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. [View Publication]

Peer-reviewed

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

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

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. [View Publication]

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. [View Publication]

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. [View Publication]

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. [View Publication]

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. [View Publication]

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. [View Publication]

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

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

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. [View Publication]

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. [View Publication]

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. [View Publication]

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. [View Publication]

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. [View Publication]

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