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Sophia Wei DENG, Ph.D.

PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENT

2016 – present



2019 – present
2016
2015 – 2016

Assistant Professor
Primary Unit: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences
Secondary Unit: Center for Cognitive and Brain Sciences
University of Macau
Associate Researcher, Zhuhai UM Science & Technology Research Institute
Visiting Scholar, Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University
Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University

EDUCATION

2009 – 2015

2005 – 2009 

Ph.D., Psychology (Developmental); M.A., Psychology

The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

B.S.(Honors), Psychology
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Child Development, Cognitive Development, Categorization, Attention, Induction, Multisensory Learning

EDITORIAL BOARD

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (Consulting Editor since January 2023)
Frontiers in Psychology: Cognition (since September 2016) 

GRANTS

2023 – 2025

Co-Principal Investigator. Family-oriented social competence intervention for children with audism spectrum disorder. National Natural Science Foundation of China and Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT) at Macau, NSFC-FDCT Joint Grant 0095/2022/AFJ. 

2020 – 2022

Principal Investigator. The development of category learning and its mechanisms: An eye-tracking study. National Natural Science Foundation of China 31900769. 

2020 – 2022

Principal Investigator. Categorization of the real world: The development of perception and recognition. RSKTO, University of Macau, Macau SAR Government. MYRG2019-00007-FSS. 

2019 – 2020

Principal Investigator. Polyculturalism: Investigating its dimensionality, underlying cognitive and social cognitive mechanisms, and consequences. RSKTO, University of Macau, Macau SAR Government. MYRG2017-00076-FSS.

2018 – 2020

Principal Investigator. Reinforcement learning, selective attention, and the development of categorization: what, how and why. R&DAO, University of Macau, Macau SAR Government. MYRG2017-00001-FSS. 

2017 – 2019

Principal Investigator. Rule-seekers and probability-catchers: The role of attention in cognitive development. R&DAO, University of Macau, Macau SAR Government. SRG2016-00078-FSS. 

2017

Conference Travel Support, 2017 Conference Grant to Faculty of Social Sciences, R&DAO, University of Macau, Macau SAR Government. 

PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

# indicates student advisee.
* indicates publications for which I am the corresponding author. In this role, I mentored student authors and contributed substantially to the conceptualization, analyses, and writing of the study.
Google Scholar Profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yiw8L-YAAAAJ&hl=en

  • #Yang, J., #Han. Y., & *Deng, S. W. (in press). Show me, don’t teach me: Active exploration promotes children’s relational reasoning. Proceedings of the 46th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

  • #Li, J., Hua. L., & *Deng, S. W. (in press). Modality-specific impacts of distractors on visual and auditory categorical decision-making: an evidence accumulation perspective. Frontiers in Psychology.

  • #Xing, L., *Deng, S. W., & Ho, G. W.  (in press). From empathy to resilience: The mediating role of emotional intelligence. Psychological Reports. Published online first.

  • #Li, J., & *Deng, S. W. (in press). Attentional focusing and filtering in multisensory categorization. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. Published online first. 

  • #Li, J., #Sun. Y., & *Deng, S. W (2023). Common and distinct neural bases for rule- and similarity-based category learning. Proceedings of the 45th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

  • #Li, J., & *Deng, S. W(2023). Facilitation and interference effects of the multisensory context on learning: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological Research, 87, 1334-1352.

  • #Li, J., & *Deng, S. W. (2022). Social attention, memory, and memory-guided orienting change across the menstrual cycle. Physiology & Behavior, 251, 113808.

  • Darby, K. P., Deng, S. W., Walther, D. B., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2021). The development of attention to objects and scenes: From object-biased to unbiased. Child Development, 92(3), 1173-1186.

  • #Yao, Y., & *Deng, S. W. (2020). Differential effect of blocked and interleaved study on category learning by classification and inference. Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

  • Sloutsky, V. M., & Deng, S. W. (2019). Categories, concepts, and conceptual development. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 34(10), 1284-1297.

  • #Chu, K. H., & *Deng, S. W. (2019). Why some events are more (or less) random: The role of alternation rate and number of occurrence. Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

  • Gozli, D, G., & Deng, S. W. (2018). Building blocks of psychology: On remaking the unkept promises of early schools. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 52, 1-24.

  • Deng, S. W., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2016). Selective attention, diffused attention, and the development of categorization. Cognitive Psychology, 91, 24-62.

  • Sloutsky, V. M., Deng, S. W., Fisher, A. V., & Kloos, H. (2015). Conceptual influences on induction: A case for a late onset. Cognitive Psychology, 82, 1-31.

  • Deng, S. W., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2015). Labels, dynamic visual features, and distribution of attention in infant category learning. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 134, 62-77.

  • Deng, S. W., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2015). The development of categorization: Effects of classification and inference training on category representation. Developmental Psychology, 51, 392-405.

  • Deng, S. W., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2013). The role of linguistic labels in inductive generalization. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 114, 432-455.

  • Deng, S. W., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2013). Effects of training on categorization. In M. Knauff, M. Pauen, N. Sebanz, & I. Wachsmuth (Eds.), Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, (pp. 2166-2171). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

  • Robinson, C. W, Best, C. A., Deng, S. W., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2012). The role of words in cognitive tasks: What, when, and how? Frontiers in Psychology, 3, 1-8. 

  • Deng, S. W., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2012). Carrot eaters or moving heads: Inductive inference is better supported by salient features than by category labels. Psychological Science, 23, 178-186.

  • Deng, S. W., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2012). The role of linguistic labels in infants' categorization: An eye tracking study. In N. Miyake, D. Peebles, & R. P. Cooper (Eds.), Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, (pp. 282-287). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

  • Deng, S. W., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2010). The role of linguistic labels in categorization. In S. Ohlsson & R. Catrambone (Eds.), Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, (pp. 230-235). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

REVIEWER

Grants: National Natural Science Foundation of China, Research Grants Council of Hong Kong
Journals: British Journal of Developmental Psychology; Child Development; Cognitive Development; Cognitive Science; Current Psychology; Developmental Science; Experimental Brain Research; Frontiers in Psychology; International Journal of School & Educational Psychology; Journal of Experimental Child Psychology; Journal of Experimental Psychology: General; Journal of Vision; Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience; Learning and Instruction; Psychological Science; Psychology in the Schools
Conferences: Cognitive Development Society, Cognitive Science Society, Society for Research in Child Development

COURSES TAUGHT

  • General Psychology / Introduction to Psychology, University of Macau, The Ohio State University

  • Psychology of Everyday Life, University of Macau

  • Cognitive Development, University of Macau

  • Seminar in Selected Topics in Psychology, University of Macau

  • Honors Thesis, University of Macau

  • Summer Research Program of the Honors College, University of Macau

  • Honors Project of the Honors College, University of Macau

  • Lifespan Developmental Psychology, The Ohio State University

  • Learn From Children, Learn Like Children: An interview by the Center for Teaching and Learning Enhancement

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

# indicates student advisee.

* indicates the corresponding author (PI).

  • #Li, J., #Sun. Y., & *Deng, S. W. (2023). Common and distinct neural bases for rule- and similarity-based category learning. Poster presented at the 45th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Sydney, Australia.

  • #Liao, Y., #Li, J., & *Deng, S. W. (2023). Decoupling between categorization and attention optimization: An eye-tracking study. Poster presented at the 45th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Sydney, Australia.

  • #Hu, Q., & *Deng, S. W. (2022). Shall I trust the robot? Children’s selective social learning in the human-robot comparison. Paper presented at the 24th Chinese Academic Conference of Psychology. Virtual Conference. 

  • #Li, J., #Zhao, J., #Shan, R, & *Deng, S. W. (2022). Linguistic labels alter post-selection processing in human categorization. Paper presented at the 24th Chinese Academic Conference of Psychology. Virtual Conference.

  • #Li, J., #Sun, Y., #Wu, C., & *Deng, S. W. (2022). Common and distinct neural substrates of rule- and similarity-based category learning. Paper presented at the 24th Chinese Academic Conference of Psychology. Virtual Conference.

  • #Liao, Y., #Li, J., & *Deng, S. W. (2022). Selective attention and unsupervised category learning: An eye-tracking study. Paper presented at the 24th Chinese Academic Conference of Psychology. Virtual Conference. 

  • Deng, S. W. (2022). Selective attention and learning: Decomposing focusing and filtering mechanisms in visual and audiovisual categorization between children and adults. Invited talk at the 3rd Macau Symposium on Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Macau SAR China.

  • #Li, J., Hua, L., & *Deng, S. W. (2021). The dynamic process of multisensory integration in the categorization decision making. Paper presented at the 23rd Chinese Academic Conference of Psychology. Virtual Conference.

  • #Li, J., & *Deng, S. W. (2021). The role of selective attention in multisensory categorization. Paper presented at the 23rd Chinese Academic Conference of Psychology. Virtual Conference.

  • #Xing, L. N., & *Deng, S. W. (2020). Executive function affects resilience with different cognitive mechanisms between adolescence and emerging adulthood. Poster presented at the 42nd Annual Meeting (virtual) of the Cognitive Science Society, Toronto, Canada.

  • #Xing, L. N., & *Deng, S. W. (2020). How do adolescents and emerging adults adapt to COVID-19 differently. Poster presented at the Academic Annual Conference of Chinese Psychology Society, Behavior and Health. Virtual Conference.

  • #Yao, Y., & *Deng, S. W. (2020). Differential effect of blocked and interleaved study on category learning by classification and inference. Poster presented at the 42nd Annual Meeting (virtual) of the Cognitive Science Society, Toronto, Canada.

  • #Chu, K. H., & *Deng, S. W. (2019). Why some events are more (or less) random: The role of alternation rate and number of occurrence. Poster presented at the 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Montreal, Canada.

  • Deng, S. W. (2018). Categories, Concepts, and Conceptual Development. Invited talk at the 3rd International Conference on Natural Cognition, Macau SAR China.

  • #Yao, Y., & *Deng, W. (2018). Who sees a flanker? Individual differences in cognitive control. Poster presented at the 40th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Madison, WI.

  • #Huang, X., *Deng, W., & Li, D. (2017). Linguistic processes in translation: Eye-tracking reveals differential effects of phrase order and lexical choice. Poster presented at the 39th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, London, UK.

  • Deng, W. (2017). Rule-seekers and probability-catchers: Differential roles of attention in category learning and transfer across development. Paper presented at the 3rd Conference of Learning Sciences and Technologies, Taiwan.

  • Darby, K. P., Deng, W., Sloutsky, V. M., & Walter, D. B. (forthcoming). What's scene in development? Rapid attention allocation to objects and scenes in children. Poster to be presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Austin, TX.

  • Deng, W., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2016). Differential coupling of categorization and memory across development. Paper presented at the 6th International Conference on Memory, Budapest, Hungary. 

  • Sloutsky, V. M., & Deng, W. (2015). The development of categorization: Attention, decision, and representation. Paper presented at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Chicago, IL.

  • Deng, W., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2015). Flexibility of categorization: Developmental differences between adults and children. Poster presented at the 9th Biennial Meeting of Cognitive Development Society, Columbus, OH. 

  • Deng, W., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2015). Developmental differences in category representation: Evidence from recognition memory. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Philadelphia, PA.

  • Sloutsky, V. M., Deng, W., Fisher, A. V., & Kloos, H. (2015). Conceptual information does not induce category-based induction in children. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Philadelphia, PA.

  • Sloutsky, V. M., & Deng, W. (2014). The development of categorization: Attention and category representation. Paper presented at the 55th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Long Beach, CA.

  • Deng, W., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2013). Developmental differences in category representations. Poster presented at the 8th Biennial Meeting of Cognitive Development Society, Memphis, TN. 

  • Deng, W., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2013). Effects of training on categorization. Poster presented at the 35th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Berlin, Germany.

  • Deng, W., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2013). Rule-seekers and probability-catchers: Effects of training on category learning. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle, WA.

  • Sloutsky, V. M., & Deng, W. (2013). The role of linguistic labels in infants’ category learning. Paper presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Minneapolis, MN.

  • Deng, W., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2012). The role of linguistic labels in infants' categorization: An eye tracking study.  Paper presented at the 34th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Sapporo, Japan.

  • Sloutsky, V. M., & Deng, W. (2011). The role of category labels in categorization and induction. Paper presented at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Seattle, WA.

  • Deng, W., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2010). The role of linguistic labels in categorization. Paper presented at the 32nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Portland, Oregon.

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