Dr TONG, Xiuhong   佟秀紅
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
Phone No: (852) 2948 7882
Email: xhtong@eduhk.hk
Contact
ORCiD
0000-0002-2934-5278
Phone
(852) 2948 7882
Email
xhtong@eduhk.hk
Address
10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong
Scopus ID
36453383300
Research Interest

L1 and L2 Language learning and processing in normal and dyslexic children

L1 and L2 Literacy development in normal and poor readers

Learning difficulty 

External Appointment

Associate Editor

 Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, July 28, 2022

Consulting Editor

Educational Psychology, 2020, April 20 to 2022, March 31.

Editorial board member

Reading and writing


AdHoc Reviewing:

Child Development

Neuropsychologia

Reading Research Quarterly

Journal of Educational Psychology

Journal of Bilingualism: Brain and Cognition

Journal of Learning Disabilities

Journal of Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

Applied Psycholinguistics

Reading and Writing

International Journal of Psychophiology

International ​Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism

Plos One

Journal of Research in Reading

Other Activities

Professional Memberships:

1.     International Literacy Association (2021-present)

2.     Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Voting member (2010-present)

3.     Association for Psychological Science (2018-present)

4.     Association for Reading and Writing in Asia (2018-present)

5.     Society for Chinese Psychology (2006-present)

Personal Profile

Free App for syntactic skill learning: Bisyntax Builder

Apple system:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bisyntax-builder/id1609890539

Google Play:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=hk.eduhk.bisyntax&hl=en&gl=US


Research Interest

L1 and L2 Language learning and processing in normal and dyslexic children

L1 and L2 Literacy development in normal and poor readers

Learning difficulty 

External Appointment

Associate Editor

 Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, July 28, 2022

Consulting Editor

Educational Psychology, 2020, April 20 to 2022, March 31.

Editorial board member

Reading and writing


AdHoc Reviewing:

Child Development

Neuropsychologia

Reading Research Quarterly

Journal of Educational Psychology

Journal of Bilingualism: Brain and Cognition

Journal of Learning Disabilities

Journal of Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

Applied Psycholinguistics

Reading and Writing

International Journal of Psychophiology

International ​Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism

Plos One

Journal of Research in Reading

Other Activities

Professional Memberships:

1.     International Literacy Association (2021-present)

2.     Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Voting member (2010-present)

3.     Association for Psychological Science (2018-present)

4.     Association for Reading and Writing in Asia (2018-present)

5.     Society for Chinese Psychology (2006-present)

Selected Output

Scholarly Books, Monographs and Chapters
Chapter in an edited book (author)
Tong, X., & McBride, C. (2020). Neuroscience in Reading and Reading Difficulties.. De Smet, Bert, Routledge (1-2). Oxford: Rouledge
McBride, C., Tong, X., & Mo, J. (2015). Developmental Dyslexia in Chinese.. William S.-Y. Wang & Chaofen Sun, Oxford Handbook of Chinese Linguistics. (1-2). Incorporated: Oxford Handbook of Chinese Linguistics.
Zhou, Y., Tong, X., Mo, J., & McBride-Chang, C. (2014). Cross-language transfer in bilingual students.. A. B. Clinton, School Psychology Book Series (1-2). Washington, DC: School Psychology Book Series

Journal Publications
Publication in refereed journal
Tong, S. X., Duan, R., Shen, W., Yu, Y., & Tong, X. (2023). Multiple mechanisms regulate statistical learning of orthographic regularities in school-age children: Neurophysiological evidence. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 59 Doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101190.
Yu, L., Yu, J. J., & Tong, X. (2023). Social–emotional skills correlate with reading ability among typically developing readers: A meta-analysis. Education Sciences, 13(2) Doi:10.3390/educsci13020220.
Tong, X., Chiu, M. M., & Tong, S. X (2023). Synergetic effects of phonological awareness, vocabulary, and word reading on bilingual children’s reading comprehension: A three-year study. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 73 Doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2023.102153.
Tong, X., & Tong, S. X. (2022). How vocabulary breadth and depth influence bilingual reading comprehension: Direct and indirect pathways. Learning and Individual Differences, 100 Doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2022.102227.
Tong, X., Deng, Q., & Tong, S. X. (2022). Syntactic awareness matters: Uncovering reading comprehension difficulties in Hong Kong Chinese-English bilingual children. Annals of Dyslexia, 72, 532-551 Doi:10.1007/s11881-022-00268-y.
Yu, L., & Tong, X. (2021). Family socialization and loneliness correlate with third graders’ reading comprehension. Reading and Writing, 1-22. Yu, L., & Tong, X. (2021).. Reading and Writing An Interdisciplinary Journal, 20, 110-117
Tong, X., Kwan, J. L. Y., Tong, S. X., & Deacon, S. H. (2021). How Chinese–English bilingual fourth graders draw on syntactic awareness in reading comprehension: Within‐ and cross‐language effects. Reading Research Quarterly, --
Tong, X., Xu, M., Zhao, J., & Yu, L. (2021). The graded priming effect of semantic radical on Chinese character recognition. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 119
Tong, X., Wang, Y., & Tong, X. (2020). The Neurocognitive Correlates of Statistical Learning of Orthography-Semantic Connections in Chinese Adult Learners. Neuroscience Bulletin, 0, 0-0
Tong, X., Shen, W., Li, Z., Xu, M., Pan, L., & Tong, S.X. (2020). Phonological, Not Semantic, Activation Dominates Chinese Character Recognition: Evidence from a Visual World Eye-Tracking Study. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 73(4), 617-628
Tong, X., Wang, Y., & Tong, S. X. (2020). The neural signature of statistical learning of orthography. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 14, 26
Tong, X., Leung, W.W.S., & Tong, X. (2019). Visual statistical learning and orthographic awareness in Chinese children with and without developmental dyslexia. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 92, 103443
Siu, T.-S. C., McBride, C., Tse, C.-S., Tong, X., & Maurer, U. (2018). Evaluating the effects of metalinguistic and working memory training on reading fluency in Chinese and English: A randomized controlled trial. Frontiers in Psychology, section Language Sciences, 9, 2510
Lo, C.M.J., Ye, Y.-y, Tong, X., McBride, C., Ho, S.H.C., & Waye, M.Y.M. (2018). Delayed Copying is Uniquely Related to Dictation in Bilingual Cantonese–English-speaking Children in Hong Kong. Writing Systems Research, 10 (1), 26-42
Shen, W., Li, Z., & Tong, X. (2018). Time Course of the Second Morpheme Processing During Spoken Disyllabic Compound Word Recognition in Chinese. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61(11), 2796-2803
Shen, W.,Qu, Q.Q, Tong, X.H. (2018). Visual Attention Shift to Printed Words during Spoken Word Recognition in Chinese: The Role of Phonological Information. Memory & Cognition, 46,4, 642-654
Tan, Y., Tong, X., Chen, W., Weng, X., He, S., & Zhao, J. (2018). Vernier but not grating acuity contributes to an early stage of visual word processing. Neuroscience Bulletin, 34(3), 517-526
Tong, X., McBride, C., Shu, H., & Ho, C. S.-H. (2018). Reading comprehension difficulties in Chinese–English bilingual children. Dyslexia, 24(1), 59-83
Tong, X., Tong, X., & Yiu, F. K. (2018). Beyond auditory sensory processing deficits: Lexical tone perception deficits in Chinese children with developmental dyslexia. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 51(3), 293-301
Zhang, J., Meng, Y., Tong, X., Yuan, Z., Wu, C., & Leong, S. L. (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, 666, 158-164
Choi, W., Tong, X., Tong, X., & Gu, F. (2017). On the early neural perceptual integrality of tones and vowels. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 41, 11-23
Dulay, K. M., Tong, X., & McBride, C. (2017). The role of foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong Chinese children's English and Chinese skills: A longitudinal study. Language Learning, 67(2), 321-347
Li, T., Wang, Y., Tong, X., & McBride, C. (2017). A developmental study of Chinese children’s word and character reading. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 46(1), 141-155
Tong, X., & McBride, C. (2017). A reciprocal relationship between syntactic awareness and reading comprehension. Learning and Individual Differences, 57, 33-44
Tong, X., & McBride, C. (2017). English word reading difficulties and orthographic processing weaknesses in Chinese-English bilingual adolescents with dyslexia. Topics in Language Disorders, 37(2), 170-181
Tong, X., McBride, C., Lo, J. C. M., & Shu, H. (2017). A three-year longitudinal study of reading and spelling difficulty in Chinese developmental dyslexia: The matter of morphological awareness. Dyslexia, 23(4), 372-386
Tong, X., Tong, X., & McBride, C. (2017). Radical sensitivity is the key to understanding Chinese character acquisition in children. Reading and Writing, 30(6), 1251-1265
Tong, X., Tong, X., & McBride, C. (2017). Unpacking the relation between morphological awareness and Chinese word reading: Levels of morphological awareness and vocabulary. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 48, 167-178
Tong, X., & McBride, C. (2016). Reading comprehension mediates the relationship between syntactic awareness and writing composition in children: A longitudinal study. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 45(6), 1265-1285
Tong, X., Lo, J. C. M., McBride, C., Ho, C. S. H., Waye, M. M. Y., Chung, K. K. H., & Chow, B. W. Y. (2016). Coarse and Fine N1 Tuning for Print in Younger and Older Chinese Children: Orthography, Phonology, or Semantics Driven?. Neuropsychologia, 91, 109-119
Tong, X., Maurer, U; Chung, K., & McBride, C. (2016). Neural specialization for print in Chinese-English language learners. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 38, 42-55
Kalindi, S. C., McBride, C., Tong, X., Wong, N. L. Y., Chung, K. H. K., & Lee, C. Y. (2015). Beyond phonological and morphological processing: Pure copying as a marker of dyslexia in Chinese but not poor reading of English. Annals of dyslexia, 65(2), 53-68
Kalindi, S., McBride, C., Chan, S., Chung, K., Lee, C-Y., & Tong, X. (2015). A Short Test of Word Recognition for English Language Learners. Child Studies in Asia-Pacific Contexts., 5(2), 95-105
Tong, X., Tong, X., & McBride-Chang, C. (2015). Tune in to the tone: Lexical tone identification is associated with vocabulary and word recognition abilities in young Chinese children. Language and Speech, 58(4), 441-458
Tong, X., Chung, K., & McBride, C. (2014). Two-Character Chinese Compound Word Processing In Chinese Children with and Without Dyslexia: ERP Evidence.. Developmental neuropsychology, 39(4), 285-301
Tong, X., McBride, C., Lee, C. Y., Zhang, J., Shuai, L., Maurer, U., & Chung, K. K. (2014). Segmental and Suprasegmental Features In Speech Perception in Cantonese‐Speaking Second Graders. Psychophysiology, 51(11), 1158-1168
Tong, X., McBride, C., Zhang, J., Chung, K. K., Lee, C. Y., Shuai, L., & Tong, X. (2014). Neural correlates of acoustic cues of English lexical stress in Cantonese-speaking children. Brain and language, 138, 61-70
Tong, X., Mo, J., Shu, H., Zhang, Y., Chan, S., & McBride-Chang, C. (2014). Understanding Chinese children's complex writing: Global ratings and lower-level mechanical errors. Writing Systems Research, 6(2), 215-229
Tong, X., Tong, X., Shu, H., Chan, S., & McBride‐Chang, C. (2014). Discourse-level reading comprehension in Chinese children: What is the role of syntactic awareness?. Journal of Research in Reading, 37(S1), S48-S70
Chung, K.K.H, Tong, X., & McBride-Chang, C. (2012). Evidence for a Deficit in Orthographic Structure Processing In Chinese Character Recognition among Developmental Dyslexics: An Event-Related Potentials (ERP) Study.. Brain Research, 1472(7), 20-31
McBride-Chang. C., Chung, K.K.H, & Tong, X. (2011). Copying Skills In Relation To Word Reading and Writing in Chinese Children with and Without Dyslexia.. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 110(3), 422-433
32. Chung, K. K. H., Tong, X., Liu, P. D., McBride-Chang, C., & Meng, X. (2010). The Processing Of Morphological Structure Information In Chinese Coordinative Compounds: An Event-Related Potential Study.. Brain Research, 1352, 157-166
Liu, P. D., Chung, K. K. H., McBride-Chang, C., & Tong, X. (2010). Holistic Versus Analytic Processing: Evidence For A Different Approach To Processing Of Chinese At The Word And Character Levels In Chinese Children.. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 107(4), 466-478
Yang, J., Wang, S., Tong, X., & Rayner, K. (2010). Semantic and Plausibility Effects on Preview Benefit During Eye Fixations in Chinese Reading. Reading and Writing, 25(5), 1031-1052
Wang, S., Tong, X., Yang, J., & Leng, Y. (2009). Semantic Codes Are Obtained Before Word Fixation In Chinese Sentence Reading: Evidence From Eye-Movements. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 41(3), 196-207
Publication in policy or professional journal
Tong, X., Tong, X., & McBride-Chang, C. (2015). A tale of two writing systems: Double dissociation and metalinguistic transfer between Chinese and English word reading among Hong Kong children. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 48(2), 130-145

Conference Papers
Invited conference paper
Li, T., Wang, Z., Tong, X., & Siu, P-M. (2021, 12). Learning better from real lives: Integrating life-reviews in psychology and education related courses. International Conference on Learning and Teaching 2021, Hong Kong
Refereed conference paper
Yu, L., & Tong, X. (2022, 2). Psychological Factor and Reading Comprehension in Left-Behind Children (LBC) and Non-Left-Behind Children (NLBC): A Multigroup Structural Analysis. Paper presented at the Sixth Annual Meeting of the Association for Reading and Writing—ARWA, Virtual Conference https://www.arwasia.org/arwa-2022#:~:text=February%2024th%20%E2%80%93%2025th%2C%202022%2C,Kong%2C%20Hong%20Kong%2C%20China.
Yu, L., & Tong, X. (2021, 10). The Direct and Indirect Effect of Social-Emotional Difficulty on Reading Comprehension in Chinese Left-Behind Children (LBC) and Non-Left-Behind Children (NLBC): A Multigroup Structural Analysis. Paper presented at Greater Bay Area Young Scholars Forum on Psychological Science, Virtual Conference https://gbaysforum.psy.cuhk.edu.hk/oral-presentations/
Tong, X., (2020, 2). The role of syntactic awareness in Chinese-English bilingual children is reading comprehension: The mediation effect of working memory. #N/A, online
Yu, L., & Tong, X. (2020, 2). Left-behind children’s reading comprehension difficulty: The roles of cognitive-linguistic skills, family learning environment and learning motivation. Paper presented at the 4th Annual Conference for the Association for Reading and Writing in Asia (ARWA 2020), TaiWan

Project

Promoting Chinese and English Bi-Scriptal Reading Development through Phonological Training: Behavioural Intervention and Neural Evaluation
This study will combine behavioural training and a neurophysiological approach (i.e., event-related potentials (ERPs)) to investigate three key questions: 1) Does Pinyin-to-Chinese training program (i.e., designed to teach children Pinyin knowledge) enhance Hong Kong trilingual children’s phonological awareness in L1 Chinese and word reading? 2) Does Phoneme-to- English phonemic training program (i.e., designed to teach children’s English phonemic knowledge) facilitate L2 English phonological awareness and word reading?3) Is there any possible transfer effect of Pinyin training on children’s English phonological skills and word reading?4) Are there any changes at the neural level after receiving Pinyin and English phonemic training and, if so, how do the behavioural training effects correlate with brain activities?
Project Start Year: 2023, Principal Investigator(s): TONG, Xiuhong
 
The Direct and Indirect Effects of Social-Emotional Skills on Children’s Reading Comprehension
..
Project Start Year: 2022, Principal Investigator(s): TONG, Xiuhong
 
Children’s Statistical Learning of Orthographic-semantic Connection in Chinese Characters: An ERP Study
..
Project Start Year: 2022, Principal Investigator(s): TONG, Xiuhong 佟秀紅
 
EEG Correlates of Cognitive Engagement Learning Success and Emotion State in Typically Developing Children and Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
..
Project Start Year: 2022, Principal Investigator(s): TONG, Xiuhong 佟秀紅
 
Smart Vest for Improving Behavioral Performance of School-aged Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common behavioral disorder. Patients usually have behavioral problems such as hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention, which cause learning and social difficulties and obstacles. At present, the prevalence of ADHD among school-age children worldwide is 6%-8%. According to a back-of-the-envelope calculation, Hong Kong would have about 70,000 school-age children suffering from ADHD. This project aims to develop an innovative intelligent perception vest that can effectively identify and treat school-aged children with ADHD from the perspective of behavioral intervention. There is no similar commercial product in the market. The smart vest is composed of a textile vest, a signal acquisition module, an intelligent analysis and perception module, and a feedback module. With the help of machine learning and information fusion technology, the vest can intelligently perceive and analyze the user’s behavioral data, and give a proper feedback to remind the user when there is abnormal behavior. By such doing, the user can carry out the state adjustment and emotional control, so that the behavior level can be maintained within the normal range. This project will also focus on the research and design of the textile materials, fabric structures and styles of the vest to achieve effective integration with related intelligent modules and units, and to achieve the comfort usage properties and the best effect of feedback behavior intervention for users. The behavioral data collected can also be stored and analyzed to provide objective data support for further adjustment of the treatment plan. The success of this project will have huge and extensive commercialization potential in the development of high-tech and smart textile products. It will not only bring new high value-added opportunities and markets to our local enterprises, but also make beneficial contributions to our society.
Project Start Year: 2022, Principal Investigator(s): FU, Hong 傅弘 (TONG, Xiuhong 佟秀紅 as Co-Investigator)
 
Implicit Learning: From Theory to Application
To increase students’ awareness and understanding of the implicit learning mechanism through participation in a series of experiential activities;
To guide students’ application of the implicit learning mechanism to real educational context so as to facilitate their own learning in the future.

Project Start Year: 2021, Principal Investigator(s): WANG, Jie 王洁, TONG, Xiuhong 佟秀紅
 
The Role of Different Syntactic Awareness Tasks in Chinese Children’s Reading Comprehension
..
Project Start Year: 2021, Principal Investigator(s): TONG, Xiuhong 佟秀紅
 
The Intriguing Role of Syntactic Awareness in One Language and Reading Comprehension and Reading Comprehension Difficulty in Another Language in Chinese-English Bilingual Children: A Longitudinal Stud
The proposed study aims to examine: 1) the within- and across-language relationships between syntactic awareness and reading comprehension in Chinese-English bilingual children, 2) whether the similarities and differences in syntactic structures between L1 and L2 lead to different contributions of each to reading comprehension, and 3) whether the growth/failure of syntactic awareness causes the growth/failure of reading comprehension either in L1, L2, or both.
Project Start Year: 2021, Principal Investigator(s): TONG, Xiuhong 佟秀紅
 
Learning Better from Real Lives: Integrating Life-Reviews in Psychology and Education Related Courses
This project develops an online e-learning package on using life-review interviews in education and psychology-related courses.
Project Start Year: 2020, Principal Investigator(s): WANG, Zhenlin 王貞琳 (TONG, Xiuhong 佟秀紅 as Co-Investigator)
 
Toward a Research Cluster in Clinical Linguistics
The primary goal of this project is to promote interdisciplinary collaborations in clinical linguistics, with a focus on resolving challenges arising from language specific factors of Chinese, including both Mandarin and Cantonese. It is also the goal of this project that colleagues can transcend disciplinary boundaries and further expand their own research capacity.
Project Start Year: 2020, Principal Investigator(s): CHEUNG, Hin Tat 張顯達 (TONG, Xiuhong 佟秀紅 as Co-Investigator)
 
Left-behind Children’s Reading Comprehension Difficulty: The Roles of Cognitive-linguistic Skills, Family Learning Environment and Learning Motivation
..
Project Start Year: 2020, Principal Investigator(s): TONG, Xiuhong 佟秀紅
 
Neurocognitive Developmental Mechanisms Underlying Statistical Learning of Chinese Orthography in Chinese Children: A Longitudinal ERP Study
• To examine the neural signatures of statistical learning of Chinese orthographic regularities (i.e., phonetic and semantic regularities of radicals) in Hong Kong Chinese children;
• To investigate the developmental changes of statistical learning of Chinese orthographic regularities at both the behavioral and neural levels in Hong Kong Chinese children over a three-year period.

Project Start Year: 2020, Principal Investigator(s): TONG, Xiuhong 佟秀紅
 
Within- and Across- Language Contribution of Syntactic Awareness to Reading Comprehension in Chinese-English Bilingual Children
(1) To examine the within- and cross-language transfer of syntactic awareness to reading in Chinese-English bilingual children;
(2) To investigate the question of how the overlap in knowledge of specific syntactic structures (i.e., the same or different syntactic structure in two languages) influences syntactic transfer in Chinese-English bilingual children.

Project Start Year: 2018, Principal Investigator(s): TONG, Xiuhong 佟秀紅
 
The Neural Signature of Statistical Learning of Radical Positional Regularity in Chinese: A Pilot Study
The aim of this pilot study is to examine the neural signature of positional consistency
statistical learning of radicals embedded in Chinese compound character by using event-related potential (ERP) measure

Project Start Year: 2018, Principal Investigator(s): TONG, Xiuhong 佟秀紅
 
Language and Literacy Cluster
..
Project Start Year: 2018, Principal Investigator(s): TONG, Xiuhong 佟秀紅
 
The Role of Radical Knowledge in Novel Chinese Character Learning in Children: An Eye Movement Study
In the present study, eye movement technique with a revised print-word paradigm will be applied to examine the following three questions: (1). How do Chinese Grades 1, 3 and 5 children in Hong Kong use orthographic, phonetic, and semantic information of radicals during online novel character learning? (2). Are there developmental changes in children’s processing of phonological and semantic information in novel character coding? (3). What is the relationship between children’s radical knowledge and word reading ability?
Project Start Year: 2018, Principal Investigator(s): TONG, Xiuhong 佟秀紅
 
兒童漢字正字法的統計學習、腦電活動及讀寫能力關係的縱向研究
..
Project Start Year: 2017, Principal Investigator(s): TONG, Xiuhong 佟秀紅
 
Prizes and awards

President’s Award for Outstanding Performance in Research-Early Career Research Excellence Award
The award is typically granted to individuals who have demonstrated exceptional research potential, academic excellence, and a strong commitment to advancing knowledge in their field of study. It serves as a testament to the recipient's accomplishments, innovation, and potential for future contributions to their discipline.
Date of receipt: /4/2023, Conferred by: Eduhk
 
Early Career Reward
It is a prestigious recognition granted to exceptional early career researchers who have demonstrated outstanding contributions and potential in their respective fields of study. This award aims to acknowledge the achievements of promising researchers who are in the early stages of their careers and provide support for their ongoing research endeavors.
Date of receipt: 20/2/2023, Conferred by: the Association for Reading and Writing in Asia (ARWA)
 
APS Rising Star

Date of receipt: 7/12/2019, Conferred by: Association for Psychological Science