Publications
Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications (mentored undergraduate/graduate students underline)
Yang, Y., Himmelberger, Z. M., Robinson, T., Davis, M., Conners, F., & Merrill, E. (2021). Everyday Memory in People with Down Syndrome. Brain Sciences, 11, 551. https:doi.org/10/3390/brainsci11050551
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Yang, Y., & Song, Q (2021). The Effects of Perceptual Cues of Visual Statistical Learning: Evidence from Children and Adults. Memory & Cognition. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-021-01179-w
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Yang, Y., & Li, W., Huang, D., He, W., Zhang, Y., & Merrill, E. (2021).An Evaluation of Wayfinding Abilities In Adolescent and Young Adult Males with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorder. 80, 101697.
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Yang, Y., & Song, Q. (2020). Visual Statistical Learning in Children and Adults: Evidence from Probability Cueing. Psychological Research. 1-11
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Yang, Y., Wu, Y. C., Jiang, L., & Pei, Z. (2020) Intact wayfinding abilities in patients with Parkinson's disease. Clinical Parkinsonism & Related Disorders, 100067
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Yang, Y., Chen, M., He, W., & Merrill, E. C. (2020). The role of working memory in implicit memory: A developmental perspective. Cognitive Development, 55, 100929.
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Yang, Y., & He, W. (2020). Four-to-six year olds' ratio reasoning-from 2d to 3d quantities. Thinking and Reasoning. doi:10.1080/13546783.2020.1783362.​
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Himmelberger, Z., Merrill, E. C., Conners, F. A., Roskos, B., Yang, Y., & Robinson, T. (2020). The acquisition of survey knowledge by individuals with Down syndrome. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 14, 256.
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Li, Y., Li, W., Yang, Y., & Wang, Q. (2019). Feedback and Directions Sources Influence Navigation Decision Making on Experienced Routes. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 2104-2104.
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Yang, Y., Merrill, E. C., & Wang, Q. (2019). Children's response, landmark, and metric strategies in spatial navigation. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 181, 75-101.
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He, W., Yang, Y., & Gao, D. (2018). Proportional Reasoning in 5- to 6-Year-Olds. Journal of Cognition and Development. Available Online. DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2018.1495218
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Yang, Y., Merrill, E. C., Robinson, T., & Wang, Q. (2018). The impact of moving entities on wayfinding performance. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 56, 20-29.
Yang, Y., & Merrill, E. C. (2018). Implicit memory of locations and identities: A developmental study. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 167, 162-179.
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Lookadoo, R., Yang, Y. & Merrill, E.C. (2017). Encouraging Top-Down Attention in Visual Search: A Developmental Perspective. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics. doi:10.3758/s13414-017-1379-5
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Yang, Y., Faught, G. Merrill, E.C. (2017). Parent Reports of Wayfinding Activities by Their Children with Down Syndrome. Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability. 79(7), 2007-2020. DOI: DOI: 10.3109/13668250.2017.1284309
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Yang, Y., & Merrill, E. C. (2017). Cognitive and personality characteristics of masculinity and femininity predict wayfinding competence and strategies of men and women. Sex Roles, 76(11-12), 747-758. doi:10.1007/s11199-016-0626-x
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Merrill, E. C., Yang, Y., Roskos, B., & Steele, S. (2016). Sex Differences in using Spatial and Verbal Abilities Influence Route Learning Performance in a Virtual Environment: A Comparison of 6- to 12-Year Old Boys and Girls. Frontiers in Psychology. 7:258. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00258
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Yang, Y. & Merrill, E. C. (2015). Response cost to repeated displays—when previous distracters become the targets. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 68(4), 625-634. doi:10.1080/17470218.2015.1007149
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Yang, Y. & Merrill, E. C. (2015). Age-related similarities in contextual cueing in the presence of unpredictive distracters. Journal of Genetic Psychology. 176(1), 11-25. doi:10.1080/00221325.2014.995585
Yang, Y. & Merrill, E. C. (2015). The impact of signal to noise ratio on contextual cueing in children and adults. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 132, 65-8. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2014.12.005
Yang, Y., & Merrill, E. C (2014). The impact of distracter-target similarity on contextual cueing effects of children and adults. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 121, 42-62.
Yang, Y., Conners, F., & Merrill, E.C. (2014). Visuo-spatial ability in individuals with Down syndrome: is it really a strength? –A literature review. Research in Developmental Disabilities. 35(7), 1473-500.
Merrill, E. C., Conners, F., Yang, Y., & Weathington, D. (2014). The acquisition of contextual cueing effects by persons with and without intellectual disability. Research in Developmental Disabilities. 35(10), 2341-2351.
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Book Chapters, Conference Proceedings, & Other Publications
Yang, Y. & Merrill, E (2020). Cardinal Direction Knowledge in 6-12-Year-Old Children (Member Abstract). Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.
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Spoken Presentations
Yang, Y. & Merrill, E.C. (November 2020). A Systematic Review of The development of Wayfinding Skills. Talk at the Psychonomic Society 61st Annual Meeting (Online, due to pandemic)
Merrill, E.C., Conners, F., Roskos, B., Robinson,T., Himmelberger, Z., & Yang, Y. (March 2019). Acquisition of Route and Survey Knowledge during Wayfinding by Individuals with Down Syndrome. Talk delivered at Society for Research in Child Development. Philadelphia, PA. USA.
Yang, Y. Merrill, E.C. & Wang, Q. (September, 2018). Children’s Utilization of Response, Landmark, and Metric Strategies in Spatial Memory. Talk delivered at the 7th International Conference on Spatial Cognition. Rome, Italy.
Yang, Y., & Merrill, E.C, Himmelberger, Z. (March, 2015). Contribution of sex, age, and spatial abilities to the development of route learning skills. Talk delivered at Society for Research in Child Development. Philadelphia, PA. USA.
Poster Presentations (*undergraduate or graduate mentee)
Hershkovich, A., Lasc, D., Hauss, J., Abid, H., Salernitano, S., Conde, S., Shah, S., Freeman, R., Bohr, K., Adickes, A., Charles, J., Patel, N., Nemeh, M., Olanrewaju, J., Zivanovic, S., Gorczynski, R., Simmen, C., McGee, P. C., Yacoub, N., & Yang, Y. (2022). The relationship between mental rotation and perspective taking in children aged 4-9 years old. Poster will be presented at the Eastern Psychological Association Conference, New York City, NY.
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Hauss. J., Hershkovich, A., Lasc, D., Khawar, S., Yacoub, N., Freeman, R., Conde, S., Patel, N., & Yang, Y. (2022). The role of visuo-spatial construction abilities in Raven’s matrices test. Poster will be presented at the Eastern Psychological Association Conference, New York City, NY.
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Lasc, D., Hershkovich, A., Shah, S., Adickes, A., Simmen, C., Conde, S., Patel, N., Hauss, J., Abid, H., Freeman, R., Bohr, K., Charles, J., Yacoub, N., Nemeh, M., Gorczynski, R., Zivanovic, S., Olanrewaju, J., Salernitano, S., & Yang, Y. (2022). Predicting wayfinding performance using perspective-taking abilities in four- to nine-year-old children. Poster submitted to the Cognitive Development Society Conference, Madison, WI.
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Shah, S., Charles, J., Hershkovich, A., Abid, H., & Yang, Y. (2022). Computer vs. paper testing of the Water Level Task in 4- 9-year-old children. The poster will be presented at the Eastern Psychological Association Conference, New York City, NY.
Grove, L*., Diggs, D*., Yang, Y. (2021). Caregiver involvement in Intellectual and Developmental Disability Research: A Systematic Analysis of Publication Diversity and Trends across the Decade. The Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Virtual. March
Diggs, D*., Grove, L*., Yang, Y., Czarnogursky, M*., & McGee, P*. (2021). Are all spatial perspective taking tasks the same? Society for Research in Child Development. Virtual. March.
Yang, Y. & He, W*. (2019). How do kindergarteners reason about ratios? --Evidence from 2D and 3D quantities. 60th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society. Montreal, Quebec, Canada. November.
Li*, W., Wang, Q., & Yang, Y. (2019). The development of spatial perspective taking in young children. Society for Research in Child Development. Baltimore, MD. March.
Yang, Y., He, W., & Merrill, E.C. (2017). Proportion reasoning of depths and 3D rectangular solids in preschool children and adults. Society for Research in Child Development. Austin, TX. April.
Yang, Y., Wang, Q., & Merrill, E.C. (2017). Choosing among response, landmark, and metric strategies in spatial learning. Society for Research in Child Development. Austin, TX. April.
He*, W., Yang, Y., & Li, M. (2017). Facilitate the judgment of equivalent proportions. Society for Research in Child Development. Austin, TX. April.
Robinson, T., Merrill, E., Yang, Y., Conners, F., Himmelberger, Z., & Davis, M. (2017). Developmental trajectory analysis of verbal and every day long term memory: A comparison of persons with intellectual disability with and without down syndrome. The Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. San Antonio, TX. March.
Yang, Y., Tang, X., Xiang, Y., Ma, X. (2016). Implicit learning of locations and identities in repeated visual search - A developmental study. Presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society. Boston, MA. November.
Yang, Y., & Merrill, E.C., & Conners, F (2015). Inhibiting location-based responses by people with intellectual disabilities. The Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. New Orleans, LA. April
Merrill, E.C, Yang, Y. Himmelberger, Z., Robinson, T., & Reid, C (2015). Do you know which way is north? Children’s Cardinal Direction Knowledge. Society for Research in Child Development. Philadelphia, PA. March.
Robinson*, A. T., Yang, Y. & Merrill, C. (2015) Sex Role correlates with Wayfinding competency. Presented at Southeastern Psychological Association. Hilton Head, NC. March.
Yang, Y., Merrill, E.C, Robinson, A. T. & Reid, C. (2014). Signal to noise ratio in contextual cueing. Presented at International Spatial Cognition Conference, Bremen, Germany. September.
Yang, Y., & Merrill, E.C. (2013). Selective attention in implicit contextual cueing of persons with intellectual disability. Presented at The Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, San Antonio, TX. March.
Yang, Y., & Merrill, E.C. (2013). Children’s selective attention in contextual cueing. Presented at Biennial Society for Research and in Child Development. Seattle, WA. April.
Yang, Y., Merrill, E. C., Steed, R., Shewmake, M., Stallworth, M. (2013). Is there implicit spatial learning when configurations repeat without targets? Presented at Midwestern Psychological Association. Chicago, IL. May.
Yang, Y., & Merrill, E.C. (2012). Implicit contextual cueing of persons with intellectual disability. Presented at The Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Annapolis, MD, March.
Merrill, E.C., & Yang, Y. (2012). Distracter similarity, attention, and contextual cueing effects. Presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Minneapolis, MN. November.
Merrill, E.C., & Yang, Y. (2011). Transfer effects in contextual cueing. Presented at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Seattle, WA, November.