emotional regulation and sensory safety outside of the clinical setting. Along with existing non-technologically focused approaches, our research evaluates the utility of social robots, large language models, and virtual reality.

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Our Research Pillars

Community Understanding

Autistic people have needs across their lifespan that change with age and circumstances. Our understanding of what supports are needed at different stages of life and in a variety of circumstances is currently limited. As such, a large proportion of our research is focused on adults. We also know that autistic people do not exist in a vacuum but within communities and structures such as the legal system. Our research aims to be directly translatable to these communities and systems. Our most recent outreach programs have focused on educating staff in the police, justice, and prison systems about autism.

Flourishing and Wellbeing

Autistic people often live with health concerns and conditions. We know that this can add immense burden when contending with the average pressures of life. Autistic people can face burnout from the pressures of life and from managing these health conditions. Living as autistic people in a society not built for disability can also cause social and psychological difficulties that are distressing and isolating. The biopsychosocial model of health recognizes that these difficulties are often interlinked. Our research is therefore also focused on identifying complementary support services tailored to the needs of autistic people. This includes recognition that autistic people thrive in an environment where autism is understood, accepted, and supported. Hence our research strives to educate communities through understanding and universal design.

Responsiveness and Access

Research is needed to understand how best to support autistic people in their growth during points of pressure and transition. We know that autistic people face substantial barriers to finishing high school and transitioning into university. This and other barriers make stable employment also difficult and place autistic people at greater risk of poverty and housing instability. We embrace the challenge in understanding these barriers and developing solutions.

Redefining Autism

The diagnosis of autism has continued to be subject to philosophical, psychological, and genomic enquiry since the American Psychological Association defined Autism Spectrum Disorder as a diagnosis in 2013. Understanding how to diagnose a condition that is spectral but segmented into three levels of support needs has continued to challenge researchers, clinicians, and the community. The initiative and ongoing research in this area aims to shape a definition of autism that is both broad enough to describe a diversity of autistic people while also being specific enough to be bounded by meaningful diagnostic criteria. The purpose or meaning of autism as a diagnostic category needs to be understood while also acknowledging the personal meaning of a diagnosis for an autistic person. Current research is focused on developing ways to better identify support needs for individuals within a heterogenous group, the reluctance of some groups to self-identify or seek a diagnosis, and the desire of some to be 'un-diagnosed'.

Founders

Professor Robyn Young

Director of the Autism Research Initiative and Professor of Psychology, Robyn, Robyn's interest in autism began while pursuing her PhD in Savant Syndrome. This work became the subject of an ABC documentary titled Uncommon Genius. She went on to develop a screening tool for autistic disorder suitable for use in children as young as 12 months of age. This tool, known as the Autism Detection in Early Childhood (ADEC; ACER, 2007), clearly operationalises early behaviours indicative of autism. Together with colleagues at Flinders University she has developed an intervention program called SPECTRA (ACER, 2009). Her work has now turned to older persons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Specifically she is interested in why persons with ASD may become unwittingly involved in crime.

Emeritus Professor Neil Brewer

Neil is a Matthew Flinders Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Psychology. His early career research focus was on information processing speed in association with intellectual disability, childhood development and aging. From the late 1990s his major focus has been in the areas of eyewitness memory, focusing on eyewitness identification and metacognition. In the last decade or so he has also maintained joint research programs in the areas of autism screening and factors shaping the interactions of autistic individuals with the criminal justice system.

Associate Professor Nathan Weber

Nathan’s research is primarily focused on applied and theoretical aspects of metacognition. Theoretically oriented projects include investigations of: monitoring and control processes in recognition memory and mechanisms underlying positive versus negative recognition decisions. His applied work includes projects examining: processes and factors underlying a witness's decision to make an identification from a line-up; regulation of grain size and reporting of eyewitness testimony; and predictors (e.g., confidence and response latency) of identification accuracy.

Dr Alliyza Lim

Alliyza completed her PhD (Clinical Psychology) in 2020 and is currently a post-doctoral research associate. Her PhD research examined whether the widespread stereotype that liars fidget and avoid eye contact causes autistic individuals (who commonly display such behaviours) to be more vulnerable to being inaccurately judged as deceptive and untrustworthy. Her current research areas include the early detection of autism in young children and how autistic young adults experience and respond to traumatic events.

Our team

Dr Belinda Fuss

As the lived experience lead at the Autism Research Initiative, Belinda is a strong advocate for including the voices from groups of research interest across all stages of research. She actively uses her lived experiences with disability, mental health, and neurodiversity to communicate with researchers, the community, and industries such as healthcare. Her research largely relates to the access needs of children, adults, and older adults who face substantial challenges with accessing adequate health care and social resources.

Dr Nathan Caruana

Nate is a Senior Lecturer in Cognitive Psychology and leads the HAVIC Lab for Human, Artificial and Virtual Interactive Cognition. Over the past decade, Nate's research program has focused on understanding the brain processes that support human social interactions across the full spectrum of human neurodiversity, working closely with autistic people of all ages and adults diagnosed with schizophrenia. He was recently awarded the Paul Bourke Award from the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in recognition of his pioneering work developing virtual interaction paradigms. Nate's research also examines how adults and children perceive and interact with artificial agents (e.g., in VR and with physical robots), for improved social, literacy, and emotional health outcomes. You can learn more about Nate's research and the HAVIC Lab here.

Dr Tammie Foster

Tammie is focused on advancing digital health solutions and justice system outcomes for vulnerable populations, with a particular emphasis on autism. Her work bridges mental health, forensic psychology, and technology to improve access to care and support equity in assessment and intervention. Tammie's current research investigates judicial evaluations of remorse in autistic offenders, including the development of forensic evaluation tools and AI-based analysis. She is passionate about interdisciplinary collaboration and the translation of evidence into impactful, scalable programs.

Dr Neophytos (Neo) Georgiou

Neo's research takes an applied cognitive approach to understanding challenges that emerge in online environments, particularly on social media. His work examines susceptibility to misinformation, belief formation, and pathways toward radicalisation. His current research focuses on autistic populations, exploring vulnerability to online content, awareness of digital threats, and the potential implications for legal and forensic settings. The aim is to inform future policy and intervention strategies that support digital resilience among neurodiverse individuals.

HAVIC Lab for Human, Artificial and Virtual Interactive Cognition

The HAVIC Lab is a founding partner of the Flinders Autism Research Initiative. We study how people understand and interact with others - both human and artificial. Our research explores the cognitive and neural processes that support social cognition and human-technology interactions. We hope to deliver knowledge and innovation that supports the wellbeing of all neurodiverse people.

Our Higher Degree by Research students

The ARI is currently host to students conducting higher degrees within the lab. Many of the projects are student led with an emphasis on input from community stakeholders.

Alex Brazell is investigating whether the Autism Detection in Early Childhood (ADEC) screening tool can differentiate between signs of autism and signs of early childhood trauma in children aged 12-36 months.

Edmond Sung is collaborating with the Human, Artificial, and Virtual Interactive Cognition (HAVIC) Lab to develop a new virtual reality training program to support autistic adolescents to develop their emotional and behavioural regulation skills.

Norman Tan is investigating whether autistic adults have difficulty understanding when and how apologies are used in social interactions.

A team, Eva Stockigt, Leah Burleigh and Molly Kernahan are studying how factors such as unexpected behaviours, demonstrations of remorse, and understanding of wrongfulness may cause autistic adults to be vulnerable to unfavourable interactions with the criminal justice system.

Hamish Watt is researching extremist messaging, and how features of autism may be linked to susceptibility toward radicalisation.

Carol Lawton is developing research around the cognitive flexibility of autistic people and how this impacts on their perceptions of criminal wrongfulness.