Dr Timothy Ballard

Research Fellow (DECRA)

School of Psychology

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences

t.ballard@uq.edu.au
+61 7 334 69506

Overview

My research sits at the intersection of organisational and cognitive psychology. My main areas of interest are motivation, decision making, and performance. A core aim is understanding how people navigate dynamic, complex, and uncertain environments. Much of this research aims to uncover the general principles at the core of these processes. Other aspects of the research focus on practical problems such as understanding how people respond to climate change. I am also interested in research methods, in particular formal/computational modelling and Bayesian statistics. My aim is to develop and promote the methodological tools that enable people to conduct more rigorous and replicable research.

Research Impacts

Journal Publications:

Ballard, T., Vancouver, J. B., & Neal, A. (in press). On the pursuit of multiple goals with different deadlines. Journal of Applied Psychology. PDF Supplementary Material

Ballard, T., Farrell, S., & Neal, A. (in press). Quantifying the psychological value of goal acheivement. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.

Ballard, T., Yeo, G.,Vancouver, J. B., & Neal, A. (2017). The dynamics of avoidance goal regulation. Motivation and Emotion, 41, 1-10.

Neal, A., Ballard, T., Vancouver, J. B. (2017). Dynamic self-regulation and multiple-goal pursuit. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology & Organizational Behavior, 4, 410-423.

Ballard. T., Yeo, G., Loft, S., Vancouver, J. B., & Neal, A. (2016). An integrative formal model of motivation and decision making: The MGPM*. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101, 1240-1265.

Ballard, T., Yeo, G., Neal, A., & Farrell, S. (2016). Departures from optimality when pursuing multiple approach or avoidance goals. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101, 1056-1066. PDF

Lewandowsky, S., Ballard, T., Oberauer, K., & Benestad, R. (2016). A blind test of contrarian interpretations of climate data. Global Environmental Change, 39, 91-97. PDF Media: Washington Post - The Guardian - Brisbane Times

Ballard, T. & Lewandowsky, S. (2015). When, not if: the inescapability of an uncertain climate future. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 373, 1-10. PDF

Lewandowsky, S., Ballard, T., & Pancost, R. D. (2015). Uncertainty as knowledge. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 373, 1-11. PDF Media: The Guardian - Phys.org

Manuscripts In Revision

Neal, A., Ballard, T., & Yeo, G. (in revision). Developing and testing a cognitive-energetic model of cognitive, motivational and affective processes during goal pursuit. Journal of Applied Psychology.

Book Chapters:

Gee, P., Ballard, T., Yeo, G., & Neal, A. (2012). Measuring Affect over Time: The Momentary Affect Scale. In Ashkanasy, N. M., Härtel, C. E. J., & Zerbe, W. J. (Eds.), Research on emotions in organisations, Volume 8: The emotions of compassion and care. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing/JAI Press. PDF

Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Western Australia
Bachelor of Psychological Science (Hons), The University of Queensland

Publications

Journal Article: Information processing under reward versus under punishment

Ballard, Timothy, Sewell, David K., Cosgrove, Daniel and Neal, Andrew (2019) Information processing under reward versus under punishment. Psychological Science, 30 5: 757-764. doi:10.1177/0956797619835462
Journal Article: Polling bias and undecided voter allocations: US presidential elections, 2004–2016

Bon, Joshua J., Ballard, Timothy and Baffour, Bernard (2019) Polling bias and undecided voter allocations: US presidential elections, 2004–2016. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A: Statistics in Society, 182 2: 467-493. doi:10.1111/rssa.12414
Journal Article: Using situation awareness and workload to predict performance in submarine track management: a multilevel approach

Loft, Shayne, Jooste, Lisa, Li, Yanqi Ryan, Ballard, Timothy, Huf, Samuel, Lipp, Ottmar V. and Visser, Troy A. W. (2018) Using situation awareness and workload to predict performance in submarine track management: a multilevel approach. Human Factors, 60 7: 001872081878480-991. doi:10.1177/0018720818784803

View all Publications

Grants

Goal pursuit decisions under environmental and social uncertainty (ARC Discovery Project administered by the University of Western Australia)

(2019–2022) University of Western Australia
A new state of the art for understanding dynamic self-regulation

(2018–2022) ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award
Decision Architectures for Distributed Tactical Systems: Phase 1 (Feasibility study)

(2018–2019) Commonwealth Defence Science and Technology Group

View all Grants

Supervision

Investigating the Cognitive Demands of Goal Regulation

Doctor Philosophy
The effect of social competitive settings on the pursuit of goals.

Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Publications

Book Chapter

Measuring affect over time: the momentary affect scale

Gee, Phillip, Ballard, Timothy, Yeo, Gillian and Neal, Andrew (2012). Measuring affect over time: the momentary affect scale. In Neal M. Ashkanasy, Wilfred J. Zerbe and Charmine E. J. Härtel (Ed.), Experiencing and managing emotions in the workplace (pp. 141-173) Bingley, United Kingdom: Emerald Group Publishing. doi:10.1108/S1746-9791(2012)0000008010

Journal Article

Information processing under reward versus under punishment

Ballard, Timothy, Sewell, David K., Cosgrove, Daniel and Neal, Andrew (2019) Information processing under reward versus under punishment. Psychological Science, 30 5: 757-764. doi:10.1177/0956797619835462
Polling bias and undecided voter allocations: US presidential elections, 2004–2016

Bon, Joshua J., Ballard, Timothy and Baffour, Bernard (2019) Polling bias and undecided voter allocations: US presidential elections, 2004–2016. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A: Statistics in Society, 182 2: 467-493. doi:10.1111/rssa.12414
Using situation awareness and workload to predict performance in submarine track management: a multilevel approach

Loft, Shayne, Jooste, Lisa, Li, Yanqi Ryan, Ballard, Timothy, Huf, Samuel, Lipp, Ottmar V. and Visser, Troy A. W. (2018) Using situation awareness and workload to predict performance in submarine track management: a multilevel approach. Human Factors, 60 7: 001872081878480-991. doi:10.1177/0018720818784803
On the pursuit of multiple goals with different deadlines

Ballard, Timothy, Vancouver, Jeffrey B. and Neal, Andrew (2018) On the pursuit of multiple goals with different deadlines. Journal of Applied Psychology, . doi:10.1037/apl0000304
The dynamics of avoidance goal regulation

Ballard, Timothy, Yeo, Gillian, B. Vancouver, Jeffrey and Neal, Andrew (2017) The dynamics of avoidance goal regulation. Motivation and Emotion, 41 6: 698-707. doi:10.1007/s11031-017-9640-8
Quantifying the psychological value of goal achievement

Ballard, Timothy, Farrell, Simon and Neal, Andrew (2017) Quantifying the psychological value of goal achievement. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 25 3: 1-9. doi:10.3758/s13423-017-1329-1
Dynamic self-regulation and multiple-goal pursuit

Neal, Andrew, Ballard, Timothy and Vancouver, Jeffrey B. (2017) Dynamic self-regulation and multiple-goal pursuit. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 4 401-423. doi:10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032516-113156
An integrative formal model of motivation and decision making: the MGPM*

Ballard, Timothy, Yeo, Gillian, Loft, Shayne, Vancouver, Jeffrey B. and Neal, Andrew (2016) An integrative formal model of motivation and decision making: the MGPM*. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101 9: 1240-1265. doi:10.1037/apl0000121
A blind expert test of contrarian claims about climate data

Lewandowsky, Stephan, Ballard, Timothy, Oberauer, Klaus and Benestad, Rasmus (2016) A blind expert test of contrarian claims about climate data. Global Environmental Change, 39 91-97. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.04.013
Departures from optimality when pursuing multiple approach or avoidance goals

Ballard, Timothy, Yeo, Gillian, Neal, Andrew and Farrell, Simon (2016) Departures from optimality when pursuing multiple approach or avoidance goals. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101 7: 1056-1066. doi:10.1037/apl0000082
Uncertainty as knowledge

Lewandowsky, Stephan, Ballard, Timothy and Pancost, Richard D. (2015) Uncertainty as knowledge. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 373 2055: . doi:10.1098/rsta.2014.0462
When, not if: The inescapability of an uncertain climate future

Ballard, Timothy and Lewandowsky, Stephan (2015) When, not if: The inescapability of an uncertain climate future. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 373 2055: . doi:10.1098/rsta.2014.0464

Grants (Administered at UQ)

Goal pursuit decisions under environmental and social uncertainty (ARC Discovery Project administered by the University of Western Australia)

(2019–2022) University of Western Australia
A new state of the art for understanding dynamic self-regulation

(2018–2022) ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award
Decision Architectures for Distributed Tactical Systems: Phase 1 (Feasibility study)

(2018–2019) Commonwealth Defence Science and Technology Group
Mathematical modelling of human fatigue in undersea operations

(2018–2019) University of Western Australia
Submarine Crewing Systems: Improved submariner endurance and performance in the face of a work system and technology change (DSTG grant led by Curtin University)

(2018–2019) Curtin University of Technology

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

Investigating the Cognitive Demands of Goal Regulation

Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor
Other advisors:
- Dr David Sewell
The effect of social competitive settings on the pursuit of goals.

Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor
Other advisors:
- Professor Andrew Neal

This staff member is a UQ Expert for media in the following fields:

Climate change communication, Goal prioritisation, Multitasking

They are happy to lend their expertise to your articles or broadcasts and share their research discoveries and insights with the community via media channels.

For additional assistance with story ideas, general advice and information or help with seeking further experts, please email the UQ Media Team or telephone (07) 3365 1120.

The University of Queensland

UQ Researchers