Since joining UTC I have co-authored 10 peer-reviewed articles (journals ranging in impact factor from 0.88 to 3.62), have two others in various stages of preparation and review, presented 2 full day pre-conference workshops, presented 7 invited lectures, and presented 22 posters with my students at regional, national and international conferences. Furthermore, I have secured over $26,000 in internal research funding for my Assessing Cognition Lab, participated in externally funded multidisciplinary research programs that secured over $2.32 million in funding, and served as an external evaluator for over $3.68 million in funding requests.
My research program focuses on assessing cognition and everyday life function in healthy young adults, aging adults, those with acquired brain injury, and those who malinger. In my research lab, we develop and adapt assessments that are first, reflective of one’s actual competence in daily life, and second, effective at dissociating participants based on both injury status, veracity, and severity. Through this work, we contribute to the literature on how performance differs between those who have genuine impairment and those who malinger, how and why genuinely impaired individuals make errors in complex, everyday tasks, and how that information can be used to develop strategies for the prevention of these errors in the young, old, and impaired.
In the last several years, since my appointment to the rank of Associate Professor and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, I have invested my research time in mentoring graduate students through the Psychological Science graduate program. Despite two significant health crises in my family, I have maintained an active research lab with graduate and undergraduate students. I have mentored Taylor Hutson, Melissa Materia, Jacob Robbins, Lauren Strickland, Nic Maynard to the completion of their degree, and I’m currently mentoring Samantha Dean and Cooper Mathis. Our lab - the Assessing Cognition Lab - has presented 11 peer-reviewed conference papers or posters. Melissa, Jacob, Lauren, and Nic are all at various stages of preparing our research for publication as well.
The buttons below link to more information about the projects associated with each of the areas of my research program.
Student engagement in research
While pursing my research program I have mentored and supervised 9 graduate thesis students, 5 graduate assistants, and 24 undergraduate students. I trained many of those students to administer neuropsychological assessments, they collected and analyzed data and many were also invited to present our work at regional, national and international conferences.
Peer Reviewed Publications
* indicates a student that worked under my supervision.
*Robbins, J., Woltering, S., Brooks, J. & Clark, A. (in preparation for submission in November 2025) Paying for attention: Examining intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in reactive cognitive control. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. PDF
Clark, A. & Roy, E. (in review) Older and wiser: How age and pace impact the experience of action slips in routine tasks. Journal of Cognition. PDF
Lecci, L., Freund, C.T., Ayearst, L.E., Sitarenios, G., Pickett, B., Crews, F., Dugan, K., Lange, L., Clark, A., Linz, T., Taravath, S., Williams, M. & Keith, J. (2021). Validating a short Conners CPT 3 as a screener: Predicting self-reported CDC concussion symptoms in children, adolescents, and adults. Journal of Pediatric Neuropsychology, 7, 169-181. PDF
*Hansen, M., *De Amicis, N. K., Anderson, N. D., Binns, M. A., Clark, A., & Dawson, D. R. (2018, post-tenure decision). Cognitive contributors to Multiple Errands Test performance. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 72(6), 1-7. PDF
Fell, N., Clark, A., Jackson, J., Stanfield, H., Bishop, C., Angwin, C., & Farrar, I. (2018, pre-tenure decision). The evolution of a community-wide interprofessional fall prevention coalition: Fall prevention as a vehicle for community and university collaboration and interprofessional education. Journal of Interprofessional Education and Practice, 8, 47-51. PDF
Jackson, J., Clark, A., Pearse, L., Miller, A. E., Stanfield, H., & Cunningham, C. J. L. (2017). Explaining student interest and confidence in providing care for older adults: The role of demographics and life experiences. Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 43(3), 13-18. PDF
Clark, A., Anderson, N., Nalder, E., Arshad, S. & Dawson, D. (2017). Reliability and construct validity of a revised Baycrest Multiple Errands Test. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 27(5), 667-684. PDF
Nalder, E., Clark, A., Anderson, N., & Dawson, D. (2017). Clinicians’ perceptions of the clinical utility of the Multiple Errands Test for adults with neurological conditions. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 27(5), 685-706. PDF
*Nida, A. & Clark, A. (2016). The characterization of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder using the Slip Induction Task. Modern Psychological Studies, 21(2), 33-39. PDF
Ozen, L., & Fernandes, M., Clark, A., & Roy, E. (2015). Evidence of cognitive decline in older adults after remote traumatic brain injury. Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition, 22(5), 517-533. doi: 10.1080/13825585.2014.993584. PDF
Dawson, D., Richardson, J., Troyer, A., Binns, M., Clark, A., Winocur, G., Hunt, A., Bar, Y., Polatajko, H. & Schweizer, T. (2014). An occupation-based strategy training approach to managing age-related executive changes: A pilot randomized controlled trial. Clinical Rehabilitation, 28(2), 118-127. doi: 10.1177/0269215513492541. PDF
Clark, A., Parakh, R., Smilek, D. & Roy, E. (2012). The Slip Induction Task: Creating a window into attention failures. Behavior Research Methods, 44(2), 558-574. PDF
Invited Presentations and Workshops
Clark, A. (2025, September). Dante Love: The Role of Neuropsychology in Patient Care. Interprofessional Education Conference, Chattanooga, TN.
Clark, A. (2025, February). You are More than One Thing. Scholars in Residence.
Clark, A. (2019, January). Your CEO: The frontal lobes and traumatic brain injury. Chatt About Science.
Clark, A. (2018, May). Goal, Plan, Do, Check: A guide to staying in involved in meaningful. Alexian Village.
Dawson, D., Nalder, E., & Clark, A. (2016, October). The Multiple Errands Test: Developing, administering and scoring site-specific versions. Full day workshop at the 93rd Annual Conference of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine.
Clark, A. (2016, April). Brain injury and aging: Its impact on executive function and everyday routine activities. Invited lecture at Chattanooga Area Brain Injury Association's 11th Annual Conference.
Clark, A. (2015, April). Identifying executive dysfunction: Here and elsewhere with the Multiple Errands Test. Sigma Xi Graduate Award Ceremony at UTC.
Clark, A. (2014, September). The everyday cognitive impacts of acquired brain injury. Biology Seminar Series at UTC.
Dawson, D., Clark, A. & Rose, N. (2013, March). Behavioral / functional outcome measures: Towards ecologically valid assessment of cognition. Full day workshop at the 23rd Annual Rotman Research Institute Neuroscience Conference.
Conference PresentationS
* indicates a graduate student that worked under my supervision.
^ indicated an undergraduate student that worked under my supervision.
*Materia, M., *Dean, S. & Clark, A. (2025, April). Does cognitive control affect successful ‘sandbagging’ of concussion symptoms? Poster presentation at the 2025 meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association. PDF
*Smith, B., *Maynard, N., *Mathis, C. & Clark, A. (2025, April). Detecting Malingering in ADHD Through Performance-Based Assessments Poster presentation at the 2025 meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association. PDF
Clark, A., *Nabors, L., *Strickland, L., & ^Bowden, C. (2023, March). What was I thinking?!? How concussion affects attention and self-regulation in everyday life. Poster presentation at the 2023 meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association. PDF
*Strickland, L. & Clark, A. (2023, March). A novel approach to the N-back working memory paradigm: The role of task-related stress. Presentation at 2023 Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology meeting. PDF Abstract
*Strickland, L., ^Humphrey, L & Clark, A. (2023, March). The relationships among adverse childhood experiences, working memory, and stress. Poster presentation at the 2023 meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association. PDF
*Robbins, J. & Clark, A. (2022, August). The influence of motivation on reactive cognitive control. Poster presentation at the 2022 meeting of the American Psychological Association.
*Robbins, J., ^Melone, M., & Clark, A. (2022, March). The influence of reward on reactive cognitive control. Poster presentation at the 2022 meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association. PDF
^Halvorson, E., *Materia, M. & Clark, A. (2021, March). Adverse childhood experiences and health: Relationships between ACES scores, health conditions, stress, and resilience in college students. Poster presentation at the 2021 meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association. PDF
*Materia, M., ^Halvorson, E., & Clark, A. (2021, February). Resilience moderates the impact of adverse childhood experiences on mental health, coping behaviors, and cognitive ability. Poster presentation at the 2021 meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society. PDF
Clark, A. & *Branson, R. C. (2021, February). Utilizing embedded indicators from the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task to detect suboptimal effort in college students. Poster presentation at the 2021 meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society. PDF
*Hutson, T. & Clark, A. (2020, March). Let’s get physical: The dual-task costs of multiple motor responses. Accepted poster presentation at the 2020 meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association. This meeting was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. PDF Abstract
^Shea, A., *Cummings, H., & Clark, A. (2018, March). Your family looks better than mine: Self-esteem and appraisal of idealized relationships on Facebook. Presented as a poster at the 2018 meeting of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology.
*Rogers, K., *Branson, R. C., & Clark, A. (2018, March). Naturalistic assessment of functional impairment in Parkinson’s disease. Presented as a poster at the 2018 meeting of the Cognitive Aging Conference. PDF
*Hansen, M., *De Amicis, N. K., Anderson, N. D., Binns, M. A., Clark, A., & Dawson, D. R. (2017, June). Cognitive contributors to Multiple Errands Test performance. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy. Presented as a poster at the 2017 meeting of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapy. PDF
Rogers, K., *Branson, R.C, Miller, A., & Clark, A. (2017, March). Examining effort in undergraduate research participants who are simulating a brain injury. Poster presentation at the 2017 meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Society.
Clark, A., *Nida, A., & Robinson, K. (2016, March). Self-esteem and attention to idealized relationship portrayals on Facebook. Poster presentation at the 2016 meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Society.
Clark, A., Warren, A., & *Comotto, N. (2016, March). Assessing critical thinking in students with general and discipline-specific measures. Poster presentation at the 2016 meeting of the South Psychological Society.
*Branson, R. C., Young, J. C., *Ritter, Z., & Clark, A. (2016, February). Detecting suboptimal effort in undergraduate students who simulate brain injury. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. Presented as a poster at the 2016 meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society in Boston, Massachusetts.
Jackson, J., Clark, A., Miller, A. B., & Pearse, L. (2016, January). Predicting student interest and confidence in providing geriatric care. Poster presentation at the 2016 meeting of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.
Stanfield, H., Clark, A., Jackson, J., Tate, J., Tillman, L., Fell, N., Hanks, J. & Hackathorne, J. (2015, June). The cadaver lab experience: An approach to interprofessional education”. Poster presentation at 1st annual Southeastern IPE Conference.
Clark, A., & Warren, A. (2015, May). Enhancing critical thinking in upper-level psychology students. Poster presentation at the 2015 UTC Instructional Excellence Retreat.
Clark, A., & Warren, A. (2015, March). Enhancing critical thinking in upper-level psychology students. Poster presentation at the 2015 meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Society.
*Nida, A., & Clark, A. (2015, March). The characterization of ADHD with the Slip Induction Task. Poster presentation at the 2015 meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Society.
*Branson, R. C., Clark, A., & Dawson, D. (2015, February). Examining an alternate version of the Baycrest Multiple Errands Test. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. Presented as a poster at the 2015 meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society in Denver, Colorado.
Smith, C., Jackson, J., Stanfield, H. & Clark, A. (2014, April). Interprofessional advanced nursing education: A cadaver lab experience. Poster presentation at Region 8 Sigma Theta Tau conference.
Jackson, J., Clark, A., & Stanfield, H. (2014, April). Providing advanced, culturally competent care through clinical training (PACT 4): Interprofessional geriatric care. Poster presentation at St. David’s Center for Health Promotion & Disease Prevention Research in Underserved Populations conference.
Clark, A., Anderson, N., Arshad, S. & Dawson, D. (2014, March). Improving the discriminability of the Baycrest Multiple Errands Test. Presentation at the 2014 meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Society.
Nalder, E., Anderson, N., Clark, A., & (2013, November). Clinicians’ Use of the Multiple Errands Test for adults with neurological disorders. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Presented as a poster at the 90th Annual Conference of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, Orlando, USA.
*Branson, R. C., *Lemay, C., *Finley, S. K., *Galloway, A., Dawson, D. & Clark, A. (2013, November) Identifying executive dysfunction in TBI with the Multiple Errands Test. Poster presentation at the 2013 meeting of the Tennessee Psychological Association.
*Lemay, C., *Branson, R. C., *Finley, S. K., *Galloway, A., Dawson, D. & Clark, A. (2013, November) Breaking the Rules: Executive Dysfunction in TBI. Poster presentation at the 2013 meeting of the Tennessee Psychological Association.
Clark, A., Roy, E., & Dawson, D. (2012, May). Characterizing the impact of executive dysfunction on everyday life in adults with stroke? Poster presentation at the annual general meeting of the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Center for Stroke Recovery.
*Burns, C., *VanRuymbeke, N., Clark, A., & Dawson, D. (2012, May). Oops – that was a mistake! Improving performance of routine tasks. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy. Presented as a poster at the 2012 meeting of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapy.
Clark, A., Roy, E., & Dawson, D. (2012, February). Characterizing the impact of executive dysfunction on everyday life in adults with stroke? Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. Presented as a poster at the 2012 meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society in Montreal, QC.
Clark, A., Ozen, L., Fernandes, M. & Roy. E. (2011, October). Preventing slips of action: Evidence from younger and older adults with mild traumatic brain injury. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Presented as a poster at the ACRM-ASNR 2011 Annual Conference, Atlanta, GA.
Clark, A. & Roy, E. (2010, March). Preventing slips of action by slowing task pace. Frontiers of Human Neuroscience. Presented as a poster at the 20th annual Rotman Research Conference, Toronto ON.
Clark, A., Roy, E., Smilek, D., Lyons., J. & Staines, R. (2010, March). Preventing slips of action by slowing task pace. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. Presented as a poster at the 2010 meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society in Montreal, QC.
Clark, A., Ozen, L, Fernandes, M. & Roy, E. (2010, February). Measuring attention impairment in mild head injury. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. Presented as a poster at the 2010 meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society in Acapulco, Mexico.
Ozen, L., Clark, A., Roy, E., Fernandes, M. (2010, February). Persistent attention and memory impairments in young adults with mild head injury. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. Presented as a poster at the 2010 meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society in Acapulco, Mexico.
Clark, A., Ozen, L., Fernandes, M. & Roy, E. (2009, October). Detecting subtle persistent memory and attention deficits in high functioning young adults with mild traumatic brain injury. Presentation at the 2009 meeting of the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology.
Clark, A. (2009, September). Older and wiser: Looking at the impact of age on slips of action. Presentation at the 2009 meeting of the Southern Ontario Motor Behavior Symposium.
Clark, A., Smilek, D., Lyons., J. & Roy, E. (2009, June). Older and Wiser? Looking at the impact of age on slips of action. Brain and Cognition. Presented as a poster at the 2009 meeting of the Theoretical and Experimental Neuropsychology society.
Clark, A., Roy, E., Smilek, D., Lyons., J. & Staines, R. (2009, March). The impact of aging on slips of action in everyday life. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. Presented as a poster at the 2009 meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society in San Francisco, CA.
Clark, A., Roy, E., Smilek, D. Lyons, J & Staines, R. (2008, October). Inducing Slips of Action and Examining Their Relationship to Attention Failures in Daily Life, Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 89 (10), e51. Presented as a poster at the 2008 meeting of the American Congress of Rehabilitative Medicine in Toronto, ON.
Clark, A., Desmarais, G., Stamenova, V., Kuehner, Z., Oud, W., Roy, E. & Smilek, D. (2008, July). What was I thinking?!? A study of self-reported errors of attention in younger and older adults. Brain and Cognition. Presented as a poster at the 2008 annual meeting of the Theoretical and Experimental Neuropsychology society.
Clark, A., Roy, E., Smilek, D., Lyons., J. & Staines, R. (2008, July). Information processing strategies gone awry: Inducing slips of action. Presentation at the 2008 meeting of the Southern Ontario Neuropsychology Group.
Clark, A., Roy, E., Smilek, D., Staines, R. & Lyons, L. (2008, June). Predicting slips of action: Contrasting and comparing both objective and subjective measures. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology. Presented as a poster at the 2008 meeting of the Canadian Society for Brain Behavior and Cognitive Science.
Clark, A., Roy, E., Parakh, R., Smilek, D., Lyons, J. & Staines, R. (2008, February). Inducing slips of action by manipulating a well-learned action routine. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. Presented as a poster at the 2008 meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society in Kailua-Kona, HI
Clark, A., Roy, E., Parakh, R., Smilek, D., Lyons, J. & Staines, R. (2007, October). Induced slips of action: What difference does practice make? Poster presentation at the 2007 meeting of the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology.
Clark. A., Parakh, R. & Roy, E. (2007, July). Inducing slips of action: Creating a window into attention failures. Brain and Cognition. Presented as a poster at the 2007 meeting of the Theoretical and Experimental Neuropsychology society.
Clark, A. J., Parakh, R. & Roy, E.A. (2006, November). Induced slips of action: The impact of attention on conscious control. Presentations at the 2006 meeting of the Southwestern Ontario Motor Behavior Symposium.
Clark, A. J., Roy, E. A, Desmarais, G., Black, S., Stamenova, V., Almeida, Q., Dixon, M., Park, N. & Danckert, J. (2006, October). Tool-related and communicative gestures in apraxia: Evidence for separate semantic representations? Presentation at the 2006 meeting of the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology.
Clark, A. & Houlihan M. (2005, April). Event-related potentials as an index of the attentional effects of nicotine. Presentation at the 2005 Atlantic Provinces Interdisciplinary Council on the Sciences Student Psychology Conference.
Clark, A. & Houlihan, M. (2004, April). Detecting guilty knowledge: The N400 component of event-related potentials. Presentation at the 2004 Atlantic Provinces Interdisciplinary Council on the Sciences Student Psychology Conference.