Academic Positions

• Postdoctoral Researcher, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 2025-present (PI: Prof. Hui Chang)

Education

• PhD in Linguistics, Tongji University, 2019-2025
• BS in Psychology (minor), Jiangsu Normal University, 2017-2019
• BA in English (major), Jiangsu Normal University, 2015-2019

Publications

• Zhao, X., Ito, A., & Yang, X. (2025). Contributions of Language-Specific and Domain-General Cognitive Abilities to the Comprehension of Focus Prosody in Jianghuai Mandarin: Effects of Age. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 54(6), 57. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-025-10177-x
• Zhao, X., Li, Y., & Yang, X. (2024). Aging affects Mandarin speakers’ understanding of focus sentences in quiet and noisy environments. Journal of Communication Disorders, 111, 106451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2024.106451
• Zhao, X., & Yang, X. (2024). Aging affects auditory contributions to focus perception in Jianghuai Mandarin. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 155(4), 2990–3004. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0025928
• Zhao, X., & Yang, X. (2022). Prosody perception in older adults (in Chinese). Advances in Psychological Science, 30(3), 613–621. https://doi.org/10.3724/sp.j.1042.2022.00613

• Zhao, X., & Yang, X. (2022). Aging effect on semantic focus processing: A preliminary study (in Chinese). In L. Huang (Ed.), New development of Gerontolinguistics in China (pp. 225–233). Tongji University Press. https://ageing.tongji.edu.cn/info/1016/1871.htm

• Li, Y., Zhao, X., & Yang, X. (2025). Amateur Choir Experience Modulates the Perception of Mandarin Sounds in Older Adults. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research: JSLHR, 68(10), 4978–4995. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00724

• Li, Y., Ji, J., Zhao, X., & Yang, X. (2025). Effects of amateur choir experience on forced-attention dichotic listening in older adults. Psychology of Music, 53(4), 548–569. https://doi.org/10.1177/03057356241261371

• Ji, J., Zhao, X., Li, Y., & Yang, X. (2024). Age effects on prosodic boundary perception. Psychology and aging, 39(3), 262–274. https://doi.org/10.1037/pag0000811

Presentations

• Zhao, X., & Yang, X. (2023, November 3–5). Aging effect on the perceptual cues of focus prosody in Jianghuai Mandarin. Presented at the 1st Annual Conference on Language Cognition and Development, Beijing.
• Zhao, X., & Yang, X. (2023, October 26–27). Aging effect on the perception of Mandarin focus prosody in noise. Presented at the Tongji-UM Symposium on Frontiers in Applied Linguistics, Kuala Lumpur.
• Zhao, X., & Yang, X. (2022, November 5–6). Mandarin focus perception and its relations with auditory sensation among aging adults. Presented at the 6th National Conference on Second Language Processing Contemporary Foreign Language Studies, Suzhou.
• Zhao, X., & Yang, X. (2022, June 10–12). Aging effects on Mandarin focus perception in noise. Presented at the 6th International Conference on Psycholinguistics of China, Hangzhou.
• Zhao, X., & Yang, X. (2021, July 18–21). The effect of aging on processing contrastive focus prosody in Mandarin Chinese. Presented at the 14th Phonetic Conference of China, Lanzhou.

Experience

• The International Exchange Program for Graduate Students, Tongji University (2023020025), 2024 (6 months)
  • Conducted eye-tracking experiments on prediction in language comprehension at the National University of Singapore.
  • Supervisor: Prof. Aine Ito
• National Social Science Foundation of China (17BYY165), 2021-2022
  • Designed and conducted behavioral experiments on prosody production and perception among over 200 participants.
  • Supervisor: Prof. Xiaohu Yang
• Ministry of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences Fund (15YJA740034), 2019-2020
  • Collected and coded 150 academic papers written by EFLs, performed statistical analysis, and made figures and tables.
  • Supervisor: Prof. Yang Qian
• College Fund for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (XSJCX7112), 2016-2018
  • Led a group of 5 members to develop a corpus study of EFLs’ adjective use in speech and completed 2 written reports.
  • Supervisor: Prof. Ran Bi

Activities

• Peer reviewer
  • Advances in Psychological Science
• Organizing committee member
  • The 9th National Conference on Cognitive Neurolinguistics of China
• Panel moderator
  • The 6th International Conference on Psycholinguistics of China

Skills

• Experiment software
  • Praat, E-prime
  • Eyelink 1000 Plus, Neuroscan ERP
• Statistical software
  • R, SPSS, MS Office
• Languages
  • Mandarin (native), English, Japanese