— Ancret Szpak
Lecturer
School of Psychology
Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
My primary area of interest is the application of virtual reality to develop or enhance real-world skills. I have expertise in virtual and augmented reality in healthcare, sports training and cognitive abilities.
-
Appointments
Date Position Institution name 2023 - ongoing Lecturer University of Adelaide -
Education
Date Institution name Country Title 2012 - 2016 Flinders University Australia PhD -
Research Interests
-
Journals
Year Citation 2023 Michalski, S. C., Gallomarino, N. C., Szpak, A., May, K. W., Lee, G., Ellison, C., & Loetscher, T. (2023). Improving real-world skills in people with intellectual disabilities: an immersive virtual reality intervention. Virtual Reality, 27(4), 3521-3532.
Scopus12022 Michalski, S. C., Szpak, A., Ellison, C., Cornish, R., & Loetscher, T. (2022). Using Virtual Reality to Improve Classroom Behavior in People With Down Syndrome: Within-Subjects Experimental Design. JMIR Serious Games, 10(2), e34373.
Scopus1 WoS2 Europe PMC12021 Clark, R. A., Szpak, A., Michalski, S. C., & Loetscher, T. (2021). Rest intervals during virtual reality gaming augments standing postural sway disturbance. Sensors, 21(20), 6817.
Scopus4 WoS32021 Michalski, S. C., Ellison, C., Szpak, A., & Loetscher, T. (2021). Vocational Training in Virtual Environments for People With Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Systematic Review. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 1-9.
Scopus9 WoS72020 Szpak, A., Michalski, S. C., & Loetscher, T. (2020). Exergaming with Beat Saber: An Investigation of Virtual Reality Aftereffects. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(10), 1-14.
Scopus44 WoS30 Europe PMC142020 Saredakis, D., Szpak, A., Birckhead, B., Keage, H. A. D., Rizzo, A., & Loetscher, T. (2020). Factors associated with virtual reality sickness in head-mounted displays: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 14, 17 pages.
Scopus306 WoS230 Europe PMC972020 Michalski, S. C., Ellison, C., Szpak, A., & Loetscher, T. (2020). Vocational Training in Virtual Environments for People With Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Systematic Review.
2020 Szpak, A., Michalski, S. C., & Loetscher, T. (2020). Exergaming With Beat Saber: An Investigation of Virtual Reality Aftereffects.
2019 Michalski, S. C., Szpak, A., Saredakis, D., Ross, T. J., Billinghurst, M., & Loetscher, T. (2019). Getting your game on: Using virtual reality to improve real table tennis skills. PLoS ONE, 14(9), 1-14.
Scopus77 WoS47 Europe PMC142019 Szpak, A., Michalski, S. C., Saredakis, D., Chen, C. S., & Loetscher, T. (2019). Beyond Feeling Sick: The Visual and Cognitive Aftereffects of Virtual Reality. IEEE Access, 7, 130883-130892.
Scopus47 WoS382019 Michalski, S. C., Szpak, A., & Loetscher, T. (2019). Using virtual environments to improve real-world motor skills in sports: A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 10(SEP), 9 pages.
Scopus36 WoS24 Europe PMC132018 Saccone, E. J., Szpak, A., Churches, O., & Nicholls, M. E. R. (2018). Close interpersonal proximity modulates visuomotor processing of object affordances in shared, social space. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 80(1), 54-68.
Scopus11 WoS10 Europe PMC52016 Szpak, A., Thomas, N. A., & Nicholls, M. E. R. (2016). Hemispheric asymmetries in perceived depth revealed through a radial line bisection task. Experimental Brain Research, 234(3), 807-813.
Scopus6 WoS4 Europe PMC32016 Szpak, A., Nicholls, M. E. R., Thomas, N. A., Laham, S. M., & Loetscher, T. (2016). “No man is an island”: Effects of interpersonal proximity on spatial attention. Cognitive Neuroscience, 7(1-4), 45-54.
Scopus9 WoS8 Europe PMC92015 Szpak, A., Loetscher, T., Churches, O., Thomas, N., Spence, C., & Nicholls, M. (2015). Keeping your distance: attentional withdrawal in individuals who show physiological signs of social discomfort. Neuropsychologia, 70, 462-467.
Scopus21 WoS19 Europe PMC122015 Szpak, A., Loetscher, T., Bastian, J., Thomas, N., & Nicholls, M. (2015). Visual assymetries for relative depth judgements in a three-dimensional space. Brain and Cognition, 99, 128-134.
Scopus4 WoS3 Europe PMC3 -
Conference Papers
Year Citation 2022 Szpak, A., Richards, A., Michalski, S. C., & Loetscher, T. (2022). Getting the Most out of Virtual Reality: Evaluating Short Breaks to Reduce Cybersickness and Cognitive Aftereffects. In Proceedings - 2022 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops, VRW 2022 (pp. 533-537). Christchurch, New Zealand: IEEE.
Scopus3 WoS12021 Ellison, C., Michalski, S., Loechester, T., & Szpak, A. (2021). Innovative vocational training using virtual reality for individuals with intellectual disability. In JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES Vol. 34 (pp. 1211). WILEY. 2021 Ellison, C., Faulkner, P., & Szpak, A. (2021). Building capacity to participate in bike riding using virtual reality. In JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES Vol. 34 (pp. 1302). WILEY. 2021 Michalski, S., Ellison, C., Loechester, T., & Szpak, A. (2021). Engaging people with Down syndrome in a virtual drawing task: An experimental study. In JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES Vol. 34 (pp. 1354). WILEY. -
Conference Items
Year Citation 2015 Szpak, A., Loetscher, T., Churches, O., Thomas, N. A., & Nicholls, M. E. R. (2015). Too close for comfort: The effect of interpersonal proximity on spatial attention. Poster session presented at the meeting of COGNITIVE PROCESSING. Rome, ITALY: SPRINGER HEIDELBERG. -
Preprint
Year Citation 2019 Michalski, S. C., Szpak, A., Saredakis, D., Ross, T., Billinghurst, M., & Loetscher, T. (2019). Getting Your Game On: Using Virtual Reality to Improve Real Table Tennis Skills.
Jul 2023 Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), Augmented Reality to Improve Telemedicine Delivery and Wound Research.
Sep 2020 Indigenous Australian’s Health Programme (Dept. of Health), Improving telemedicine delivery for Aboriginal people with diabetes-related foot complications using Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR).
Oct 2020 Augusta Zadow Awards (SafeWorkSA), Testing the Effectiveness of Virtual Reality-Based Training for Forklift Operation Safety Skills among Young People.
Oct 2020 Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation, Helping children with intellectual disabilities develop real-world life skills in virtual reality.
Jul 2020 Road Safety Innovation Fund (Dept. of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications), Testing user experience methods for older vulnerable road users.
I am a Lecturer in the School of Psychology and I am currently coordinating online courses in the Graduate Diploma of Psychology Advanced (GDPA).
Connect With Me
External Profiles