Dr YUM, Yen Na Cherry    任演納 博士
Acting Head
Department of Special Education and Counselling
Member
Centre for Psychosocial Health
Contact
ORCiD
0000-0002-2165-6813
Phone
(852) 2948 8225
Fax
(852) 2948 7794
Email
yyum@eduhk.hk
Address
10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong
Scopus ID
36515955800
Research Interests
bilingual comprehension
visual word processing
Chinese character reading
multimodal processing and learning
special and inclusive education
diverse needs
Teaching Interests

bilingualism

reading and writing

support for children with SEN and their family

research supervision

Personal Profile

Cherry obtained her PhD degree in cognitive psychology at Tufts University and was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences at The University of Hong Kong before joining EdUHK. Her research covers cognitive and reading-related processes in typical and atypical populations. She has used the ERP method to examine the neural correlates of bilingual visual word processing and second language learning. She is interested in identifying and addressing diverse needs in learning.

Research Interests

bilingual comprehension
visual word processing
Chinese character reading
multimodal processing and learning
special and inclusive education
diverse needs
Teaching Interests

bilingualism

reading and writing

support for children with SEN and their family

research supervision

Research Outputs

Journal Publications
Publication in refereed journal
Yum, Y. N.*, Poon, K., Lau, W. K.-W., Ho, F. C., Sin, K. F., Chung, K. M., Lee, H. Y., & Liang, D. C. (2024). Music Therapy Improves Engagement and Initiation for Autistic Children with mild Intellectual Disabilities: A Randomized Controlled Study. Autism Research, Early View, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.3254
Chan, R.Y.-Y., Wong, C.M.V., & Yum, Y.N. (2023). Predicting Behaviour Change in Students With Special Education Needs Using Multimodal Learning Analytics. IEEE Access, Early Access, 1-1. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3288695
Su, I.-F., Yum, Y.N.*, & Lau, K.-Y.D. (2022). Hong Kong Chinese character psycholinguistic norms: Ratings of 4376 single Chinese characters on semantic radical transparency, age-of-acquisition, familiarity, imageability, and concreteness. Behavior Research Methods https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-022-01928-y
Wang, J., & Yum, Y. N. (2022). Learning specialized vocabulary in the second language: Does transfer from the first language help?. Language Teaching Research https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688221096787
譚珍瓊、姜文君、任演納、張吉、任德盛和李曉鴻 (2022)。 基於二分圖的個性化學習任務分配。 計算機科學,49(4),269-281。 https://doi.org/10.11896/jsjkx.210500125
Wong, C.M.V., Chan, R.Y.-Y., Yum, Y.N., & Wang, K. (2021). Internet of things (IoT)-enhanced applied behavior analysis (ABA) for special education needs. Sensors, 21(19) https://doi.org/10.3390/s21196693
Yum, Y. N., So, S.K.W., & Chan, R.Y.-Y. (2021). Sensitivity to communication partners during naturalistic AAC conversations in Cantonese Chinese. Frontiers in Psychology, 12 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.686657
Yum, Y.N.* & Law, S.-P. (2021). N170 reflects visual familiarity and automatic sublexical phonological access in L2 written word processing. Bilingualism: Language & Cognition, First view, 1-11.
Yum, Y. N.*, Cohn, N., & Lau, W. K. W. (2021). Effects of picture-word integration on reading visual narratives in L1 and L2. Learning and Instruction, 71, 101397.
Yum, Y. N., & Law, S.-P. (2021). N170 reflects orthographic uniqueness point effects in English among native Japanese and Korean readers. Neuroscience Letters, 743, 135568.
Yum, Y. N., Lau, W. K., Poon, K., & Ho, F. C (2020). Music therapy as social skill intervention for children with comorbid ASD and ID: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. BMC Pediatrics, 20(1), 545.
Yum, Y. N., & Law, S.-P. (2019). Interactions of age of acquisition and lexical frequency effects with phonological regularity: An ERP study — EdUHK Research Repository. Psychophysiology, 56 (10), .-..
Yum, Y. N., & Law, S. P. (2019). Impact of characteristics of L1 literacy experience on picture processing: ERP data from trilingual non-native Chinese and English readers. Cognition, 183, 213-225.
Yum, Y. N., Law, S. P., Lee, C. F., & Shum, M. S. K. (2018). Early event-related potentials differences in orthographic processing of native and non-native Chinese readers.  Journal of Research in Reading, 41(3), 403-422.
Law, S. P., Yum, Y. N., & Cheung, G. W. L. (2017). Neural correlates of concreteness effect in semantic processing of single Chinese characters using mixed-effects modeling. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 44, 223-238.
Yum, Y. N., Law, S. P., Mo, K. N., Lau, D., Su, I. F., & Shum, M. S. K. (2016). Electrophysiological evidence of sublexical phonological access in character processing by L2 Chinese learners of L1 alphabetic scripts.. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 16(2), 339-352.
Yum, Y. N., Su, I. F., & Law, S. P. (2015). Early effects of radical position legality in Chinese: An ERP study. Scientific Studies of Reading, 19(6), 456-467.
Yum, Y. N. C., Midgley, K. J., Holcomb, P. J. & Grainger, J. (2014). An ERP study on initial second language vocabulary learning. Psychophysiology, 51 (4), 364-373.
Yum, Y. N., Law, S., Su, I., Lau, K. D., & Mo, K. N. (2014). An ERP study of effects of regularity and consistency in delayed naming and lexicality judgment in a logographic writing system. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 315.
Strijkers, K., Yum, Y.N., Midgley, K.J., Grainger, J. & Holcomb, P.J. (2011). Early goal-directed top-down influences in the production of speech. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, A371.
Yum, Y. N. C., Holcomb, P. J. & Grainger, J. (2011). Words and pictures: An electrophysiological investigation of domain specific processing in native Chinese and English speakers. Neuropsychologia, 49 (7), 1910-1922.
Boltz, M. G. & Yum, Y. N. C. (2010). Temporal concepts and predicted duration judgments. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46 (6), 895-904.

Conference Papers
Invited conference paper
Tai, P. L.A., Yum, Y. N., & Cohn, N. (2018, October). Reading comprehension of multimodal text in children vs adults. Paper present at The 17th International Conference on the Processing of East Asian Languages-The 9th Conference on Language, Discourse, and Cognition, Taipei, Taiwan.
Yum, Y. N., Tai, P. L.A., & Cohn, N. (2018, October). Reading with pictures in first and second language. Paper presented at The 17th International Conference on the Processing of East Asian Languages-The 9th Conference on Language, Discourse, and Cognition, Taipei, Taiwan.
Refereed conference paper
Yum, Y.N., & Wang, J. (2024, January). Initial form and meaning learning of English technical words among Chinese-English bilinguals. The 8th Annual Meeting of the Association for Reading and Writing in Asia, Jeju, South Korea.
Lau, H.Y.D., & Yum, Y.N. (2023, November). Orthographic processing of identical and near cognates in Chinese and Japanese Kanji. The 18th International Conference on the Processing of East Asian Languages, Hong Kong SAR.
Yum, Y.N. (2023, August). Parental Support and Music Engagement Among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Intellectual Disabilities.. Joint Conference of the 17th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC) and the 7th Conference of the Asia-Pacific Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (APSCOM), Tokyo, Japan.
Liang, D., Yum, Y. N. & Okahisa, T. (2022, February). Language Dominance Effects in Same-script and Cross-script Cognate Processing. The 6th Meeting of the Association for Reading and Writing in Asia, Virtual.
Yum, Y. N., Cheng, J., Chan, R. Y. Y., Tsang, K. Y., & Kuo, S. W. A. (2021, July). Use of Robots in Enhancing Engagement and Performance in Language Learning of Children with Intellectual Disabilities. International Conference on Technology-enhanced Language Learning and Teaching (TeLLT) & Corpus-based Language Learning and Teaching (CoLLT) 2021, Virtual.
Cheung, R.Y. M., Yum, Y. N., & Jiang, D. (2021, April). Promoting Multicultural Sensitivity Among Undergraduate Students in Hong Kong. The 2021 Developmental Science Virtual Teaching Institute, Virtual.
Yum, Y. N., Cheung, R.Y. M., & Jiang, D. (2020, December). Increasing Cultural Sensitivity among Pre-service Teachers in Hong Kong. The International Conference on Learning and Teaching 2020, Virtual.
Cheung, L.Y.C., Lau, D.K.-Y., Yum, Y.N. & Su, I.-F. (2020, November). Age-of-acquisition effects in lexical decision and naming: a partly semantic and partly arbitrary mapping account. The 61st Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Virtual.
Cheung, R. Y. M., Yum, Y. N., & Jiang, D. (2020, November). Implicit and explicit attitudes towards cultural minorities in Hong Kong. Psychonomic Society 61st Annual Meeting, Virtual.
Yum, Y.N. (2020, October). Task modulation of orthographic uniqueness point effects in non-native visual word processing. Poster presented at the 2020 Society for the Neurobiology of Language Annual Meeting, Virtual.
Yum, Y.N. & Lee, H.K. (2020, September). Cognate effects in naming across writing systems. The 4th Meeting of The Association for Reading and Writing in Asia, Virtual.
Yum, Y.N., Su, I.-F., & Lau, D.K.-Y. (2020, September). Properties of single Chinese characters in Hong Kong from the Canto-Lexicon Project. The 4th Meeting of The Association for Reading and Writing in Asia, Virtual.
Liu, S., Jiang, D., Cheung, R. Y. M., & Yum, Y. N. (2020, June). The moderating role of implicit culture belief on the relationship between cultural identification and stigma towards cultural minorities. Poster presented at APS Virtual Poster Showcase, Online.
Lau, D.K.-Y., Su, I.-F., & Yum, Y.N. (2019, October). The Canto-Lexicon Project: A preliminary report.. The 57th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Aphasia, Macau.
Yum, Y.N. & Law, S.-P. (2018, February). Using ERPs to dissociate lexical frequency and age-of-acquisition in Chinese character naming. Paper presented at The 2nd Meeting of The Association for Reading and Writing in Asia, Tsukuba, Japan.
Law, S.-P., Yum, Y.N., & Petrova, A. (2017, November). How Native Writing System may Influence Picture Processing: An ERP Study. Paper presented at The 58th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Vancouver, Canada.
Petrova, A., Yum, Y.N., & Law, S.-P. (2017, November). An ERP study of the role of native writing system in picture processing. Paper presented at The 55th Annual Academy of Aphasia Meeting, Baltimore, USA.
Yum, Y.N., Law, S.-P., & Petrova, A. (2017, November). The role of native writing system in picture processing: an ERP study. Paper presented at The 9th Society for the Neurobiology of Language Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Baltimore, USA.
Law, S. P., Yum, Y. N., & Cheung, G. W.-L. (2016, December). Concreteness effects on single Chinese character naming using mixed effects modeling of EEG data. Paper presented at The 16th International Conference on the Processing of East Asian Languages (ICPEAL 2016), Guangzhou, China.
Law S.-P., Yum Y.N., & Cheung G.W.-L. (2016, October). Concreteness effects on semantic processing of single Chinese characters using mixed effects modeling of EEG data. Paper presented at the 54th Annual Academy of Aphasia Mereting, ..
Other conference paper
Wong, C.M.V., Yum, Y.N., & Chan, R.Y.-Y. (2024, November). AI-enhanced Applied Behavioral Analysis Training for Children with Special Needs. Conference of the Global Alliance of Educational Leaders and Department Heads, Hong Kong.
Yum, Y.N., Holcomb, P.J., Midgley, K.J., Cohn, C., Wang, J., & Lau, H.Y.D. (2024, September). Concept Learning with Pictures and Concept Maps: Language Background and Affective Variables.. Special Interest Group 2 Meeting of The European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction, Valencia, Spain.
Yum, Y. N., & Wang, J. (2022, December). Factors Influencing the Form and Meaning Learning of Technical Words in a Second Language. International Congress on English Language Education & Applied Linguistics, virtual.
Fan, C. P., Okahisa, T., & Yum, Y. N. (2021, March). Parsing Syntactic Ambiguity in Japanese as a Non-native Language. The 5th Meeting of the Association for Reading and Writing in Asia, Virtual.
Yum, Y. N. & Fan, C. P. (2021, March). Task effects in Japanese Kanji and Katakana cognate processing among non-native readers. The 5th Meeting of the Association for Reading and Writing in Asia, Virtual.
Yum, Y.N. & Fan, C.P. (2020, November). Lexical Decision in Same-Script vs Different-Script Cognates. Poster presented at the 61st Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Virtual.

Projects

Cross-cultural Validation of an Emotion Regulation Training App
--
Project Start Year: 2024, Principal Investigator(s): YUM, Yen Na, Cherry

 
Web-based Learning for Students with Diverse Needs (Reading and Writing) at the Junior Secondary Level (2023/24 School Year)
.
Project Start Year: 2023, Principal Investigator(s): YUM, Yen Na, Cherry

 
Learning Concepts in Different Languages: Cognitive and Affective Mechanisms
..
Project Start Year: 2023, Principal Investigator(s): YUM, Yen Na, Cherry

 
Web-based Learning for Students with Diverse Needs (Reading and Writing) at the Junior Secondary Level (2022/23 School Year)
.
Project Start Year: 2022, Principal Investigator(s): YUM, Yen Na, Cherry

 
Promoting Positive Education and Pedagogy for Students with SEN: With Chinese Culture Approach
Promoting Positive education and pedagogy for students with SEN: with Chinese culture approach
Project Start Year: 2021, Principal Investigator(s): LAU NGAR SZE, ELSA 劉雅詩, YUM, Yen Na Cherry 任演納

 
Concept Learning in a Second Language: Effects of Multimodal Contexts and First Language Transfer
Concept Learning in a Second Language: Effects of Multimodal Contexts and First Language Transfer
Project Start Year: 2020, Principal Investigator(s): YUM, Yen Na Cherry 任演納

 
Effectiveness of Music Therapy in Social Skill Intervention for Children with ASD/ID: A Randomized Controlled Trial
--
Project Start Year: 2020, Principal Investigator(s): YUM, Yen Na Cherry 任演納

 
Conceptualization and Development of Culturally Sensitive Measure of Gratitude
This projects hopes to develop a culturally appropriate gratitude scale and explore its association with mental health functioning.
Project Start Year: 2020, Principal Investigator(s): DATU, Jesus Alfonso Daep null (YUM, Yen Na Cherry 任演納 as Co-Investigator)

 
Fostering Teachers’ Skills to Support Students with Behavioral and Emotional Needs
Fostering Teachers’ Skills to Support Students with Behavioral and Emotional Needs
Project Start Year: 2020, Principal Investigator(s): YUM, Yen Na Cherry 任演納, KAN, Pui Wai Yvonne 鄞佩慧

 
Promoting Wellbeing for students via Positive and Holistic Education Strategies: Horticultural Therapy, Tea Ceremony, Mindful Singing Bowl Therapy
Promoting Wellbeing for students via Positive and Holistic Education Strategies: Horticultural Therapy, Tea Ceremony, Mindful Singing Bowl Therapy
Project Start Year: 2020, Principal Investigator(s): LAU, Ngar Sze, Elsa 劉雅詩, YUM, Yen Na Cherry 任演納

 
Big Data Analyses and Predictions of Complex Learning Events: Optimizing Individualized Learning in University Students
A collaborative project to investigate the optimal learning environment and conditions of university students.
Project Start Year: 2019, Principal Investigator(s): Jiang, Wen Jun (YUM, Yen Na Cherry 任演納 as Co-Investigator)

 
Understanding Ambiguous Sentences in a Non-native Language
Understanding ambiguous sentences in a non-native language
Project Start Year: 2019, Principal Investigator(s): YUM, Yen Na Cherry 任演納

 
An Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory for Biomarkers Analysis in Education Studies: Laboratory for Educational Sciences (LES)
The current project aims to set up a bioanalytical laboratory for processing and analyzing human biological samples, to guide applied education studies by providing objective data in determining the effectiveness of various intervention programmes or teaching strategies.
Project Start Year: 2019, Principal Investigator(s): LAU, Kwok Wai 劉國威 (YUM, Yen Na Cherry 任演納 as Co-Investigator)

 
The Multilingual Reading Brain: An ERP Study of Language Interactions in Three Writing Systems
This study will tease apart visual and phonological overlaps in word forms in cognates with both alphabetic and non-alphabetic languages. Chinese/Japanese Kanji same-script cognates and English/Japanese Katakana crossscript cognates will be presented to Chinese-English-Japanese trilinguals and two control groups of Chinese-English and Japanese-English bilinguals in Hong Kong. Participants will engage in lexical decision and delayed word naming with simultaneous eye-tracking and ERP recordings. Results will clarify and contrast the roles of orthography and phonology in three languages and four scripts. Task-related differences will be reveal whether multilingual word processing is context-dependent and moderated by top-down control.
Project Start Year: 2019, Principal Investigator(s): YUM, Yen Na Cherry 任演納

 
Increasing Cultural Sensitivity among Pre-service Teachers in Hong Kong
This project aims to promote future educators' cultural sensitivity, skills, and knowledge in multicultural situations via an innovative program built in an existing education studies course taken by all students enrolled in Bachelor of Education (BEd) programmes at The Education University of Hong Kong.
Project Start Year: 2018, Principal Investigator(s): YUM, Yen Na Cherry 任演納, JIANG, Da 蔣達, CHEUNG, Yuen Man Rebecca 張婉文

 
A Multi-disciplinary Research Programme in Child Development
This research programme is directed at research that seeks to improve key child developmental outcomes (physical and psychological well-being, numeracy, literacy, cognitive and socio-emotional skills), and research designed to understand how these outcomes develop. The project that is the subject of this application is the first phase of a longitudinal study. It will examine the interplay between children’s psychological and physical characteristics and how they interact with their experiences in kindergarten to influence the aforementioned developmental outcomes. Deliverables of this research programme include population representative data that can guide policy decisions and programme design. In the longer term, findings will aid in the development of novel interventions that can transform childhood education practices (e.g. practices that improve executive functioning and socio-emotional skills).
Project Start Year: 2018, Principal Investigator(s): LEE, Kerry (YUM, Yen Na, Cherry as Co-Principal Investigator)

 
A Multi-method Investigation of Cognate Effects in Three Writing Systems
The proposed study thus aims to characterize how people with multilingual skills represent words in different writing systems and how this is influenced by individual differences in proficiency and age of acquisition. In addition, language interactions in multilingual reading will be investigated using cognates, which are words with similar orthographic or phonological forms referring to the same concept in different languages.
Project Start Year: 2018, Principal Investigator(s): YUM, Yen Na Cherry 任演納

 
Language and Literacy Cluster
..
Project Start Year: 2018, Principal Investigator(s): TONG, Xiuhong 佟秀紅 (YUM, Yen Na Cherry 任演納 as Team Member)

 
Brain Stimulation, Inner Speech And Mental Rehearsal. Implications For L2 learning
This study aims to explore the effects of tDCS (transcranial direct-current stimulation) on the rate and maintenance of second language learning, assess whether tDCS stimulation induces facilitation/inhibition effects on direct associative learning or on inner speech language rehearsal, and identify the possible behavioral and resting state-EEG signatures of effective L2 learning.
Project Start Year: 2018, Principal Investigator(s): VINAS, Guasch Nestor (YUM, Yen Na Cherry 任演納 as Co-Principal Investigator)

 
How Phonetic System Training Change the Way We Read Chinese? An ERP Study
This comparison study is to demonstrate the influence of phonetic system knowledge on the relationships between auditory temporal processing and Chinese reading at both behavioral and neuropsychological level.
Project Start Year: 2018, Principal Investigator(s): WANG LI-CHIH 王立志 (YUM, Yen Na Cherry 任演納 as Co-Investigator)

 
The Role of Working Memory in Multimodal Reading Comprehension in Bilingual Children
This study proposes to investigate the effects of language proficiency and working memory on how bilingual children read three types of reading materials: plain texts, texts with illustrations, and comics, in both Chinese and English. Using behavioral and eye-tracking measures, we will compare reading performance in native versus non-native language in Chinese-English and English-Chinese bilingual children, controlling for individual differences.
Project Start Year: 2016, Principal Investigator(s): YUM, Yen Na Cherry 任演納

 
Comparing Visual and Textual Information in Reading Comprehension in SLI Children
Comics and picture books are often used as reading materials for children. The addition of visual information is thought to confer advantages in reading comprehension and information recall relative to texts alone. However, this may be moderated by visuospatial working memory associated with simultaneous processing of visual information, which has been shown to be weak in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). The proposed study will systematically investigate how language impairment and familiarity of the comics form may change the dynamics in reading comprehension using behavioral and eye-tracking measures. The goal is to determine the role of working memory and visual information in reading performance of bilingual children with and without SLI. Thirty typically developing Cantonese-English bilingual children and thirty Cantonese-English bilingual children with SLI in primary 4-6 will be recruited. They will read three different types of reading materials: plain texts, texts with illustrations, and comics in both Chinese and English. Words and pictures from the reading materials will then be tested in a memory recall task. Results from this study will shed light on how texts and non-verbal information is read and remembered, which will contribute to evidence-based clinical and pedagogical practices for SLI children.
Project Start Year: 2016, Principal Investigator(s): YUM, Yen Na Cherry 任演納

 
Multimodal Proficiency and Its Influence on the Processing of Text and Graphics When Reading in L1 Versus L2
Reading comprehension and item memory of texts, texts with graphics, and integrated texts and graphics will be compared in native versus non-native readers of Chinese and English.
Project Start Year: 2016, Principal Investigator(s): YUM, Yen Na Cherry 任演納

 
Using Classroom Simulation to Prepare Special Education Teachers: A Pilot Study with SimSchool
A classroom simulation software SimSchool will be used in a course for in-service teachers, pre- and post-use data will be collected to evaluate the effectiveness of simulation in enhancing teaching preparedness.
Project Start Year: 2016, Principal Investigator(s): YUM, Yen Na Cherry 任演納

 
Language Acquisition
The language acquisition project aims:
to conduct cutting-edge research on language and literacy related topics that will contribute to the scientific understanding of language acquisition;
to conduct applied research for both typical and atypical developing children and youth and benefit students in Hong Kong and beyond;
to disseminate information about research-based practices related to language and literacy acquisition and instruction to the community including students, teachers, parents, and policy makers.


Project Start Year: 2014, Principal Investigator(s): LIN, Dan 林丹 (YUM, Yen Na Cherry 任演納 as Co-Investigator)