About

I am an Associate Professor in Psychology. A lot of my work centres around my research and research leadership roles. I was a member of the University Professorial Council (UPC) for three years (2018-21) where I was involved in strategic researcher developments designed to enhance sustainable research and innovation at Derby, for example by acting as a mentor for early career researchers and peer-reviewing external grant bids. As a UPC member, I also contributed to developing the university’s research ethics processes and guidance, which linked in well with my role as member of the Human Sciences Research Ethics Committee.

I am the Chair of the HPSC College Research Degrees Committee where I lead on monitoring and supporting the progression and performance of doctoral students in our college. I also make sure that effective supervisor arrangements are in place and support and advise doctoral supervisors and students regarding all stages and aspects of the doctoral journey. My passion for creating a vibrant and stimulating doctoral community has also been the driver for my long-standing leading role in delivering the university’s training programme for doctoral supervisors. I am also a member of the HPSC College Research Committee which focuses on supporting and monitoring Innovation and Research across the college.

I am an experienced doctoral supervisor, doctoral examiner and chair of doctoral viva voce examinations. 

In addition to the above roles, however, I remain passionate about teaching and continue to engage in research-informed teaching across all levels of our undergraduate Psychology degree programmes and on our MSc Behaviour Change programme. I have included many undergraduate and Master’s students in my research and have supported undergraduate students in developing their research skills and career development via joint staff-student projects funded by UoD’s URSS and OCIS schemes.

Research interests

In my collaborative research, I have applied psychological theories to the study of everyday activities and issues including reading strategies used by monolingual and bilingual students, exam anxiety, alcohol-related aggression, the role of working memory in malingering in neuropsychological and forensic settings, and using behaviour change models to understand enablers and barriers to physical activity among university staff and students.

I currently run two internally funded projects:  I am Principal Investigator on the project “Benefits of Reading as a Hobby for Wellbeing” funded by the Biomedical & Clinical Sciences Academic Theme (Spring 2024 call), and co-Principal Investigator on the project “Multidisciplinary Systems Thinking: An Antidote to Silo-Working”  with a focus on doctoral student wellbeing, funded by the Vice Chancellor’s New Ideas Forum.

I am grateful for the financial support I have received from external research councils - the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), SERC/Joint Council Initiative in Cognitive Science/HCI, German Research Foundation (DFG) -  as well as numerous University of Derby internal grants.

My research has been published in peer-reviewed high-quality journals including the Journal of Experimental Psychopathology, PLoS ONE, Personality and Individual Differences, The Journal of Pain, International Journal of Psychophysiology, Neuroscience Letters, Language and Cognitive Processes.

I act as an occasional reviewer for several leading academic journals and grant bodies.

Recent publications

• Maratos, F.A., Chu, K-M, Lipka, S., Stupple, E.J.N. and Parente, F. (2023). Exploring Pattern Recognition: What is the relationship between the recognition of words, faces and other objects? Cognitive Processing Cognitive Processing. 24, p. 59–70. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-022-01111-3
• Ndupu, L., Staples, V., Lipka, S., Faghy, M., Bessadet, N. and Bussell, C. (2023). Application of theoretical domains framework to explore the enablers and barriers to physical activity among university staff and students: a qualitative study. BMC Public Health. 23 (670), pp. 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15588-w
• Ndupu, L.B., Bussell, C., Faghy, M., Staples, V. and Lipka, S. (2023). Exploring the predictors of physical inactivity in a university setting. BMC Public Health. 23 (59). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14953-5
• McGivern, P., Hussain, Z., Lipka, S., & Stupple, E. (2019). The impact of pop-up warning messages of losses on expenditure in a simulated game of roulette: A pilot Study. BMC Public Health, 19:822. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7191-5
• Kelly, L., Maratos, F. A., Lipka, S., & Croker, S. (2016). Attentional Bias towards threatening and neutral facial expressions in high trait anxious children. Journal of Experimental Psychopathology, 7(3), 343-359. http://dx.doi.org/10.5127/jep.052915
• McEwan, K., Gilbert, P., Dandeneau, S., Lipka, S., Maratos, F., Paterson, K.B., & Baldwin, M. (2014). Facial expressions depicting compassionate and critical emotions: The development and validation of a new emotional face stimulus set. PloS ONE 9(2): e88783. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0088783
• Drake, K. E., Lipka, S., Smith, C. & Egan, V. (2013). The effect of cognitive load on faking suggestibility on the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 54, 845-849. (DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.12.011
• Brown, S., Lipka, S., Coyne, S., Qualter, P., Barlow, A., & Taylor, P. (2011). Implicit Alcohol-Aggression Scripts and Alcohol-Related Aggression on a Laboratory Task in 11-14 Year-Old Adolescents. Aggressive Behavior, 37(5),430-439. DOI: 10.1002/ab.2040
• Dohrenbusch, R., Buchanan, H., Lipka, S., & Ott, R. (2008). Impact of chronic somatoform and osteoarthritis pain on conscious and preconscious cognitive processing. The Journal of Pain, 9 (10),927-939. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpain.2008.05.004
• Kopp, F., Schroeger, E., & Lipka, S. (2006). Synchronized brain activity during rehearsal and short-term memory disruption by irrelevant speech is affected by recall mode. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 61, 188-203
• Dohrenbusch, R., & Lipka, S. (2006). Assessing and predicting supervisors' evaluations of psychotherapists. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 19(4),395-414
• Kopp, F., Schroeger, E., & Lipka, S. (2004). Neural networks engaged in short-term memory rehearsal are disrupted by irrelevant speech in human subjects. Neuroscience Letters, 354 (1), 42-45
• Lipka, S. (2002). Reading sentences with a Late Closure ambiguity: Does semantic information help? Language and Cognitive Processes, 17 (3), 271-298
• Lipka, S., Kopp, F., & Pechmann, T. (2000). Referential context effects for subject/object relative-clause ambiguities: The role of the Reading Span. In E. Schroeger, A. Mecklinger, & A. D. Friederici (Eds.), Working on working memory. Leipzig: Leipzig University Press, pp. 121-138

Professional interests

I have always been interested in language and communication in all shapes and forms – how children acquire language, developmental language disorders, bilingualism, sign language, the complex processes going on when people read, benefits of reading for well-being, and how language influences our emotions, behaviour and intentions to change our behaviour. 

I also have a keen research interest in doctoral pedagogy and have led the Doctoral Research Supervisor staff development training programme at the University of Derby for many years. I believe that supporting supervisors in developing their skills and confidence can have a positive impact on the quality of doctoral supervision, both in terms of timely doctoral completion rates as well as improved student and supervisor satisfaction and well-being.

Qualifications

• Diplompsychologie (equivalent to an MSc in Psychology), University of Bonn, Germany
• MSc Human Communication Studies, Institute of Neurology, University of London and National Hospitals College of Speech Sciences, University of London
• PhD Psychology, University College London
• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), Higher Education Academy

Recent conferences

Recent conferences (selection)

• Lipka, S. (2024). Reading as a Hobby. Talk presented at the Biomedical and Clinical Science Theme – Research Away Day, January 2024, University of Derby
• Jackson, R., & Lipka, S. (2021). “Take a Minute" – The effects of a brief visualized breathing exercise on perceived stress, affect, irritability and state anxiety in a non-clinical population. Talk presented at the College of Health, Psychology and Social Care Research Showcase Event, 24th November 2021
• Jackson, R., & Lipka, S. (2020). "Take a Minute" - Can an extremely brief focused, visualized breathing exercise provide beneficial results on perceived stress, positive & negative affect, irritability and state anxiety in a non-clinical population? Poster presented at 6th CBC Online Conference 2020 - Behaviour Change for Health: Current and emerging science and technologies, 16-18 September 2020
• Lipka, S. & Smyth, M. (2019). Bridging the knowledge – practice gap: Improving the quality of doctoral research supervision, student performance and wellbeing. Poster presented at 5th CBC Conference 2019 - Behaviour Change for Health: Digital and other Innovative Methods, 9-10 April, 2019, London
• Karousi, A., Bignell, S., Barnes, C., & Lipka, S. (2018). Parental understanding based autism profiler for children and young adults. Poster presented at the British Psychological Society’s Annual Conference 2018, 02-04 May 2018, Nottingham
• Gale, M., Lipka, S. & Smith, H. (2018). Dyslexia, hoarding and executive function. Poster presented at the British Psychological Society’s Annual Conference 2018, 02-04 May 2018, Nottingham
• Payne, E., & Lipka, S. (2018). Dual-tasking, authorial confidence and inadvertent plagiarism among L1 and L2 speakers. Poster presented at the British Psychological Society’s Annual Conference 2018, 02-04 May 2018, Nottingham
• Lipka, S. (2018). Complex interventions - Exploring the application of behaviour change theory to doctoral supervisor training. Poster presented at Centre for Behaviour Change Digital Health Conference 2018: Behaviour Change for Health: Digital and Beyond, 21-22 Feb 2018. London
• Lipka, S. (2017a). Development programmes for new doctoral supervisors – do they work? Talk presented at Researcher Education and Development Scholarship Conference 2017: New outlooks on the development of researchers in a changed landscape: pedagogy and theory, 12^th October 2017, University of Leeds, UK
• Lipka, S. (2017b). How to build good supervisory relationships. Talk presented at the annual Derby Learning and Teaching Conference, Buxton, 3rd July 2017
• Lipka, S. (2017c). Three insights gained – Delivering doctoral supervision training. Talk presented at Doctoral Supervision Symposium: Trust and ‘Doctorateness', 15 February 2017. University of Bristol, UK

In the media

I have given several interviews at BBC Radio Derby including

• 1^st May 2018: Teachers’ regional accents: Is there a need for teachers to modify their accent and use Standard English?
• May 2020: New habits in lockdown: Do we struggle with a change in routine? What can help us cope with change and develop new routines?

September 2020: Harper's Bazaar feature

I contributed to a feature on the mental health benefits of reading and How to make leisure reading a habit in the prestigious Harper’s Bazaar online magazine in September 2020:

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/culture/a33830807/7-achievable-ways-to-read-more/

“7 achievable ways to read more. No time, no problem”

International experience

I have detailed inside knowledge of the German university system, from both a student and staff perspective. I studied for my first degree in Bonn and worked as a lecturer in Psycholinguistics at the University of Leipzig from June 1996 to February 2002. I have a particular interest in supporting international students.

Teaching responsibilities

I contribute to modules at all levels of our undergraduate psychology programmes and at postgraduate level on the MSc Behaviour Change. Key subjects I currently teach include cognitive and developmental psychology, the psychology of language and communication, the psychology of education, and psychology for behaviour change.

From 2014 to 2019, I was the Programme Leader of the MSc Behaviour Change, which promotes the application of psychology to behaviour change interventions in areas such as health and wellbeing, work or the environment. The course is open to part-time mature students who work in industry or charitable sectors. I still very much enjoy teaching and supervising undergraduate and postgraduate students doing their independent research projects.

I am passionate about encouraging students at all levels to develop a critical understanding of the relevance of psychological theory and research and to appreciate the role that psychology can play in addressing challenges in the real world. This is why I cover topics such as the effects of poverty on child development; how cognitive psychology can support teachers to identify and address working memory deficits in school children; the benefits of reading for leisure; challenges and opportunities of bilingual language development.

Courses

• Behaviour Change (incorporating PG Dip/PG Cert) MSc