Prof. Cai Zhenguang received his PhD in psychology at the University of Edinburgh. Prior to joining CUHK, he was a lecturer (equal to tenured assistant professor) in psychology at the University of East Anglia and an ESRC Future Research Leader fellow at University College London.

Prof. Cai works on the psychology of language. In particular, he is interested in how people comprehend, produce and learn different aspects of language (especially lexicon, syntax and semantics), using behavioural methods (e.g., priming) complemented by neuroscientific (e.g., EEG and fMRI) and computational (Bayesian inference) techniques.  He is also interested in psychophysics (i.e. how people perceive magnitude information in the outside world).

• Peer-reviewed journal papers/book chapters

  (Disclaimer: The papers are posted on this website for personal use and educational purposes only. Reproduction of the material for any other purposes is prohibited)

  • Wu, H., Duan, X., & Cai, Z. G. (in press). Speaker demographics modulate listeners’ neural correlates of spoken word processing. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Cai, Z. G., Dunn, M. S., & Branigan. H. P. (acceptance in principle). How do speakers tailor lexical choices according to their interlocutor’s accent? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. [LINK]
  • Gao, R., Lin, Y., Zhao, N., & Cai, Z. G. (in press). Machine translation of Chinese classical poetry: A comparison among ChatGPT, Google Translate and DeepL Translator. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. [LINK]
  • Xu, Z., Mittal, P. S., Ahmed, M. M., Adak, C., & Cai, Z. G. (in press). Assessing penmanship of Chinese handwriting: A deep learning-based approach. Reading and Writing [LINK]
  • Yang, T., Cai, Z.G., Lin, W., & Wang, R. (in press). Modality-general and modality-specific control mechanisms in bilingual spoken and written productions. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. [LINK]
  • Langsford, S., Xu, Z., & Cai, Z.G. (in press). Constructing a 30-item test for character amnesia in Chinese. Reading and Writing. [LINK]
  • Thierfelder, P., Cai, Z. G., Huang, S., & Lin, H. (in press). The Chinese lexicon of deaf readers: A database of character decisions and a comparison between deaf and hearing readers. Behavior Research Methods.[LINK]
  • Haslett, D. A., & Cai, Z. G. (2024). Wayward associations: When and why people think of similar-sounding words. Journal of Memory and Language, 138, 104537. [LINK]
  • Cai, Z.G., & Zhao, N. (2024). Structural priming: An experimental paradigm for mapping linguistic representations. Language and Linguistics Compass, 18(2), e12507.[PDF]
  • Haslett, D.A., & Cai, Z.G. (2024). Systematic mappings of sound to meaning: A theoretical review. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 31(2), 627-648.[LINK]
  • Duan, X., Li, S., & Cai, Z. G. (2023). MacBehaviour: An R package for behavioural experimentation on large language models. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ywtfd
  • Zhao, N., Cai, Z. G., Dong, Y. (2023). Speech errors in consecutive interpreting: Effects of language proficiency, working memory, and anxiety. PLoS ONE, 18(10): e0292718. [LINK]
  • Qiu, Z., Duan, X., & Cai, Z. G. (2023). Pragmatic Implicature Processing in ChatGPT. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/qtbh9.
  • Cai, Z. G., Haslett, D. A., Duan, X., Wang, S., & Pickering, M. J. (2023). Does ChatGPT resemble humans in language use?. arXiv preprint arXiv:2303.08014.
  • Haslett, D.A., & Cai, Z.G. (2023). Similar-sounding words flesh out fuzzy meanings. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 152(8), 2359–2368.[PDF]
  • Xu, Z., & Cai, Z. G. (2023). Chinese character handwriting: Lexical effects, individual differences, character amnesia, and developmental dysgraphia. In Ye, Y., Inoue, T., Maurer, U., & McBride, C. (Eds), The Routledge International Handbook of Visual-motor Skills, Handwriting, and Spelling: Theory, Research, and Practice.[LINK]
  • Cai, Z. G., Zhao, N., Lin, H., Xu, Z., & Thierfelder, P. (2023). Syntactic encoding in written language production by deaf writers: A structural priming study and a comparison with hearing writers. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 49(6), 974–989. [PDF]
  • Cai, Z.G., Zhao, N., & Pickering, M.J. (2022). How do people interpret implausible sentences? Cognition, 225, 105101.[PDF]
  • Zhao, N., Chen, X., & Cai, Z.G. (2022). Planning ahead: Interpreters predict source language in consecutive interpreting. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 25, 588–602.[PDF]
  • Cai, Z.G. (2022). Interlocutor modelling in comprehending speech from interleaved interlocutors of different dialectic backgrounds. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 29, 1026-1034.[PDF]
  • Haslett, D.A., & Cai, Z.G. (2022). New neighbours make bad fences: Form-based semantic shifts in word learning. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 29, 1017-1025.[PDF]
  • Cai, Z.G., Wu, L., Liu, H., & Wang, R. (2022). Cross-dimensional magnitude interactions reflect statistical correlations among physical dimensions: Evidence from space-time interaction. Acta Psychologica, 227, 103608.[PDF]
  • Morey, R.D., Kaschak, M.P., … Cai, Z.G. et al. (2022). Pre-registered, multi-lab non-replication of the action-sentence compatibility effect (ACE). Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 29, 613–626.[PDF]
  • Cai, Z.G., Huang, S., Xu, Z., & Zhao, N. (2022). Objective ages of acquisition for 3300+ simplified Chinese characters. Behavior Research Methods, 54, 311–323.[PDF]
  • Cai, Z.G., & Wang, R. (2022). Cross-dimensional magnitude interaction is modulated by representational noise: Evidence from space-time interaction. Psychological Research, 86, 196-208. [PDF]
  • Cai, Z.G., Sun, Z., & Zhao, N.(2021). Interlocutor modelling in lexical alignment: The role of linguistic competence. Journal of Memory and Language, 121, 104278.[PDF]
  • Huang, S., Lin, W., Xu, M., Wang, R., & Cai, Z.G. (2021). On the tip of the pen: Effects of character-level lexical variables and handwriter-level individual differences on orthographic retrieval difficulties in Chinese handwriting. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74, 1497-1511.[PDF]
  • Huang, S., Zhou, Y., Du, M., Wang, R., & Cai, Z.G. (2021). Character amnesia in Chinese handwriting: A mega-study analysis. Language Sciences, 85, 101383.[PDF]
  • Wang, M., Cai, Z.G., Wang, R., Branigan, H.P., & Pickering, M.J. (2020). How do phonology and orthography feedback to influence syntactic encoding in language production? Evidence from structural priming in Mandarin. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,73, 1807–1819. [PDF]
  • Wang, R., Huang, S., Zhou, Y., Cai, Z. G. (2020). Chinese character handwriting: A large-scale behavioural study and a database. Behavior Research Methods, 52, 82–96. [PDF]
  • Cai, Z. G., & Zhao, N. (2019). The sound of gender: Inferring the gender of names in a foreign language. Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science, 3, 63-73. [PDF]
  • Huang, J., Pickering, M. J., Chen, X., Cai, Z. G., Wang, S., & Branigan, H. P. (2019). Does language similarity affect representational integration? Cognition, 185, 83-90. [PDF]
  • Wei, H., Boland, J. E., Cai, Z. G., Yuan, F., & Wang, M. (2019). Persistent structural priming during online second-language comprehension. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 45(2), 349-359. [PDF]
  • Cai, Z. G., & Vigliocco, V. (2018). Word processing. In J. T. Wixted & S. Thompson-Schill (Eds), The Stevens’ Handbook of Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Volume 3: Language and Thought (4th edition) (pp.75-110). New York: Wiley. [PDF]
  • Cai, Z. G., Wang, R., Shen, M. & Speekenbrink, M. (2018). Cross-dimensional magnitude interactions arise from memory interference. Cognitive Psychology, 106, 21-42. [PDF]
  • Betts, H. N, Gilbert, R. A, Cai, Z. G., Okedara, Z. B, & Rodd, J. M. (2018). Retuning of lexical-semantic representations: Repetition and spacing effects in word-meaning priming. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 44, 1130–1150. [PDF]
  • Cai, Z. G., Gilbert, R. A., Davis, M. H., Gaskell, M. G., Farrar, L., Adler, S., & Rodd, J. M. (2017). Accent modulates access to word meaning: Evidence for a speaker-model account of spoken word recognition. Cognitive Psychology, 98, 73-101. [PDF]
  • Cai, Z. G., & Liu, H. (2017). Microscopic and macroscopic approaches to the mental representations of second languages. Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 40, 19-20. (commentary). [PDF]
  • Xie J., Lu Z., Wang R., & Cai Z. G. (2016). Remember hard but think softly: Metaphorical effects of hardness/softness on cognitive functions. Frontiers in Psychology, 7:1343. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01343. [PDF]
  • Cai, Z. G., & Connell, L. (2016). On magnitudes in memory: An internal clock account of the effect of space on time. Acta Psychologica, 168, 1-11. [PDF]
  • Rodd, J. M., Cai, Z. G., Betts, H. N., Hanby, B., Hutchinson, C., & Adler, A. (2016). The impact of recent and long-term experience on access to word meanings: Evidence from large-scale internet-based experiments. Journal of Memory and Language, 87, 16-37. [PDF]
  • Wang, R., Fan, X., Liu, C., & Cai, Z. G. (2016). Cognitive control and word recognition speed influence the Stroop effect in bilinguals. International Journal of Psychology, 51, 93–101. [PDF]
  • Cai, Z. G., & Connell, L. (2015). Space-time interdependence: Evidence against asymmetric mapping between time and space. Cognition, 136, 268-281. [PDF]
  • Cai, Z. G., Pickering, M. J., Wang, R., & Branigan, H. P. (2015). It is there whether you hear it or not: Syntactic representations of missing arguments. Cognition, 136, 255-267. [PDF]
  • Rafray, C. N., Pickering, M. J., Cai, Z. G., & Branigan, H. P. (2014). The production of coerced expressions: Evidence from priming. Journal of Memory and Language, 74, 91-106. [PDF]
  • Cai, Z. G., & Wang, R. (2014). Numerical magnitude affects temporal memories but not time encoding. PLoS ONE, 9(1): e83159. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0083159. [PDF]
  • Cai, Z. G., Connell, L., & Holler, J. (2013). Time does not flow without language: Spatial distance affects temporal duration regardless of movement or direction. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 20, 973–980. [PDF]
  • Cai, Z. G., Pickering, M. J., & Sturt, P. (2013). Processing verb-phrase ellipsis in Mandarin Chinese: Evidence against the syntactic account. Language and Cognitive Processes, 28, 810-828. [PDF]
  • Connell, L., Cai, Z. G., Holler, J. (2013). Do you see what I’m singing? Visuospatial movement biases pitch perception. Brain and Cognition, 81, 124-130. [PDF]
  • Cai, Z. G., Sturt, P., & Pickering, M. J. (2012). The effect of non-adopted analyses on sentence processing. Language and Cognitive Processes, 27, 1286-1311. [PDF]
  • Cai, Z. G., Pickering, M. J., & Branigan, H. P. (2012). Mapping concepts to syntax: Evidence from structural priming in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Memory and Language, 66, 833-849. [PDF]
  • Cai, Z. G., Pickering, M. J., Yan, H., & Branigan, H. P. (2011). Lexical and syntactic representations in closely related languages: Evidence from Mandarin and Cantonese. Journal of Memory and Language, 65, 431-445. [PDF]

  PhD thesis

  • Cai, Z. (2011). The mental representation and processing of syntactic structure: Evidence from Chinese. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh.

  Peer-reviewed conference proceedings

  • Cai, Z. G., Wang, R., Liu, H., & Speekenbrink, M. (2017) Task-oriented Bayesian inference in interval timing: People use their prior reproduction experience to calibrate time reproduction. Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society
  • Cai, Z. G., & Connell, L. (2012). Space-time interdependence and sensory modalities: Time affects space in the hand but not in the eye. In N. Miyake, D. Peebles, & R. P. Cooper (Eds.), Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
  • Connell, L., Cai, Z. G., & Holler, J. (2012). Do you see what I’m singing? Visuospatial movement biases pitch perception. In N. Miyake, D. Peebles, & R. P. Cooper (Eds.), Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.

• LING3202 Psycholinguistics
• LING3403 Quantitative Methods for Linguistics
• LING5607 Topics in Psycholinguistics
• LING6970 Special Topics in Linguistics: Statistics