• Ph.D. Developmental Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

• Director of Centre for Early Childhood Education and Child Development, Faculty of Education, University of Macau
• Coordinator of Bachelor of Education Programme (Pre-Primary Education), Faculty of Education, University of Macau
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Learning Research & Development Center, University of Pittsburgh

I use behavioral and neuroscience methodologies (i.e., EEG/ERP, fNIRS) to investigate the brain mechanism underlying children’s language and cognitive processes as well as social-emotional development. Specifically, my research interests include the following:

• Language and Literacy Acquisition, Dyslexia, Bilingualism
• Social-Emotional Development, Attachment, Parenting
• Autism
• STEM Education

• Meng, Y., & Zhang, J. (2025). The dissociation of grammatical category from multiple levels in the neural representation of words: stress typicality effect among Chinese EFL learners. Journal of Neurolinguistics.
• Wu, C., & Zhang, J. (2025). Emotion word is an ambiguous concept: dividing, defining, and connecting emotion-label words and emotion-laden words. Cognition and Emotion.
• Zhang, Y., Wang, Y., Lai, N., & Zhang, J. (2025). The relationship between insecure attachment and social anxiety in adult people: A three-level Meta-analysis. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
• Wu. C., & Zhang, J. (2025). Second language shapes emotional facial expression perception, but only when words are unmasked: evidence from masked and unmasked affective priming paradigms. Studia Psychologica.
• Zhang, J., Wu, C., & Meng, Y. (2025). How language shapes emotional facial expression: An ERP study on the role of emotion word type. Experimental Brain Research.
• Wu, C., Zhang, J., & Meng, Y. (2025). Determine emotion-label words: Quantifying emotional prototypicality of 1,122 English words as a second language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.
• Mao, Y., Zhang, J., Liu, Y., & Wang, Y. (2024). Mindfulness matters: Unveiling the relationship between trait mindfulness and procrastination – A three level meta-analysis. The Journal of General Psychology.
• Mao., Y., Zhang, J., & Wang, Y. (2024). The relationship between trait mindfulness and academic performance: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology.
• Zhang, Y., Wang, Y., Jiang, X., Li, X., & Zhang, J. (2024). The relationship between insecure attachment and Machiavellianism: A meta-analysis. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
• Zhang, Y., Zhang, J., & Wang, Y. (2024). The relationship between attachment insecurity and pathological narcissism: A three-level meta-analysis. Journal of Family Theory & Review.
• Mao, Y., Zhang, J., Liu, Y., & Wang, Y. (2024). Mindfulness matters: Unveiling the relationship between trait mindfulness and procrastination – A three level meta-analysis. The Journal of General Psychology.
• Mao, Y., Zhang, J., Wang, Y. (2024).The relationship between trait mindfulness and academic performance: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology.
• Wang, Y., Zhang, J., & Mao, Y. (2024). Harmonizing mathematics: Unveiling the impact of music integration on academic performance – A meta-analysis. Thinking Skills and Creativity.
• Zhang, J., Wang, Y., Leong, C., Mao, Y. & Yuan, Z. (2024). Bridging stories and science: An fNIRS-based hyperscanning investigation into child learning in STEM. NeuroImage.
• Zhang, J., Wang, Y., Mao, Y., Leong, C., & Yuan, Z. (2024). Shared Minds, Shared Feedback: Tracing the influence of parental feedback on shared neural patterns. Cerebral Cortex.
• Zhang, J., Zhang, Y., Wang, Y., & Mao, Y. (2024). The relationship between insecure attachment and alexithymia: A meta-analysis. Current Psychology.
• Zhang, J., Mao, Y., Wang, Y., & Zhang, Y. (2023). The relationship between trait mindfulness and resilience: A meta-analysis. Personality and Mental Health.
• Wu, C., & Zhang, J. (2022). The role of emotion in language development among bilingual children with autism spectrum disorders: A critical void. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism.
• Wu, C., Zhang, J., & Yuan, Z. (2020). Affective picture processing is modulated by emotion word type in masked priming paradigm: An ERP study. Journal of Cognitive Psychology.
• Wu, C., & Zhang, J. (2020). Emotion word type should be incorporated in affective neurolinguistics: A commentary on Hinojosa, Moreno and Ferré. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience.
• Wu, C., & Zhang, J. (2020). An ERP investigation on second language and emotion perception: Role of emotion word type. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.
• Zhang, J., Meng, Y., He, J., Xiang.,Y. Wu, C., Wang, S., & Yuan, Z.(2019). McGurk effect by individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and typically developing controls: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
• Zhang, J., Wu, C., Yuan, Z., & Meng, Y. (2019). Different early and late processing of emotion-label words and emotion-laden words in second language: An ERP study. Second Language Research.
• Wu, C., & Zhang, J. (2019). Conflict processing is modulated by positive emotion word type in second language: An ERP Study. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research.
• Hu, Z., Zhang, J., Couto, T., A., Xu., S., Luan, P., & Yuan, Z.(2018). Optical mapping of brain activation and connectivity in occipitotemporal cortex during Chinese character recognition. Brain Topography.
• Wang, M., Lu, F., Hu., Z., Zhang, J., & Yuan, Z. (2018.) Optical mapping of prefrontal brain connectivity and activation during emotional anticipation. Behavioural Brain Research.
• Zhang, J., Meng, Y., Tong, X., Yuan, Z., & Wu, C. (2018). Exploring the neural correlates of lexical stress perception in English among Chinese-English bilingual children with autism spectrum disorder: an ERP study. Neuroscience Letters.
• Wang, M., Zhang, J., Lu, F., Xiang, Y., & Yuan, Z. (2018). Neuroticism and conscientiousness respectively positively and negatively correlated with the network characteristic path length in dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex: A resting-state fNIRS study. Brain and Behavior.
• Zhang, J., Wu, C., Zhou, T., & Meng, Y. (2018). Cognate facilitation priming effect is modulated by writing system: Evidence from Chinese-English bilinguals. International Journal of Bilingualism.
• Lu, F., Wang, Y., Zhang, J., Chen, H., & Yuan, Z. (2017). Mapping of the dominant frequency of brain signal oscillations in motor systems. Scientific Reports.
• Zhang, J., Wu, C., Meng, Y., & Yuan, Z. (2017). Different neural correlates of emotion-label words and emotion-laden words: An ERP study. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
• Zhang, J., Meng, Y., Fan, X., Ortega-Llebaria, M., & Ieong, S. (2017). Stress typicality effect in Chinese advanced and intermediate ESL learners. Educational Psychology.
• Zhang, J., Wang, C., Lambert, R., Wu, C., & Wen, H. (2017). Validity Evidence for the Chinese version Classroom Appraisal of Resources and Demands (CARD). Psychology in the Schools.
• Zhou, I., Yin, Y., Zhang, J., & Zhang, R. (2016). Does font type influence the N200 enhancement effect in Chinese word recognition? Journal of Neurolinguistics.
• Zhang, J., McBride-Chang, C., Wong, A. M-Y., & Shu, H. (2014). Longitudinal correlates of reading comprehension difficulties in Chinese children. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal.
• Zhang, J., McBride-Chang, C., Wagner, R. K., & Chan, S. (2014). Uniqueness and overlap: Characteristics and longitudinal correlates of native Chinese children’s writing in English as a foreign language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.
• Chang, L. Y., Xu, Y., Perfetti, C. A., Zhang, J., & Chen, H.-C. (2014). Supporting orthographic learning at the beginning stage of learning to read Chinese as a second language.International Journal of Disability, Development, and Education.
• Tong, X., McBride-Chang, C., Zhang, J., Chung, K. K. H., Lee, C. -Y., Shuai, L., & Tong, X. (2014). Neural correlates of acoustic cues of English stress in Cantonese-speaking children. Brain and Language.
• Tong, X., McBride-Chang, C., Lee, C. -Y., Zhang, J., Shuai, L., Mauere. U., & Chung, K. K. H. (2014). Segmental and suprasegmental features in speech perception in Cantonese second graders: An ERP study. Psychophysiology.
• Zhang, J., & McBride-Chang, C. (2014). Auditory sensitivity, speech perception, L1 Chinese and L2 English reading abilities in Hong Kong Chinese children. Developmental Psychology.
• Xu, Y., Chang, L., Zhang, J., & Perfetti, C. A. (2013). Reading, writing, and animation in character learning in Chinese as a foreign language. Foreign Language Annals.
• Zhang, J., & McBride-Chang, C. (2012). Learning to read around the world. In Andrew Holliman et al. (Eds.), The Routledge International Companion to Educational Psychology.
• Zhang, J., McBride-Chang, C., Tong, X., Wong, A., Shu, H., & Fong, C.Y.-C. (2011). Reading with meaning: The contributions of meaning-related variables at the word and subword levels to early Chinese reading comprehension. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal.
• Zhang, J., & McBride-Chang, C. (2011). Diversities in Chinese literacy acquisition. Writing System Research.
• Yan, C. M.-W., McBride-Chang, C., Wagner, R. K., Zhang, J., Wong, A. M. Y.-W., & Shu, H. (2012). Writing quality in Chinese children: Speed and fluency matter. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal.
• Zhang, J., & McBride-Chang, C. (2010). Auditory sensitivity, speech perception, and reading development and impairment. Educational Psychology Review.
• Lin, D., McBride-Chang, C., Shu, H., Zhang, Y.P., Li, H., Zhang, J., Aram, D., & Levin, I. (2010). Small wins big: Analytic Pinyin skills promote Chinese word reading. Psychological Science.
• Lin, D., Zhang, J., & McBride-Chang, C. (2009). Literacy acquisition and impairment in young children. In Leone Colombo, et al. (Eds.), Preschool Children: Physical Activity, Behavioral Assessment and Developmental Challenges. New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc.