About Me

Hi, this is Shan. I’m a graduate student studying cognitive science at the University of Chicago with Monica Rosenberg and Yuan Chang Leong. My interest lies in the universals and variations of emergent structures & meanings in mind, during online processing and across cultural evolution.

My current line of research focuses on understanding the emergence of individual differences in narrative comprehension. Previously, I studied how varying communicative needs play a role in efficient semantic categorization in the Language and Cognition Lab at Berkeley (PI: Terry Regier) and examined the cognitive mechanisms underlying variations of relational reasoning in the Language and Cognition Lab at Stanford (PI: Mike Frank).

Before entering the fascinating world of (empirical :D) cognitive science, I took a theoretical approach and received my Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Fudan University in Shanghai, China, which led me to unearth my passion for the empirical inquiry of mind.