Zhan, Likan

Academic Appointment

  • 2024.03 ~ 2025.04, Visiting Scholar,
    Department of Mathematics,
    Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden
  • 2018.12 ~ Now, Associate professor,
    School of Communication Science,
    Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China
  • 2016.06 ~ 2018.11, Assistant professor,
    School of Communication Science,
    Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China
  • 2014.09 ~ 2016.05, Assistant professor,
    Faculty of Linguistic Sciences,
    Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China

Education

  • 2010.10 ~ 2014.09, Ph.D. Cognitive Science,
    Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
  • 2007.09 ~ 2010.07, M.E. Cognitive Psychology,
    Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China
  • 2000.09 ~ 2004.07, B.A. Teaching Chinese as a Second Language,
    Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China

Teaching Experience

  • 2021 ~ Now, Statistics with Julia, Postgraduates, 2 hours per week
  • 2017 ~ Now. Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, Undergraduates, 2 hours per week
  • 2022 ~ Now, Educational Psychology, Undergraduates, 2 hours per week
  • Archives
    R for Modeling and Visualizing Data (2016 ~ 2021)
    Experimental Psychology (2019 ~ 2021)
    Introduction to Neurolinguistics (2019 ~ 2021)
    Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience (2015 ~ 2020)
    Foundations of Scientific Research (2015 ~ 2021)

Grants, Projects, and Awards

  1. Grants
  • Zhan, L., Zhou, P., Zhang, L., & Crain, S. (2019 - 2023). The acquisition and online processing of irrealis in Mandarin Chinese. The National Social Science Fund of China. [Grant No. 19BYY087]. (¥200,000). Role: Principle Investigator.
  • Zhan, L., Qu, Y., Xu, J., Xiao, Y., & Li, N. (2019 - 2020). The eye movements pattern and neural oscitation markers of predictive processing in language comprehension. The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. [Grant No. 19YJ080002]. (¥70,000). Role: Principle Investigator.
  • Zhan, L., Shi, F., Gao, L., & Zhang, L. (2019 - 2020). The online processing and acquisition of lexical tone in Mandarin Chinese. The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. [Grant No. 18YBT15]. (¥70,000). Role: Principle Investigator.
  • Shi, D., et al. (2018 - 2023). Studies of Chinese in Generative Grammar and Development of Chinese Grammar in the New Era. The Major Project of the National Social Science Found of China. [Grant No. 18ZDA291]. (¥800,000). Role: Co-Investigator.
  • Si, F., et al. (2018 - 2023). Language acquisition and language cognition under the perspective of syntactic cartography. The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. [Grant No. 18ZDJ06]. (¥300,000). Role: Co-Investigator.
  • Zhan, L. (2015 - 2016). Experimental explorations of possible world semantics. The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. [Grant No. 15YBB29]. (¥20,000). Role: Principle Investigator.
  • Zhan, L. (2015 - 2016). Introduction to psychology and the scientific research. The Funds Supporting the Growth of the New Teachers. [Grant No. FD201530]. (¥7,000). Role: Principle Investigator.
  • Zhan, L., Shi, F., Gao, L., & Zhang, L. (2015 - 2016). The Processing and acquisition of tone in Mandarin Chinese. The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. [Grant No. 15YJ050003]. (¥70,000). Role: Principle Investigator.
  • Zhan, L. (2010 - 2014). The interpretation of conditionals in natural language. Cognitive Science Postgraduate Research Grant of Macquarie University. ($10,570). Role: Principle Investigator.
  • Zhan, L. (20103). The hypothetical property of conditionals in natural language. Macquarie University Postgraduate Research Fund. ($4,684). Role: Principle Investigator.
  1. Projects
  • Zhang, L., et al. (2018 - Now). The psychological and brain development of atypical developing adolescences. The Program of WuTong Innovations Platforms. Role: Co-Investigator.
  • Chen, M., et al. (2019 - Now). The study of Chinese as a second language acquisition and second language teaching (The JunCai Group). The Program of Establishing First-Class Disciplines in BLCU. Role: Co-Investigator.
  1. Awards
  • 2013.11. The Paula Menyuk Travel Award for the 38th Boston University Conference on Language Development. ($300).
  • 2013.04. The Travel Award for the 26th Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference. ($350).

Professional Activities

  1. Ad-hoc reviews

    Acta Psychologica (2025 - )
    Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP) (2024 - )
    Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing (HSP) (2024 - )
    Journal of Psycholinguistic Research (2023 - )
    Journal of Pragmatics (2022 - )
    Cognition (2021 - )
    International Journal of Developmental Disabilities (2021 - )
    Language, Cognition and Neuroscience (2021 - )
    First Language (2021 - )
    Frontiers in Psychology (2020 - )
    Scientific Reports (2018 - )
    Journal of Visualized Experiments (2018 - )
    Language Teaching and Linguistic Studies (In Chinese, 2016 - )
    SAGE Open (2016 - )

  2. Clinical licenses

  • Licensed Examiner of Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence 4th Edition (WPPSI-VI) Chinese Version.
  • Licensed Examiner of Adaptive Behavior Assessment System 2nd Edition (ABAS-II) Chinese Version.

  1. Frontiers in Psychology, Review Editor in Language Sciences (2020 - )

  2. Organization of international meetings

  • Academic Advisory Committee, The 24th annual conference of the International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL-24), Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China.

Publications

  1. Periodicals

  • Zhan, L., Wang, M. (2025). Probabilities of conditionals: The relevance effect might be confounded by the existence of boundary cases. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-025-02725-2

  • Lu, C., Wang, M., Zhan, L., Lu, M. (2025). Unveiling Cognitive Interference: fNIRS Insights Into Poststroke Aphasia During Stroop Tasks. Neural Plasticity, 2025, 1456201. https://doi.org/10.1155/np/1456201

  • Xie, Y., Zhou, P., Zhan, L., & Xue, Y. (2025). Low-frequency neural activity tracks syntactic information through semantic mediation. Brain and Language, 261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2025.105532

  • Zhan, L., Khrennikov, A., & Zhu, Y. (2024). Violation of Leggett–Garg inequality in perceiving cup-like objects and cognitive contextuality. Entropy, 26(11). https://doi.org/10.3390/e26110950

  • Zhan, L., & Zhou, P. (2023). The online processing of hypothetical events: A visual world eye-tracking study on conditionals and causal statements. Experimental Psychology, 70(2), 108-117. doi: 10.1027/1618-3169/a000579

  • Zhou, P., Shi, J., & Zhan, L. (2021). Real-time comprehension of garden-path constructions by preschoolers: A Mandarin perspective. Applied Psycholinguistics, 42(1), 181-205. doi: 10.1017/S0142716420000697

  • Zhou, P., Ma, W., & Zhan, L. (2019). A deficit in using prosodic cues to understand communicative intentions by children with autism spectrum disorders: An eye-tracking study. First Language. doi: 10.1177/0142723719885270

  • Zhou, P., Zhan, L., & Ma, H. (2019). Understanding others’ minds: Social inference in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 49(11), 4523-4534. doi: 10.1007/s10803-019-04167-x

  • Zhou, P., Zhan, L., & Ma, H. (2019). Predictive language processing in preschool children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An eye-tracking study. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 48(2), 431-452. doi: 10.1007/s10936-018-9612-5

  • Zhan, L. (2018). Using eye movements recorded in the visual world paradigm to explore the online processing of spoken language. Journal of Visualized Experiments, 140, e58086. doi: 10.3791/58086

  • Zhou, P., Ma, W., Zhan, L., & Ma, H (2018). Using the visual world paradigm to study sentence comprehension in Mandarin-speaking children with autism. Journal of Visualized Experiments, 140, e58452. doi: 10.3791/58452

  • Zhan, L., Zhou, P., & Crain, S. (2018). Using the visual-world paradigm to explore the meaning of conditionals in natural language. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 33(8), 1049-1062. doi: 10.1080/23273798.2018.1448935

  • Zhan, L. (2018). Scalar and ignorance inferences are both computed immediately upon encountering the sentential connective: The online processing of sentences with disjunction using the visual world paradigm. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00061

  • Moscati, V., Zhan, L., & Zhou, P. (2017). Children’s on-line processing of epistemic modals. Journal of Child Language, 44(5), 1025-1040. doi: 10.1017/S0305000916000313

  • Zhan, L., Crain, S., & Zhou, P. (2015). The online processing of only if- and even if- conditional statements: Implications for mental models. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 26(7), 367-379. doi: 10.1080/20445911.2015.1016527

  • Zhou, P., Crain, S., & Zhan, L. (2014). Grammatical aspect and event recognition in children’s online sentence comprehension. Cognition, 133(1), 262-276. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2014.06.018

  • Zhou, P., Crain, S., & Zhan, L. (2012). Sometimes children are as good as adults: The pragmatic use of prosody in children’s on-line sentence processing. Journal of Memory and Language, 67(1), 149-164. doi: 10.1016/j.jml.2012.03.005

  • Zhou, P., Su, Y., Crain, S., Gao, L., & Zhan, L. (2012). Children’s use of phonological information in ambiguity resolution: A view from Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Child Language, 39(04), 687-730. doi: 10.1017/S0305000911000249

  1. Book, book chapters and conference proceedings
  • Zhan, L. (2015). The Interpretation of Conditionals in Natural Language. Saarbrucken, Germany: Lap Lambert Academic Publishing.
  • Zhan, L. (2018). Magnetoencephalography (MEG) as a Technique for Imaging Brain Function and Dysfunction. In Top 10 Contributions on Psychology (Chapter 4, pp. 1-38). Telangana, India: Avid Science
  • Zhan, L., Crain, S., & Zhou, P. (2013). The anticipatory effects of focus operators: A visual-world paradigm eye-tracking study of “only if” and “even if” conditionals. In N. Goto, K. Otaki, A. Sato, & K. Takita (Eds.), Proceedings of GLOW in Asia IX 2012. Mie University, Japan.
  1. Peer reviewed conference presentations
  • Zhan, L., Xue, Y., Zhou, P., & Xie, Y. (2024, September). Does cortical tracking signify linguistic hierarchical structures in the visual domain? Poster session presented at the 30th Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP24), University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
  • Zhan, L., Khrennikov, A. (2024, June). Violation of Leggett–Garg inequality in perceiving bistable cup-like objects. Poster session presented at the 25th Quantum Information and Probability: from Foundations to Engineering (QIP24), Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden.
  • Zhan, L. (2023, April). The modality engendered by negation and where to find it. Oral session presented at the 14th Biennial Academic Conference of Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China.
  • Zhan, L. (2020, October). Non-factual property entailed by conditionals has to be endorsed by a valid theory of verbal reasoning. Oral session presented at the 13th Biennial Academic Conference of Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China.
  • Zhan, L., & Zhou, P. (2019, June). Children differ from adults in interpreting disjunctions: Evidence from an eye-tracking study. Poster session presented at Psycholinguistics in Iceland - Parsing and Prediction, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland.
  • Zhan, L. (2017, September). Scalar implicature and ignorance inference are both locally computed: Evidence from the online processing of disjunctions using the visual world paradigm. Oral session presented at the Second High-level Forum on Cognitive Linguistics, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China.
  • Zhan, L., Crain, S., & Zhou, P. (2013, November). Going beyond the information that is perceived: The hypothetical property of if-conditionals in Mandarin Chinese. Oral session presented at the Second International Conference on Psycholinguistics in China, Fuzhou, China.
  • Moscati, V., Zhan, L., & Zhou, P. (2013, November). Reasoning on possibilities: An eye tracking study on modal knowledge. Poster session presented at the 38th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston University, MA.
  • Zhou, P., Crain, S., & Zhan, L. (2013, November). Anticipatory eye movements in children’s processing of grammatical aspect. Poster session presented at the 38th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston University, MA.
  • Zhan, L., Crain, S., & Zhou, P. (2013, March). The hypothetical property of “if”-statements: A visual-world paradigm eye-tracking study. Poster session presented at CUNY2013: The 26th annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference, Columbia, SC.
  • Zhan, L., Crain, S., & Zhou, P. (2012, July). The interpretation of conditionals. Oral session presented at the 7th International Conference on Thinking (ICT2012), Birkbeck/UCL, London, UK.
  • Zhou, P., Crain, S., & Zhan, L. (2012, March). Children’s pragmatic use of prosody in sentence processing. Poster session presented at the 35th Generative Linguistics in the Old World (GLOW) Workshop: Production and Perception of Prosodically-Encoded Information Structure, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
  • Zhan, L., Crain, S., & Khlentzos, D. (2011, August). The basic semantics of conditionals in natural language. Oral session presented at the Harvard-Australia Workshop on Language, Learning and Logic, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
  • Zhou, P., Crain, S., Gao, L., & Zhan, L. (2010, September). The role of prosody in children’s focus identification. Oral session presented at the Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition - North America 4 (GALANA-4), Toronto, Canada.
  • Zhou, P., Su, Y., Crain, S., Gao, L., & Zhan, L. (2010, August). Children’s use of prosodic information in ambiguity resolution. Oral session presented at the 8th Conference of Generative Linguistics in the Old World Asia (GLOW-in-Asia 8), Beijing, China.
  1. Invited talks
  • Zhan, L., Khrennikov, A., & Zhu, Y. (2024, August). Confirming cognitive contextuality: Violation of the Leggett-Garg inequality and demonstration of cognitive hysteresis in perceiving cup-like objects. Invited presentation given at 19th Southeast Conference in Mathematics, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Karlskrona, Sweden.
  • Zhan, L. (2024, May). Probability of implication. Invited presentation given at Department of Mathematics, Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden.
  • Zhan, L. (2023, November). Visual world paradigm: An eye-tracking technique to study the real time processing of spoken Language. Invited presentation given at the “The Frontier of Language and Cognitive Science: Perspectives from Chinese and Western Scholars” Lecture Series organized by the Center for the Cognitive Science of Language, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China.
  • Zhan, L. (2022, May). Mixed Models with Julia. Invited virtual lecture given at the course of Language organized by Prof. Zhou.
  • Zhan, L. (2020, October). Language and Language Development. Invited lecture given at the course of Language + organized by Prof. Si.
  • Zhan, L. (2019, August). Gardener or Carpenter: Some thoughts on nurturing a child. Invited presentation given at Smiland Daycare Center.
  • Zhan, L. (2018, December). Sentential reasoning and sentential connectives: Conditional, disjunction, negation, and modality. Invited presentation given at the Workshop of Theoretical and Experimental Linguistics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
  • Zhan, L. (2018, November). Methods of cognitive neuroscience: Focus on language. Invited presentation given at the Child Cognition Laboratory, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
  • Zhan, L. (2018, November). Visual world paradigm: An eye-tracking technique to study the real time processing of spoken Language. Invited presentation given at the Center for Studies of Chinese as a Second Language, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China.
  • Zhan, L. (2018, October). Experimental Builder: A what-you-see-is-what-you-get tool to build experiment scripts. Invited presentation given at the Center for Studies of Chinese as a Second Language, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China.