Rate My Professor Frances Martin

Professor Frances Martin serves as Honorary Professor in the School of Science at the University of Newcastle, Australia, and Honours Coordinator for the School of Psychology in the College of Engineering, Science and Environment. She earned her PhD in Arts, Bachelor of Arts (Honours), and Bachelor of Arts, all from the University of Tasmania. Martin's academic career began at the University of Tasmania School of Psychology, where she was appointed Lecturer B in 1996, granted a continuing appointment in 1998 for outstanding performance, promoted to Lecturer C in 2002 and again in 2006 with accelerated progression, to Lecturer D in 2009, and served as Associate Professor from 2008 to 2011. In 2012, she accepted a position as Lecturer D at the University of Newcastle, progressing to her current honorary professorship.

Her research focuses on psychophysiology (50%), social and affective neuroscience (30%), and learning, motivation, and emotion (20%), encompassing cognition and cognitive processes, EEG and event-related potentials (such as N400, MMN, and late positive components), emotion, neuroscience, reading development, substance use effects (alcohol, caffeine, cannabis), emotional processing, attention, dyslexia, and internet addiction. She co-authored the book 'Martin and Pratt Nonword Reading Test' (2001) and has published extensively, including 'Deconstructing threat: Rethinking the interplay between biological and social relevance in the emotional salience of unpleasant images' (2020), 'Mental health literacy in India and Australia and its relationship to attitudes towards LGBT people' (2023), 'An event-related potential investigation of age and sex in face categorization: Participant sex matters' (2019), 'Contrast sensitivity and motion discrimination in cannabis users' (2018), and 'Spatial attention and reading ability: ERP correlates of flanker and cue-size effects in good and poor adult phonological decoders' (2015). Martin has supervised over 20 PhD theses on topics including memory processes, dyslexia interventions, addiction, and affective processing. She received the National Health and Medical Research Council Applied Health Fellowship (1990) and the Australian Psychological Society's Distinguished Contribution to Psychological Education Award. Her teaching excellence is recognized in university merit lists for outstanding course performance.