Key details
Dr Xuran Han
Lecturer in Psychology
Xuran Han joined the School of Human Sciences as a lecturer in April 2023. She received her PhD in Bilingualism and Cognition from the Department of Psychology and Human Development at the Institute of Education, University College London, in November 2022. Xuran completed her MA in Applied Linguistics at the Institute of Education, University College London in 2018.
She has a background in both cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics. Her research interests mainly focus on the interconnections between individuals’ bilingual language experience development and their dynamic neurocognitive adaptions across the life span. Before joining the University of Greenwich, Xuran worked as a senior postgraduate teaching assistant at University College London, supporting psychological research module teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Her current teaching includes cognitive mechanisms in bilingual language processing, quantitative research methods in psychological research, and the psychology of language and communication. She also involves in supervising undergraduate and postgraduate quantitative research projects.
Posts held previously
- Oct 2022 - April 2023 Senior Postgraduate Teaching Assistant
- Oct 2020 - July 2022 Postgraduate Teaching Assistant
- Sep 2018 - Nov 2022 Doctor of Philosophy
Responsibilities within the university
- Module co-leader for Psychological Research Methods
- BSc dissertation supervisor
Recognition
Reviewer
- Bilingualism in Language and Cognition
- International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism
- Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
- Language Development Research
- Second Language Research
Member
- Member of the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL)
- Member of the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL)
- Member of British Neuropsychological Society
Research / Scholarly interests
Xuran’s research interests mainly focus on the interconnections between individuals’ life-long experiences, including language use and social activities, and their neurocognitive development across the life span. Specifically, her research aims to understand the cognitive mechanisms underlying bilingual language processing and the impacts of bilingual experience on domain-general cognitive control. Focusing on bilinguals from diverse cultural communities and age groups, she has explored the roles of habitual bilingual language use experience and interactional contexts in cognitive control modulation.
By using the convergence of computational modelling and behavioural experiment approach, her research intends to explore some of the essential questions in the bilingualism research area, including 1) how lifelong bilingual language experience modulates bilingual individuals’ domain-general cognitive control development, and 2) how cognitive control adapts to dynamically-changing cognitive demands in language processing (i.e., real-time bilingual language comprehension and spontaneous language production).
Research interest keywords: Psycholinguistics, cognitive control, language processing, computational modelling, quantitative methods, bilingualism
Recent publications
Article
Han, Xuran , Li, Wei, Filippi, Roberto (2024), Modulating bilingual language production and cognitive control: how bilingual language experience matters. Cambridge University Press. In: , , , . Cambridge University Press, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition . pp. 1-15 ISSN: 1366-7289 (Print), 1469-1841 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728924000191).
Han, Xuran , Li, Wei, Filippi, Roberto (2022), Modulating effects of interactional contexts on bilinguals’ cognitive control: Evidence for the Adaptive Control Hypothesis. Sage. In: , , , . Sage, International Journal of Bilingualism ISSN: 1367-0069 (Print), 1756-6878 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069221102011).
Han, Xuran , Li, Wei, Filippi, Roberto (2022), The effects of habitual code-switching in bilingual language production on cognitive control. Cambridge University Press. In: , , , . Cambridge University Press, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 25 (5) . pp. 869-889 ISSN: 1366-7289 (Print), 1469-1841 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728922000244).