Rate My Professor Patrick Nalepka

Dr. Patrick Nalepka is a Lecturer in the School of Psychological Sciences at Macquarie University, affiliated with the Performance and Expertise Research Centre. He received his PhD in Psychology from the University of Cincinnati in 2018, where he was a member of the Center for Cognition, Action and Perception. His earlier career includes roles as Research Associate and Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Macquarie University from 2018 to 2020, and Graduate Assistant in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cincinnati from 2013 to 2018. Since December 2023, he has held his current lecturing position in the School of Psychological Sciences.

Nalepka's research investigates perceptual-motor and social interactive processes that scaffold skill acquisition and decision-making in individuals and teams. He develops novel technologies such as social artificial agents to expedite human skill learning, enhance performance, and promote social inclusion. His work involves monitoring dynamics of multidimensional behavioural and physiological signals, developing computational models of human behaviour for human-machine interaction, and utilizing networked immersive virtual reality technologies to evaluate artificial agents' effectiveness in social collaboration and their social acceptance. Research interests encompass Coordination Dynamics, Ecological Psychology, Perception-Action, Skill Acquisition, Team Cognition, Human-Machine Interaction, Complex Systems, and Virtual Reality. Key publications include 'Human social motor solutions for human–machine interaction in dynamical task contexts' (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019), 'Herd those sheep: emergent multiagent coordination and behavioral-mode switching' (Psychological Science, 2017), 'Task dynamics define the contextual emergence of human corralling behaviors' (PLoS ONE, 2021), 'Assessing team effectiveness by how players structure their search in a first-person multiplayer video game' (Cognitive Science, 2022), and 'Autistic young people adaptively use gaze to facilitate joint attention during multi-gestural dyadic interactions' (Autism, 2024). He serves as Unit Convenor for Biopsychology and Learning (2024) and Unit Co-convenor for Principles of Psychological Assessment (2024) at Macquarie University, and has presented on topics including 'Harnessing AI: The future of efficient and effective Defence Training' (2023) and 'Incidental Coupling of Perceptual-Motor Behaviors Associated with Solution Insight during Physical Collaborative Problem-Solving' (2023).