Rate My Professor Patrick Clarke

Associate Professor Patrick Clarke is affiliated with the Faculty of Health Sciences at Curtin University, serving in the School of Population Health and previously the School of Psychology and Speech Pathology. A clinical psychologist, he completed his undergraduate studies and PhD in Psychology at the University of Western Australia in 2009, followed by a Master of Clinical Psychology at Curtin University in 2007. His professional trajectory includes a Postdoctoral Clinical Research Fellow position at the University of Sydney's Brain and Mind Research Institute from 2009 to 2011, Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Lecturer roles at the University of Western Australia from 2011 to 2016, and since 2016, Lecturer and Associate Professor positions at Curtin University.

Patrick Clarke's research specializations encompass the cognitive and neural mechanisms of emotional vulnerability and resilience, particularly cognitive biases such as attentional bias, interpretation bias, and attention bias variability in anxiety disorders including social anxiety. He investigates attentional bias modification techniques to reduce anxiety vulnerability, emotion regulation strategies, the influence of social media use on attentional control and psychological distress, sleep hygiene and objective sleep parameters, as well as cognitive biases in chronic pain, insomnia, and their mutual maintenance. Key publications include 'Lessons Unlearned: A Conceptual Review and Meta-Analysis of the Relationship between the Attention Control Scale and Objective Attention Control' (2021), 'Chronic Pain, Insomnia and their Mutual Maintenance: A Call for Cognitive Bias Research' (2022), 'Investigating the Effects of Inhibition Training on Attentional Bias Change: A Simple Bayesian Approach' (2019), and 'Assessing the Validity of Self-Report Social Media Use: Evidence of No Relationship with Objective Smartphone Use' (2022). With over 3,500 citations on Google Scholar, his contributions have notably impacted the fields of cognitive psychology and clinical interventions for mental health. Clarke serves as Associate Editor for the journal Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, is a member of the Cognition and Emotion Research Group and Curtin Autism Research Group, supervises PhD students, and participates in public lectures and media discussions on screen time effects on attention spans and brain training for anxiety and depression.