主要经历

My background is in cognitive psychology, and my areas of interest include lexical representation and processing, and individual differences within this domain. That is, I am interested to know how words are acquired, organized, and retrieved, as well as how individuals are different in terms of how their minds operate during these processes. Currently, my research mainly focuses on 1) psycholinguistic properties of Chinese words, 2) cognitive factors underlying bilingual vocabulary development, and 3) lexical semantic representations characteristic of populations with psychological disorders. Chinese characters and words pose unique challenges and opportunities for researchers in the field. However, there appears to be quite some catching-up to do relative to research on English words, which is more advanced in both L1 and L2 contexts. A better understanding of Chinese words contributes not only to theoretical frameworks about the Chinese language, but potentially also to practical dimensions about the wellbeing of Chinese speakers.  

I list here some recent work to give you a more concrete idea about these areas of research.

Wang, T., Xu, X., Xie, X., & Ng, M.L. (in press). Probing lexical ambiguity in Chinese characters via their word formations: Convergence of perceived and computed metrics. Cognitive Science.

Wang, T., & Xu, X. (in press). The good, the bad, and the ambivalent: Extrapolating affective values for 38,000+ Chinese words via a computational model. Behavior Research Methods.

Li, F., & Xu, X. (in press). The effects of lexical representation on the dynamic process of phrase comprehension. Journal of Neurolinguistics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2023.101145

Chen, H., Xu, X., & Wang, T. (in press). Assessing lexical ambiguity of simplified Chinese characters: Plurality and relatedness of character meanings. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218231178787

Peng, C., Xu, X. & Bao, Z. (2023). Sentiment annotations for 3827 simplified Chinese characters. Behavior Research Methods.  https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-023-02068-7  

Bao, Z., & Xu, X. (2022). Evaluating word lists against word frequency, lexical age-of-acquisition and concreteness. Lingua, 278, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2022.103417

Li, F., & Xu, X. (2022). Impairment of semantic composition in schizophrenia: An ERP study with lexical stimuli, Neuropsychologia, 171, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108241

Xu, X., Li, J., & Chen, H. (2022). Valence and arousal ratings for 11,310 simplified Chinese words. Behavior Research Methods, 54, 26–41. https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13428-021-01607-4

Li, F., & Xu, X. (2021). Electrophysiological evidence for the coexistence of expectancy fulfillment and semantic integration during the processing of binding and compound nouns, International Journal of Psychophysiology, 166, 25-37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2021.05.004

Xu, X., Li, J., & Guo, S. (2021). Age of acquisition ratings for 19,716 simplified Chinese words. Behavior Research Methods, 53, 558–573. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-020-01455-8

Xu, X., & Li, J. (2020) Concreteness/abstractness ratings for two-character Chinese words in MELD-SCH. PLoS ONE 15(6): e0232133. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0232133

Xu, Xu., Kang, C., & Guo, T. (2019). Brain electrophysiological responses to emotion nouns versus emotionless nouns, Journal of Neurolinguistics, 49, 144-154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2018.10.003

Xu, X, Kang, C., Pascucci, D., & Guo, T. (2018). The relationship between semantic access and introspective awareness, Brain and Cognition, 123, 47-56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2018.02.00

I am currently accepting applications for both Master’s and Doctorate students. If you are interested to apply or seek advice, please feel free to contact me via email (xu.xu@sjtu.edu.cn).