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Professor Grahame J Coleman

Biography

Following a visit to Professor Zucker's laboratory at UC Berkeley in 1978, I became interested in those aspects of human and animal behaviour associated with biological rhythmicity and changes in stress-related and reproductive hormones. This extended to additional research into biological rhythmicity and sleep and changes in stress-related and reproductive hormones. These interests led to a number of research projects in circadian rhythms and sleep, particularly in the effects of feeding schedules on circadian rhythms.

 Professor Grahame J Coleman

Since the mid 1980s, my work on stockperson behaviour has reflected a synthesis of social psychology and human and animal behaviour. This work has led to the development of a model to describe the impact of stockperson attitudes and behaviour on farm animal productivity and has received substantial funding from industry research corporations. More recently research has focussed in the identification of those personal characteristics that predict good stockpersonship in the pig industry, including the development of a computerised stockperson selection program. Current research interests focus primarily on human characteristics, including attitudes, which are relevant to human-animal interactions in animal industries and in the family, and the development of interactive educational programs on livestock farming for primary school children.

I am a member of the Animal Welfare Centre, a joint collaboration between Monash University, the Department of Primary Industry, University of Melbourne and the CSIRO.

I retain an interest in biological rhythms and sleep and am actively engaged in PhD supervision and research in the area.

Email Professor Grahame J Coleman

Research Interests

  • Human / Animal interaction
  • Current attitudes and behaviour to Animal Welfare
  • Circadian rhythms & sleep

Postgraduate Research Projects

  • An investigation of factors affecting the success of canine adoptions from animal welfare shelters
  • A study of pet owner factors influencing canine obesity
  • Organisational citizenship behaviour and job satisfaction as outcome variables in a model of occupational stress and affect
  • The experience of sleepiness in professional transport drivers, predictors of driving when sleepy, and an application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour to driver sleepiness
  • Selection, prediction and the Differential Aptitude Tests in military vocational education
  • Examining the motivation for the performance of environmentally responsible behaviour
  • A study of factors influencing the retention of dogs as companion animals

Potential Student Projects

  • Community attitudes to welfare issues
  • Animals in therapy
  • Selection & training with animal workers

Teaching

  • Community attitudes to welfare issues
  • Animals in therapy
  • Selection & training with animal workers

Collaborations

  • Animal Welfare Science Centre - Melbourne University, Department of Primary Industries
  • OSU - Ohio State University, Department of Animal Science
  • EU - 6th Framework

Grant Support

  • Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA)
  • Department of Primary Industries (DPI)
  • Australian Research Council
  • Australian Pork Limited
  • Dairy Research and Development Corporation
  • Australian EGG Corporation Limited
  • William Buckland Foundation

Publications

BOOK:

Hemsworth, P.H.,& Coleman, G.J. (1998). Human-Animal Interactions: Stockperson-related issues in the performance and welfare of intensively handled farm animals. Wallingford: CAB International.

REVIEWS AND BOOK CHAPTERS:

Coleman, G.J. (2004). Personnel Management in Agricultural Systems. The Well-Being of Farm Animals: Challenges and Solutions, (Eds., G. J. Benson & B. E. Rollin), Blackwell Publishing Professional, Ames, Iowa USA, pp.167-181

Conduit, R., Crewther, S., & Coleman, G.J. (2003). Shedding old assumptions and consolidating what we know: Toward an attention-based model of dreaming. Chapter contribution to M. Blagrove & M. Solms (Eds.), Sleep & Dreaming. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Armstrong, S., Ng, K.T., & Coleman, G.J. (1982). Influence of the pineal gland on brain-behaviour relationships. In R.J. Rieter (Ed.), The Pineal Gland: Extra-reproductive effects (vol. 3). Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press.

RESEARCH PAPERS IN REFEREED JOURNALS:

(SELECTED) PUBLISHED PAPERS

Conduit, R., Crewther, S.G., Bruck, D., & Coleman, G.J. (2002). Spontaneous eyelid movements during human sleep: A possible ponto-geniculo-occipital analogue? Journal of Sleep Research, 11(2), 95-104.

Waiblinger, S., Menke, C., & Coleman, G.J. (2002). The relationship between attitudes, personal characteristics and behaviour of stockpeople and subsequent behaviour and production of dairy cows. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 79(3), 195-219.

Coleman, G.J., Hemsworth, P.H., Hay, M., & Cox, M. (2000). Modifying stockperson attitudes and behaviour towards pigs at a large commercial farm. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 66(1-2), 11-20.

Conduit, R., Crewther, S.G., & Coleman, G.J. (2000). Shedding old assumptions and consolidating what we know: Toward an attention-based model of dreaming. Behavioural Brain Science, 23(6), 924-928.

Coleman, G.J., Bernard, C.C.A., & Bernard, O. (1999). Bcl-2 Transgenic mice with increased number of neurons have a greater learning capacity, Brain Research, 832, 188-194.

Coleman, G.J., Hemsworth, P.H., & Hay, M. (1998). Predicting stockperson behaviour towards pigs from attitudinal and job related variables and empathy. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 58(1), 63-75.

Coleman, G.J., O'Reilly, H., & Armstrong, S.M. (1989). Food-deprivation induced phase shifts in Sminthopsis macroura froggatti. Journal of Biological Rhythms, 4(1), 49-60.

Coleman, G., Harper, S., Clarke, J., & Armstrong, S. (1982). Evidence for a separate meal-associated oscillator in the rat. Physiology and Behavior, 29, 107-115.