People

Dr Alasdair Clarke

Senior Lecturer
Department of Psychology
Dr Alasdair Clarke

Profile

Biography

Alasdair Clarke has a background in mathematics (M.Math, University of Warwick) and a PhD in Computer Science (Heriot-Watt University). After his Phd, he worked as a post-doc at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, and then at the School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen. His current research interests cover visual perception, search, and decision making.

Qualifications

  • PhD Heriot-Watt University,

  • M.Sc Edinburgh Napier University,

  • MMath University of Warwick,

Appointments

University of Essex

  • Lecturer, Psychology, University of Essex (1/12/2016 - present)

Teaching and supervision

Current teaching responsibilities

  • Statistical Models for Psychology (PS422)

  • The science of uncertainty (PS509)

  • Special Topics in Individual Differences and Developmental Psychology (PS938)

  • Advanced Statistics for Research (PS947)

  • MSc Psychology Research Project (PS900)

Previous supervision

Kelly Wolfe
Kelly Wolfe
Thesis title: Age Differences in Risk-Taking Behaviour: The Role of Risk Preference and Cognitive Ability.
Degree subject: Psychology
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 1/7/2021

Publications

Publications (5)

Clarke, ADF., Hunt, AR. and Hughes, A., A Bayesian statistical model is able to predict target-by-target selection behaviour in a human foraging task

Clarke, ADF. and Hunt, AR., Learn more from your data with asymptotic regression

Bhat, M., Nowakowska, A., Clarke, ADF. and Hunt, AR., You are not enough: Inefficient search strategies persist for self-relevant targets

Clarke, ADF. and Elsner, M., Technical report on multiple signal detection: analysis of simulated datasets

Efthimiou, TN., Baker, J., Clarke, ADF., Elsenaar, A., Mehu, M. and Korb, S., (2023). Zygomaticus activation through facial neuromuscular electric stimulation (fNMES) induces happiness perception in ambiguous facial expressions and affects neural correlates of face processing

Journal articles (45)

Claydon, J., James, WRG., Clarke, ADF. and Hunt, AR., (2024). The role of framing, agency and uncertainty in a focus-divide dilemma. Memory & Cognition. 52 (3), 574-594

Hughes, A., Nowakowska, A. and Clarke, A., (2024). Bayesian multi-level modelling for predicting single and double feature visual search. Cortex. 171, 178-193

Efthimiou, TN., Baker, J., Clarke, A., Elsenaar, A., Mehu, M. and Korb, S., (2024). Zygomaticus activation through facial neuromuscular electrical stimulation (fNMES) induces happiness perception in ambiguous facial expressions and affects neural correlates of face processing.. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. 19 (1), nsae013-

Nowakowska, A., Clarke, A., Reuther, J. and Hunt, A., (2023). Variable search for orientation, uniformly optimal search for identity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 153 (2), 495-510

Korb, S., Clarke, A., Massaccesi, C., Willeit, M. and Silani, G., (2023). Facial mimicry is not modulated by dopamine D2/3 and opioid receptor antagonism. Psychopharmacology. 240 (10), 2081-2091

Clarke, ADF., Hunt, AR. and Hughes, AE., (2023). Correction: Foraging as sampling without replacement: A Bayesian statistical model for estimating biases in target selection. PLOS Computational Biology. 19 (3), e1010997-e1010997

Clarke, ADF., Irons, J., James, W., Leber, AB. and Hunt, AR., (2022). Stable individual differences in strategies within, but not between, visual search tasks. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 75 (2), 289-296

Filippetti, ML., Clarke, ADF. and Rigato, S., (2022). The mental health crisis of expectant women in the UK: effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on prenatal mental health, antenatal attachment and social support. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. 22 (1), 68-

Clarke, A., Hunt, A. and Hughes, A., (2022). Foraging as sampling without replacement: a Bayesian statistical model for estimating biases in target selection. PLoS Computational Biology. 18 (1), e1009813-e1009813

Korb, S., Deniz, TC., Ünal, B., Clarke, A. and Silani, G., (2022). Emotion perception bias associated with the hijab in Austrian and Turkish participants.. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 75 (5), 796-807

Clarke, A., Nowakowska, A. and Hunt, A., (2022). Visual search habits and the spatial structure of scenes. Attention, Perception and Psychophysics. 84 (6), 1874-1885

Clarke, A., Hunt, A. and Hughes, A., (2022). A Bayesian Statistical Model Is Able to Predict Target-by-Target Selection Behaviour in a Human Foraging Task. Vision. 6 (4), 66-66

James, W., Hunt, AR. and Clarke, ADF., (2022). Six of one, half dozen of the other: Suboptimal prioritizing for equal and unequal alternatives.. Memory and Cognition. 51 (2), 486-503

Nowakowska, A., Clarke, A., Hunt, A. and von Seth, J., (2021). Search strategies improve with practice, but not with time pressure or financial incentives. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. 47 (7), 1009-1021

Wolfe, K., Sirota, M. and Clarke, ADF., (2021). Age differences in COVID-19 risk-taking, and the relationship with risk attitude and numerical ability. Royal Society Open Science. 8 (9), 201445-

Holford, DL., Juanchich, M., Foulsham, T., Sirota, M. and Clarke, ADF., (2021). Eye-tracking evidence for fixation asymmetries in verbal and numerical quantifier processing. Judgment and Decision Making. 16 (4), 969-1009

Kohler, PJ. and Clarke, ADF., (2021). The human visual system preserves the hierarchy of 2-dimensional pattern regularity. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 288 (1955), 20211142-20211142

Chakravarthi, R., Rubruck, J., Kipling, N. and Clarke, A., (2021). Characterising the in-out asymmetry in visual crowding. Journal of Vision. 21 (11), 1-14

Lonnqvist, B., Clarke, ADF. and Chakravarthi, R., (2020). Crowding in humans is unlike that in convolutional neural networks. Neural Networks. 126, 262-274

Holford, DL., Juanchich, M., Foulsham, T., Sirota, M. and Clarke, ADF., (2020). Eye Tracking of Quantifier Formats

Nowakowska, A., Clarke, ADF., Sahraie, A. and Hunt, AR., (2019). Practice-related changes in eye movement strategy in healthy adults with simulated hemianopia. Neuropsychologia. 128, 232-240

James, WRG., Reuther, J., Angus, E., Clarke, ADF. and Hunt, AR., (2019). Inefficient Eye Movements: Gamification Improves Task Execution, But Not Fixation Strategy. Vision. 3 (3), 48-48

Clarke, ADF., Nowakowska, A. and Hunt, AR., (2019). Seeing Beyond Salience and Guidance: The Role of Bias and Decision in Visual Search. Vision. 3 (3), 46-46

Elsner, M., Clarke, ADF. and Rohde, H., (2018). Visual Complexity and Its Effects on Referring Expression Generation. Cognitive Science. 42 (S4), 940-973

Joseph MacInnes, W., Hunt, AR., Clarke, ADF. and Dodd, MD., (2018). A Generative Model of Cognitive State from Task and Eye Movements. Cognitive Computation. 10 (5), 703-717

Mahon, A., Clarke, ADF. and Hunt, AR., (2018). The role of attention in eye-movement awareness. Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics. 80 (7), 1691-1704

Nowakowska, A., Clarke, ADF. and Hunt, AR., (2017). Human visual search behaviour is far from ideal. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 284 (1849), 20162767-20162767

Clarke, ADF., Mahon, A., Irvine, A. and Hunt, AR., (2017). People Are Unable to Recognize or Report on Their Own Eye Movements. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 70 (11), 2251-2270

Clarke, ADF., Stainer, MJ., Tatler, BW. and Hunt, AR., (2017). The saccadic flow baseline: Accounting for image-independent biases in fixation behaviour. Journal of Vision. 17 (11), 12-12

Nowakowska, A., Clarke, ADF., Sahraie, A. and Hunt, AR., (2016). Inefficient search strategies in simulated hemianopia.. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. 42 (11), 1858-1872

Clarke, ADF. and Hunt, AR., (2016). Failure of Intuition When Choosing Whether to Invest in a Single Goal or Split Resources Between Two Goals. Psychological Science. 27 (1), 64-74

Clarke, ADF., Barr, C. and Hunt, AR., (2016). The effect of visualization on visual search performance. Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics. 78 (8), 2357-2362

Orquin, JL., Ashby, NJS. and Clarke, ADF., (2016). Areas of Interest as a Signal Detection Problem in Behavioral Eye-Tracking Research. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making. 29 (2-3), 103-115

Clarke, ADF., Green, P., Chantler, MJ. and Hunt, AR., (2016). Human search for a target on a textured background is consistent with a stochastic model. Journal of Vision. 16 (4), 4-4

Kohler, PJ., Clarke, ADF., Yakovleva, A., Liu, Y. and Norcia, AM., (2016). Representation of Maximally Regular Textures in Human Visual Cortex. Journal of Neuroscience. 36 (3), 714-729

O'Hare, L., Clarke, ADF. and Pollux, PMJ., (2015). VEP Responses to Op-Art Stimuli. PLoS ONE. 10 (9), e0139400-e0139400

Clarke, ADF., Elsner, M. and Rohde, H., (2015). Giving Good Directions: Order of Mention Reflects Visual Salience. Frontiers in Psychology. 6 (DEC), 1793-

Clarke, ADF. and Tatler, BW., (2014). Deriving an appropriate baseline for describing fixation behaviour. Vision Research. 102, 41-51

Clarke, ADF., Coco, MI. and Keller, F., (2013). The impact of attentional, linguistic, and visual features during object naming. Frontiers in Psychology. 4 (DEC)

O'Hare, L., Clarke, ADF. and Hibbard, PB., (2013). Visual Search and Visual Discomfort. Perception. 42 (1), 1-15

Clarke, ADF., Green, PR. and Chantler, MJ., (2012). The effects of display time and eccentricity on the detection of amplitude and phase degradations in textured stimuli. Journal of Vision. 12 (3), 7-7

Clarke, ADF., Green, PR., Halley, F. and Chantler, MJ., (2011). Similar Symmetries: The Role of Wallpaper Groups in Perceptual Texture Similarity. Symmetry. 3 (2), 246-264

Emrith, K., Chantler, MJ., Green, PR., Maloney, LT. and Clarke, ADF., (2010). Measuring perceived differences in surface texture due to changes in higher order statistics. Journal of the Optical Society of America A. 27 (5), 1232-1232

Clarke, ADF., Chantler, MJ. and Green, PR., (2009). Modeling visual search on a rough surface. Journal of Vision. 9 (4), 11-11

Clarke, ADF., Green, PR., Chantler, MJ. and Emrith, K., (2008). Visual search for a target against a 1/fβ continuous textured background. Vision Research. 48 (21), 2193-2203

Conferences (8)

Nowakowska, A., Clarke, ADF., Reuther, J. and Hunt, AR., (2022). Visual search efficiency strongly modulated by irrelevant surface level properties.

Clarke, ADF. and Hughes, AE., (2021). A Generative Model of Target Switching Behaviour in Visual Foraging

Lonnqvist, B., Clarke, ADF. and Chakravarthi, R., (2019). Object recognition in deep convolutional neural networks is fundamentally different to that in humans

James, WRG., Clarke, ADF. and Hunt, AR., (2017). Failure to use probability of success in deciding whether to pursue one goal or two

Papadopoulos, DP., Clarke, ADF., Keller, F. and Ferrari, V., (2014). Training Object Class Detectors from Eye Tracking Data

Elsner, M., Rohde, H. and Clarke, A., (2014). Information Structure Prediction for Visual-world Referring Expressions

Dziemianko, M., Clarke, A. and Keller, F., (2013). Object-based Saliency as a Predictor of Attention in Visual Tasks

Clarke, A., Halley, F., Newell, A., Griffin, L. and Chantler, M., (2011). Perceptual Similarity: A Texture Challenge

Reports and Papers (11)

Hunt, AR., James, W., Reuther, J., Spilioti, M., Mackay, E. and Clarke, ADF., Variable and sub-optimal responses to a choice problem are a persistent default mode

James, W., Reuther, J., Angus, E., Clarke, ADF. and Hunt, AR., Inefficient eye movements: Gamification improves task execution, but not fixation strategy

Clarke, ADF., Nowakowska, A. and Hunt, AR., Seeing beyond salience and guidance: the role of bias and decision in visual search

Clarke, ADF., Irons, J., James, W., Leber, AB. and Hunt, AR., Stable individual differences in strategies within, but not between, visual search tasks

Lonnqvist, B., Elsner, M., Hunt, AR. and Clarke, ADF., Modeling individual variation in visual search with reinforcement learning

Nowakowska, A., Clarke, ADF., Hunt, AR. and von Seth, J., Search strategies improve with practice, but not with time pressure or financial incentives

James, W., Hunt, AR. and Clarke, ADF., Six of one, half dozen of the other: Suboptimal prioritizing for equal and unequal alternatives

Nowakowska, A., Hunt, AR. and Clarke, ADF., Visual search strategies in lab and life

Nowakowska, A., Clarke, ADF., Christie, J., Reuther, J. and Hunt, AR., Less is more: Simple stimuli provoke more variable search strategies.

Kohler, PJ. and Clarke, ADF., The human visual system preserves the hierarchy of 2-dimensional pattern regularity

Clarke, ADF., Hunt, AR. and Hughes, A., Foraging as sampling without replacement: a Bayesian statistical model for estimating biases in target selection

Grants and funding

2020

Developing a collaborative framework for naturalistic visual search

British Academy

The role of familiarity and experience in the implementation of efficient visual search strategies

Economic and Social Research Council

1900

MIND E LEARNING PLATFORM

Enabling Innovation: Research to Application

MIND E LEARNING PLATFORM

Enabling Innovation: Research to Application

Contact

a.clarke@essex.ac.uk
+44 (0) 1206 873941

Location:

2.719, Colchester Campus

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