Chuansheng Chen
Biography
Chuansheng Chen, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Irvine. He received his Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1992. Chen's research spans cultural psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and behavioral genetics, with particular emphasis on the neural bases of language learning, mathematical cognition, and the interplay between genetic variation and cultural factors in shaping human behavior. His work has been supported by major grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and he has published over 360 peer-reviewed journal articles with more than 30,000 citations.
Chen has made influential contributions to understanding how culture shapes brain function and cognition. His early cross-cultural research on academic achievement among American, Chinese, and Japanese students helped establish the field's understanding of cultural differences in educational outcomes. His later work pioneered the application of neuroimaging methods to study how native language experience shapes the neural organization of reading and language processing. Chen has also conducted extensive research on the genetic bases of individual differences in cognitive abilities, personality traits, and decision-making, with a focus on gene-environment interactions. His research on the DRD4 gene and human migration patterns has contributed to the emerging field of cultural genomics.
Chen is an elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and a member of Sigma Xi The Scientific Research Honor Society. He has served on numerous editorial boards, including Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, Culture and Brain, and the Journal of Research on Adolescence. He served as Chair of the Department of Psychological Science at UC Irvine from 2001 to 2004 and again as Interim Chair from 2018 to 2019. Chen has also served on the United States National Committee for the International Union of Psychology and chaired the International Affairs Committee of the Society for Research in Child Development. He received the Distinguished Mid-Career Faculty Award for Research from the UCI Academic Senate in 2014-2015 and the Xiaojia Ge's Lifetime Achievement Award from the SRCD Asian Caucus in 2015.
Return to topEducation
- Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, University of Michigan, 1992
- M.A. in Developmental Psychology, University of Michigan, 1987
- B.S. in Psychology, Hangzhou University (now Zhejiang University), 1982
Distinctions
- Xiaojia Ge's Lifetime Achievement Award, SRCD Asian Caucus, 2015
- Fellow, Association for Psychological Science, 2019
- Chancellor's Professor, UCI, 2014-2022
- Elected Member, Sigma Xi The Scientific Research Honor Society, 2020
- The National Academy of Education Spencer Fellowship, 1993-1995
- Distinguished Alumni Award, Department of Psychology, Zhejiang University, 2018
- Distinguished Mid-Career Faculty Award for Research, Academic Senate, UCI, 2014-2015
- Faculty Interdisciplinary Research Award, School of Social Ecology, UCI, 2000
- Faculty Career Development Award, 1995-1996
Areas of Expertise
- Cultural Neuroscience
- Episodic Memory Neural Mechanisms
- Mathematical Cognition Development
- Bilingual Language Processing
- Genome-Wide Association Studies
- Functional Connectivity Patterns
- Eating Disorder Risk Factors
Recent Publications
- Wu, K, Chen, C., “Paler isn't prettier: Little evidence of colorism among Asian American speed-daters” (opens in new tab), Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, vol. 11, pp. 495-512, 2025.
- Wang, P., Chen, C., Yim, I. S., “The role of acculturative stress and self-construal in maladaptive eating behaviors among female young adults in diverse college settings” (opens in new tab), Appetite, vol. 206, pp. 107844, 2025.
- Im, H., Chen, C., “With status comes responsibility: SES attainment pathways influence observers' endorsement of noblesse oblige” (opens in new tab), The Journal of Social Psychology, 2025.
- Zhao, X., Yin, R., Chen, C., Markett, S., Wang, X., Xue, G., Dong, Q., Chen, C., “Novel Genes Associated With Working Memory Are Identified by Combining Connectome, Transcriptome, and Genome” (opens in new tab), Human Brain Mapping, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. e70114, 2025.
- Yin, R., Wang, X., Zhao, X., Chen, C., Dong, Q., Wang, Q., Fang, Y., Chen, C., “Differentiation of Executive Functions During Adolescence: Converging Evidence from Behavioral, Genetic and Neural Data” (opens in new tab), Biological Psychology, vol. 198, pp. 109058, 2025.
- Li, Q., Ding, Z., Chen, C., Liu, X., Zhang, M., “The roles of self-, mother-, and stranger-determined choice in memory in 5-to 10-year-old Chinese children” (opens in new tab), Cognitive Development, vol. 74, pp. 101583, 2025.
- Li, A., Chen, C., Feng, Y., Hu, R., Feng, X., Yang, J., Lin, X., Mei, L., “Functional divisions of the left anterior and posterior temporoparietal junction for phonological and semantic processing in Chinese character reading” (opens in new tab), NeuroImage, vol. 311, 2025.
- Ding Z., Chen C., Wang H., Wang Y., Zhang S., Zhang M., “Active control enhances memory less in children with learning disabilities compared to their typically developing peers” (opens in new tab), Research in Developmental Disabilities, vol. 165, 2025.
- Wang, P., Chen, C., Yim, I. S., “Internalized weight bias and eating disorder risk: The moderating role of self-construal among culturally diverse female young adults” (opens in new tab), Stigma and Health, 2024.
- Li, A., Chen, C., Wu, X., Feng, Y., Yang, J., Feng, X., Hu, R., Mei, L., “Processing demands modulate the activities and functional connectivity patterns of the posterior (VWFA-1) and anterior (VWFA-2) VWFA” (opens in new tab), NeuroImage, vol. 303, pp. 120923, 2024.
- Cheng, R., Yin, R., Zhao, X., Wang, W., Gong, G., Chen, C., Xue, G., Dong, Q., Chen, C., “Genome-wide association study of brain functional and structural networks” (opens in new tab), Network Neuroscience, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 319-334, 2024.
- Wang, X., Liu, H., He, Q., Chen, C., Xue, G., Dong, Q., Chen, C., “Parental warmth, stressful life events, and impulsivity: A gene–environment-wide interaction study” (opens in new tab), Neuropsychology, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 17, 2024.
- Deng, X., Chen, X., Li, Y., Zhang, B., Xu, W., Wang, J., Zang, Y.F., Dong, Q., Chen, C., Li, J., “Online and offline effects of parietal 10 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on working memory in healthy controls” (opens in new tab), Human Brain Mapping, vol. 45, 2024.
- Dang, M., Chen, Y., Ji, J. S., Zhang, Y., Chen, C., Zhang, Z., “The association between household and family composition and mental health of the elderly: mediating role of lifestyle” (opens in new tab), BMC public health, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 2055, 2024.
- Wei, W., Dai, J., Chen, C., Huang, Y., Zhou, X., “Urban-Rural Differences in Early Arithmetic Performance are Accounted for by Phonological Processing” (opens in new tab), Journal of Cognition and Development, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 511-528, 2024.
- Wang, R., Wang, Y., Chen, C., Huo, L., Liu, C., “How do eye cues affect behaviors? Two meta-analyses” (opens in new tab), Current Psychology, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 1084-1101, 2024.
- Shao, X., Li, A., Chen, C., Loftus, E. F., Zhu, B., “Cross-stage neural pattern similarity in the hippocampus predicts false memory derived from post-event inaccurate information” (opens in new tab), Nature Communications, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 2299, 2023.
- Li, Y., Chen, X., Zhang, Q., Xu, W., Li, J., Ji, F., Dong, Q., Chen, C., Li, J., “Effects of working memory span training on top-down attentional asymmetry at both neural and behavioral levels” (opens in new tab), Cerebral Cortex, vol. 33, no. 10, pp. 5937-5946, 2023.
- Li, T., Cheng, D., Chen, C., Gong, G., Lv, J., Zhou, X., “Altered resting-state functional connectivity in the prefrontal cortex is related to the development of dyscalculia in patients with Turner syndrome” (opens in new tab), Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, vol. 77, pp. 386-392, 2023.
- Cheng, S., Ding, Z., Chen, C., Sun, W., Jiang, T., Liu, X., Zhang, M., “The effect of choice on memory: The role of theta oscillations” (opens in new tab), Psychophysiology, vol. 60, no. 12, pp. e14390, 2023.
Most Cited Publications
- Chen, C., Lee, S., Stevenson, H. W., “Response style and cross-cultural comparisons of rating scales among East Asian and North American students” (opens in new tab), Psychological Science, vol. 6, pp. 170-175, 1995.
- Schwab-Stone, M., Chen, C., Greenberger, E., Silver, D., Lichtman, J., Voyce, C., “No safe haven II: The effects of violence exposure on urban youth” (opens in new tab), Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, vol. 38, pp. 356-367, 1999.
- Chen, C., Stevenson, H. W., “Motivation and mathematics achievement: A comparative study of Asian American, Caucasian American, and East Asian high school students” (opens in new tab), Child Development, vol. 66, pp. 1215-1234, 1995.
- Stevenson, H. W., Chen, C., Lee, S., “Mathematics achievement of Chinese, Japanese, and American children: Ten years later” (opens in new tab), Science, vol. 259, pp. 53-58, 1993.
- Greenberger, E., Chen, C., Dmitrieva, J., Farruggia, S. P., “Item-wording and the dimensionality of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale: Do they matter?” (opens in new tab), Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 35, pp. 1241-1254, 2003.
- Jiang, J., Chen, C., Dai, B., Shi, G., Ding, G., Liu, L., Lu, C., “Leader emergency through interpersonal neural synchronization” (opens in new tab), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 112, pp. 42-74-4279, 2015.
- Greenberger, E., Chen, C., “Perceived family relationships and depressive mood in early and late adolescence: A comparison of European and Asian Americans” (opens in new tab), Developmental Psychology, vol. 32, pp. 707-716, 1996.
- Chen, C., Stevenson, H. W., “Homework: A cross-cultural examination” (opens in new tab), Child Development, vol. 60, pp. 551-561, 1989.
- Stevenson, H. W., Chen, C., Uttal, D. H., “Beliefs and achievement: A study of black, white, and Hispanic elementary school children” (opens in new tab), Child Development, vol. 61, pp. 508-523, 1990.
- Greenberger, E., Lessard, J., Chen, C., Farruggia, S. P., “Self-entitled college students: Contributions of personality, parenting, and motivation factors” (opens in new tab), Journal of Youth and Adolescence, vol. 37, pp. 1193-1204, 2008.
Contact Information
Email: chuansheng.chen@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-4568
Address: 4568 Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway, Irvine, CA 92697-7085
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Last updated on 5/26/2026.