About Me

Hi, this is Shan. I’m a graduate student studying cognitive science at the University of Chicago with Yuan Chang Leong in the Motivation and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab. My interest lies in the universals and variations of emergent structures & meanings in brain and machine, during online processing and across cultural evolution. To answer this question, I also enjoy designing and evaluating methods that brings together insights from computational, neuroscientific, and behavioral approaches.

My current line of research utilizes computational neuroscience methods to better understand neural activity in naturalistic settings. 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 with web-based testing in the Language and Cognition Lab at Stanford (PI: Mike Frank).

Before entering the fascinating world of (empirical) 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.