RESEARCH INTEREST Intrigued by the question of how humans sense, perceive, and conceptualize the world, my research explored: (1) children's social-cognitive development (e.g., theory of mind), (2) student sojourners' acculturation process, and (3) human cognitive control. RESEARCH EXPERIENCE ◈ Postdoctoral Researcher Cognitive Neurology Lab, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, 2018 Fall - 2022 Fall Principal Investigator: Dr. Jan Wessel Using a variety of methods including behavioral measures, scalp-recorded electroencephalogram (EEG), electromyography (EMG), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), we investigate how humans carry out and maintain goal-directed behaviors and how the brain reacts to sudden events that put their goals in peril (such as unexpected events or action errors) ◈ Doctoral ResearcherLanguage and Cognitive Developmental Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Florida, 2012 Fall - 2018 Fall Principal Investigator: Dr. M. Jeffrey Farrar Using behavioral and electrophysiological approaches we examine the interaction between language and cognition, such as how language contributes to theory of mind development in preschool children. ◈ Doctoral Researcher,Department of Psychology and Center for the Study of Emotion & Attention, University of Florida, 2015 Fall - 2018 Fall Principal Investigator: Dr. Andreas Keil Using EEG, we study language and cognition in children and adults.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS (SELECTED) ◈ Guan, Y. & Wessel, J. R. (2022, April). Two types of motor inhibition after action errors in humans. Poster presentation in the Annual Meeting of Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS) in San Francisco, CA, USA ◈ Guan, Y. & Wessel, J. R. (2019, October). Surprise Modulates Orienting‐Related but not Strategic Post‐Error Processing. Poster presented to the Annual Meeting of Society for Neuroscience (SfN), held in Chicago, Illinois, USA ◈ Guan, Y., Farrar, M. J., & Keil, A. (2017, October). Alpha Oscillatory Activity Differentially Reflect False Belief and Complementation Syntax Processing in School-aged Children. Poster presented to the 57th Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR), Hofburg, Vienna, Austria. ◈ Farrar, M. J., Guan, Y., & Erhardt, K (2017, April). Is Complementation Always Needed for False Belief Understanding? Poster presented to the Biennial Meeting of Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), held in Austin, Texas, USA. ◈ Guan, Y., Farrar, M. J., & Keil, A. (2016, November). False Belief and Complementation: an Electroencephalography Study. Poster presented to the Annual Meeting of Society for Neuroscience (SfN), held in San Diego, California, USA. ◈ Guan, Y., & Farrar, M. J. (2015, October). Metalinguistic Awareness Development: Different Pathways for Chinese- and English-speaking Preschoolers. Poster presented to the Ninth Biennial Meeting of the Cognitive Development Society (CDS), held in Columbus, Ohio, USA. ◈ Guan, Y., Déak, G. O., Huangfu, B., & Xu, Z. (2015, March). Do Preschool Children Consider A Recipient’s Preferences When Choosing A Gift? Effects of Relationship and Children’s Own Preferences on Perspective Taking. Poster presented to the Biennial Meeting of Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. ◈ Anderson, J. R., Guan, Y., & Kaufmann, L. M. (2012, July). An exploration of the implicit measurement of acculturation. Papers presented to the 21st Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP), held in Stellenbosch, South Africa.