Shuhan (Catherine) Wang

shuhanw current photo
MSc Student
Experimental Psychology

I am an MSc student supervised by Professor Kate Nation. My research focuses on using eye-tracking techniques to investigate underlying cognitive mechanisms during reading. I am currently working on my MSc project on Chinese Lexical Ambiguity.

Having communicated with both Chinese and English languages across countries, I am keen to investigate how social and cultural factors influence ways of communication and how different language systems influence individuals’ cognition and development. Further experiences in Western and Eastern health clinics revealed to me the vast disparity between counselling communication styles. This motivates my fundamental research on how language shapes cognition and development, aiming to enhance mental health care for diverse backgrounds and address developmental disorders.

I am interested in how different language systems affect individual cognition and development using eye-tracking techniques. I have been involved in many projects, including “Noisy Word Position Coding During Reading”, “Evaluating the Use of Background Colours to Enhance Reading in Dyslexia: An Eye-Tracking Experiment”, “Word-Meaning Priming During Silent Reading”, “What can the Scanning of z-strings tell paragraph reading? Evidence from eye movements” and a replication study of Leinenger and Rayner (2013).

My favourite word

One of my favourite words is embrace, which carries with it the warmth of human connection and acceptance. It also reflects my attitude in reading and research that I am eager to support an idea, change, or opportunity wholeheartedly, as well as my personal and academic growth towards understanding and acceptance.

My favourite childhood book

My favourite childhood book is definitely “Harry Potter”. As a kid, I was fascinated by the magical world created by J.K. Rowling, as well as all those fascinating spells from Latin. Furthermore, I really admired the perseverance and brave quality of the main character, Harry Potter. The story encouraged me to maintain honesty, genuine, and brave in any circumstances.