Shihui Wu
PHD student

Profile

Career

• PHD in Psychology, University of York, 2015-present
• MSc in developmental psychopathology, University of Durham, 2012-2013
• BSc in Psychology, University of York, 2009-2012

Research

Overview

Cognitive function in relative clause production and comprehension

Projects

Previous studies have found that relative clauses with animate head-nouns (e.g. the man the woman is punching) are difficult to comprehend or produce compared to sentence with inanimate head-nouns (e.g. the sandbag the woman is punching). An explanation proposed in the literature for this difference is the presence of similar entities (man and woman) in the former case, which leads to stronger interference and inhibition to distinguish the semantic roles of the entities (agent vs. patient) during processing of these sentences. The aim of my research is to understand the relationship between executive control and language performance. I am also interested in extending this work to children and adolescents.

Collaborators

• Silvia Gennari (PHD supervisor)
• Lisa Henderson (PHD supervisor)

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Development & Language
• Mini project