Academy Fellow

Andrew’s research examines human performance and motivation. The goals of his research program are to: a) improve scientific understanding of the basic psychological processes that produce variability in performance over time and across different settings; and b) to enhance the performance, safety and effectiveness of people at work. Industries in which this work is carried out include defence, aviation and emergency services.

This work has improved our understanding of how people manage task demands in complex systems, such as air traffic control and emergency response. These environments require people to make decisions under time pressure, and often require tradeoffs to be made amongst competing goals (eg safety vs productivity). He has developed mathematical models to simulate the way that people make decisions in these environments, and how they manage their workload. This research has clarified the mechanisms by which people make choices amongst competing goals, how they regulate the amount of effort they apply, and the ways that different types of behaviour contribute to organizational effectiveness.

Examples of the practical impact of this work include: a) the development of performance assessment and workload prediction algorithms for air traffic controllers; b) the assessment of safety risks associated with the introduction of new technologies in the aviation industry (e.g., the operation of remotely piloted aircraft in controlled airspace); and c) the development of mathematical models of decision making for air defence operations.

Professor, The University of Queensland

Member, Society of Organisational Behaviour Australia

Member, Society of Industrial & Organizational Society

University of Queensland Foundation Research Excellence Award (2002)

Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia

1. Ballard, T., Yeo, G., Loft, S., Vancouver, J. & Neal, A. (2016). An integrative formal model of motivation and decision making: The MGPM*. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(9), 1240-1265.

2. Ballard, T., Vancouver, J. & Neal, A. (2018). On the pursuit of multiple goals with different deadlines. Journal of Applied Psychology, 103, 1242-1264

3. Neal, A., Ballard, T. & Vancouver, J. B. (2017). Dynamic self-regulation and multiple goal pursuit. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 4(1), 401-423.

4. Gee., P., Vancouver, J. & Neal, A. (2018). A formal model of goal revision in approach and avoidance contexts. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 146, 51-61.

5. Palada, H., Neal, A., Strayer, D., Ballard, T. & Heathcote, A. (2019). Using response time modelling to understand the sources of dual-task interference in a dynamic environment. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 45, 1331-1345.