Sisi Wang, Ph.D

Education

Ph.D., East China Normal University, Cognitive Neuroscience        

M.A., East China Normal University, Developmental Psychology      

B.S., Henan University, Applied Psychology

Previous Academic Appointments

Postdoctoral Researcher, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands

Postdoctoral Fellow, Vanderbilt University, U.S.A

Postdoctoral Researcher, Beijing Normal University, China

Awards

IBBA Recognition of Excellence Award – Postdoc, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Bob Fox Award of Excellence in Post-Doctoral Research, Vanderbilt University

Selected Publications

Preprint

Wang, S., & van Ede, F. (2024). Tracking how attentional focusing in working memory benefits long-term memory. bioRxiv, 2024-03. [link]

Peer-reviewed

Wang, S., & van Ede, F. (2025). Looking into working memory to verify potential targets during search. Journal of Neuroscience, in press. [link]

Wang, S., & van Ede, F. (2025). Re-focusing visual working memory during expected and unexpected memory tests. eLife, 13, RP100532. [link]

Wang, S., & Woodman, G. F. (2024). Intentional learning establishes multiple attentional sets that simultaneously guide attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 153(9), 2314–2327. [link]

Wang, S., Cong, S. H., & Woodman, G. F. (2023). Statistical learning speeds visual search: More efficient selection, or faster response? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 152(6), 1723–1734. [link]

Wang, S., Megla, E. E., & Woodman, G. F. (2021). Stimulus-induced alpha suppression tracks the difficulty of attentional selection, not visual working memory storage. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 33(3), 536-562. [link]

Wang, S., Itthipuripat, S., & Ku, Y. (2020). Encoding strategy mediates the effect of electrical stimulation over posterior parietal cortex on visual short-term memory. Cortex, 128, 203-217. [link]

Wang, S., Itthipuripat, S., & Ku, Y. (2019). Electrical stimulation over human posterior parietal cortex selectively enhances the capacity of visual short-term memory. Journal of Neuroscience, 39(3), 528-536. [link]

Wang, S., Rajsic, J., & Woodman, G. F. (2019). The contralateral delay activity tracks the sequential loading of objects into visual working memory, unlike lateralized alpha oscillations. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 31(11), 1689-1698. [link]

Wang, S., Ku, Y. (2018). The causal role of right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in visual working memory. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 50 (7), 727-738. [link]

Marx, S., Wang, S., Woodman, G. F. (2025). Super rapid learning of new attentional sets. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,1-9. [link]

Phangwiwat, T., Phunchongharn, P., Wongsawat, Y., Chatnuntawech, I., Wang, S., Chunharas, C., ... & Itthipuripat, S. (2024). Sustained attention operates via dissociable neural mechanisms across different eccentric locations. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 11188. [link]

Sheng, J., Wang, S., Zhang, L., Liu, C., Shi, L., Zhou, Y., ... & Xue, G. (2023). Intersubject similarity in neural representations underlies shared episodic memory content. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A, 120(35), e2308951120. [link]

Woodman, G. F., Wang, S., Sutterer, D. W., Reinhart, R. M., & Fukuda, K. (2021). Alpha suppression indexes a spotlight of visual-spatial attention that can shine on both perceptual and memory representations. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1-18. [link]

Cai, Y., Yang, C., Wang, S., & Xue, G. (2022). The Neural Mechanism Underlying Visual Working Memory Training and Its Limited Transfer Effect. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 34(11), 2082-2099. [link]

Sai, L., Wang, S., Ward, A., Ku, Y., & Sang, B. (2015). Individual differences in the habitual use of cognitive reappraisal predict the reward-related processing. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1256. [link]

Research Interests

I study how the brain supports attention, memory, and learning in dynamic contexts. More specifically, my research interests are:

• Interaction between visual attention, working memory, long-term memory, and action planning
• The neural mechanisms of working memory
• Working memory function enhancement
• Neural basis of statistical learning
• Interaction between emotion, attention, and memory