Dr. Chaoxiong Ye is an Academy Research Fellow (PI) in the Department of Psychology at the University of Jyväskylä. He holds two PhDs: one in Cognitive Science (October 2015 – May 2018) and another in Psychology (September 2018 – December 2020) at the University of Jyväskylä. He has been granted four docentships (translated as the title of Associate Professor by the Finnish Union of Docents) at different institutions: Docent in Cognitive Neuroscience at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University (since February 2022); Docent in Cognitive Psychology at the Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Jyväskylä (since July 2024); Docent in Cognitive Psychology at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Turku (since August 2024); and Docent in Cognitive Psychology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki (since September 2024).
As a PI, he has secured over €1.5 million in project funding. He is now supervising one postdoctoral researcher and nine doctoral students. He also serves on the editorial boards of BMC Psychology and PLOS ONE.
He has been actively building international collaborations for his research group. Since 2022, he has visited a number of leading universities—such as Stanford University, the University of Chicago, the University of Maryland, Michigan State University, the University of California, Riverside, the University of Toronto, McMaster University, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Granada, the University of Porto, the University of Oulu, Anyang Normal University and Sichuan Normal University—to foster academic exchange. He has also hosted visiting scholars from institutions including the University of Chicago, the University of Edinburgh, Northeastern University, the University of California, Riverside, Michigan State University, McMaster University, the University of Granada, the University of Oulu, Jilin University, Sichuan Normal University and Mianyang Normal University, helping to create a more vibrant research community at the University of Jyväskylä.
Principal investigator (PI) in the ongoing project: Cognitive and neural mechanisms for processing of memorable visual stimuli (Research Council of Finland, #355369, 2023–2027, 0.93 million euros)
Recent evidence suggests that some pictures (with high memorability) tend to be remembered more easily by a given observer, even if they have not seen these pictures before. However, how stimulus memorability affects the formation of the long-term memory of a stimulus is still unclear. By measuring behavioral performance, tracking eye movements, and recording brain activity, we will answer the following questions: 1) What are the cognitive determinants underlying the effect of memorability on short-term memory? 2) If the stimuli are more memorable in short-term memory, are the long-term memory traces also more robust? 3) What is the neural basis underlying the effects of memorability on memory formation? This research will help aid in understanding the mechanisms of memorability, and can, in the long run, help develop teaching methods that promote learning and memory functions, as well as develop more effective diagnosis and intervention strategies for people with memory difficulties.