Lixia Yang

Biography

Dr. Yang received her doctorate in psychology from the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2000. She then worked as a postdoctoral research fellow initially at the Max‐Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, Germany; and then in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto. In 2005, Dr. Yang joined the Department of Psychology at Ryerson University as an assistant professor. Dr. Yang’s research covers three related areas: cognitive plasticity of the aging brain; cultural differences in social engagement and cognition; as well as age-associated differences in memory, executive functions, and more specifically processing emotional information. In a recently completed project, Dr. Yang and her team compared the efficacy of cognitive (i.e., on-line video game training program) vs. physical training (i.e., aerobic physical exercise program) on older adults’ cognitive and brain functions. Her research has been funded through NSERC and Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). To date, Dr. Yang has over 40 peer-reviewed publications, a list of 25 invited academic or public presentations and over 50 conference presentations. Her research has been published in high-impact journals such as Brain and Cognition, Cognition and Emotion, Psychology and Aging, and Psychological Science. As a recognition of her contribution to student supervision, Dr. Yang received the Ryerson 2015 YSGS (Yeates School of Graduate Studies) Outstanding Contribution to Graduate Education Award. In professional service, Dr. Yang served as the associate editor for the Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Adulthood and Aging and as a reviewer for a list of journals and grant agents. Dr. Yang has taught a variety of undergraduate (e.g., Child Development, Adult Development, Introduction to Psychology, and Advanced Seminars in Development or Cognition) and graduate courses (i.e., Advanced Seminar in Cognition, Cognitive Aging, and Psychology of Aging). She has been nominated by students as “A Prof Who Made A Mark” in 2014. Meanwhile, Dr. Yang has been actively involved in supervising undergraduate honors thesis, practicum students, undergraduate research assistants, and independent research projects in Psychology.

Research Interest

cognition; aging; cognitive plasticity; memory; culture