Publications | MSU Spatial Development Labs

Li, M., He, W. & Yang, Y. (2025). More variety or more quantity? Children’s Economic Decisions about Resource V alue. Applied Cognitive Psychology. 39(6), e70131

Zakrzewski, S. Merrill, E., & Yang, Y. (2025). Can gamification improve children’s performance in mental rotation? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 252, 106169.

Li, W., Yang, Y., Wang, D., & Wang, Q. (2024). Spatial Perspective Taking in Non-Autistic Children and Autistic Children: Do Social Processes Benefit or Obstruct? Journal of Cognition and Development, 1–24.https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2024.2421220

Lasc, D., Grinshpun, S., Bixter, M. & Yang, Y. (2025). Predicting Large-Scale Spatial Ability from Small-Scale Spatial Abilities in Children: An Application of the Double-Dimension Framework. Cognition. 254, 105982. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105982

Ding, R., Yang, Y. & Wang, Q. (2025). Do Parents Show Interpersonally-Oriented Socialization Practices for Adolescents’ Negative Emotions? Through the Lens of Chinese Families. Emotion. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001430

Su, Z., Qiu, W., Yang, Y., Chen, X., Ding, R. & Pan, J. (2024). Emotion Regulation Strategies and Depression in Mother-Adolescent Dyads: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model Approach. International Journal of Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.13216

Yacoub, N., Lakusta, L. & Yang, Y. (2024). Sex Differences in Direction Giving: Are Boys Better Than Girls? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 105958. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105958

Yang, Y., Li, W., & Barth, J. (2024). What drives Chinese college students' career interests? The impact of gender, major and job characteristics. Current Psychology, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05561-6

Ding, R., He, W., Liu, T., Yang, Y., Qiu, F., & Wang, Q. (2023). Unpacking Maternal Minimization Responses to Children’s Negative Emotions: “Person-Oriented” versus “Emotion-Oriented”. Emotion. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001324

Bracken, A., Hauss, J., Grinshpun, S., Lasc, D., Hershkovich, A., & Yang, Y. (2023). A profile of spatial abilities in people with Down syndrome. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research. https://doi.org/10.1111/jir.13111

Hershkovich, A., Lasc, D., Grove, L., Sullivan, D., & Yang, Y. (2023). Visuospatial perspective taking in people with Down syndrome. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 139, 104565.

Ai, L., Yang, Y., & Wang, Q. (2023). The effects of different navigational aids on wayfinding and spatial memory for older adults. Psychology and Aging. 38(7), 670. https://doi.org/10.1037/pag0000732

Yang, Y., Santiago, S. C., Lasc, D., Hershkovich, A., & Grove, L. (2023). Informal STEM learning: Examples from everyday spatial behaviors. Frontiers in Psychology, 14.

Yang, Y., & Merrill, E. C. (2022). Wayfinding in Children: A Descriptive Literature Review of Research Methods. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 1-29.

Grove, L., Yang, Y., Diggs, D. J., & Hershkovich, A. (2022). Parental Participation in Intellectual and Developmental Disability Research: A Review of Diversity. Disabilities, 2(2), 219-234.

Yang, Y., Li, W. & Wang, Q. (2022). How Well Do 5- to 7- Year-Old Children Remember the Spatial Structure of a Room? Journal of Cognition and Development, DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2022.2025809

Yang, Y., Himmelberger, Z. M., Robinson, T., Davis, M., Conners, F., & Merrill, E. (2021). Everyday Memory in People with Down Syndrome. Brain Sciences, 11, 551. https:doi.org/10/3390/brainsci11050551

Yang, Y., & Song, Q (2021). The Effects of Perceptual Cues of Visual Statistical Learning: Evidence from Children and Adults. Memory & Cognition. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-021-01179-w

Yang, Y., & Li, W., Huang, D., He, W., Zhang, Y., & Merrill, E. (2021).An Evaluation of Wayfinding Abilities In Adolescent and Young Adult Males with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorder. 80, 101697.

Yang, Y., & Song, Q. (2020). Visual Statistical Learning in Children and Adults: Evidence from Probability Cueing. Psychological Research. 1-11

Yang, Y., Wu, Y. C., Jiang, L., & Pei, Z. (2020) Intact wayfinding abilities in patients with Parkinson's disease. Clinical Parkinsonism & Related Disorders, 100067

Yang, Y., Chen, M., He, W., & Merrill, E. C. (2020). The role of working memory in implicit memory: A developmental perspective. Cognitive Development, 55, 100929.

Yang, Y., & He, W. (2020). Four-to-six year olds' ratio reasoning-from 2d to 3d quantities. Thinking and Reasoning. doi:10.1080/13546783.2020.1783362.

Himmelberger, Z., Merrill, E. C., Conners, F. A., Roskos, B., Yang, Y., & Robinson, T. (2020). The acquisition of survey knowledge by individuals with Down syndrome. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 14, 256.

Li, Y., Li, W., Yang, Y., & Wang, Q. (2019). Feedback and Directions Sources Influence Navigation Decision Making on Experienced Routes. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 2104-2104.

Yang, Y., Merrill, E. C., & Wang, Q. (2019). Children's response, landmark, and metric strategies in spatial navigation. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 181, 75-101.

He, W., Yang, Y., & Gao, D. (2018). Proportional Reasoning in 5- to 6-Year-Olds. Journal of Cognition and Development. Available Online. DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2018.1495218

Yang, Y., Merrill, E. C., Robinson, T., & Wang, Q. (2018). The impact of moving entities on wayfinding performance. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 56, 20-29.

Yang, Y., & Merrill, E. C. (2018). Implicit memory of locations and identities: A developmental study. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 167, 162-179.

Lookadoo, R., Yang, Y. & Merrill, E.C. (2017). Encouraging Top-Down Attention in Visual Search: A Developmental Perspective. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics. doi:10.3758/s13414-017-1379-5

Yang, Y., Faught, G. Merrill, E.C. (2017). Parent Reports of Wayfinding Activities by Their Children with Down Syndrome. Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability. 79(7), 2007-2020. DOI: DOI: 10.3109/13668250.2017.1284309

Yang, Y., & Merrill, E. C. (2017). Cognitive and personality characteristics of masculinity and femininity predict wayfinding competence and strategies of men and women. Sex Roles, 76(11-12), 747-758. doi:10.1007/s11199-016-0626-x

Merrill, E. C., Yang, Y., Roskos, B., & Steele, S. (2016). Sex Differences in using Spatial and Verbal Abilities Influence Route Learning Performance in a Virtual Environment: A Comparison of 6- to 12-Year Old Boys and Girls. Frontiers in Psychology. 7:258. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00258

Yang, Y. & Merrill, E. C. (2015). Response cost to repeated displays—when previous distracters become the targets. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 68(4), 625-634. doi:10.1080/17470218.2015.1007149

Yang, Y. & Merrill, E. C. (2015). Age-related similarities in contextual cueing in the presence of unpredictive distracters. Journal of Genetic Psychology. 176(1), 11-25. doi:10.1080/00221325.2014.995585

Yang, Y. & Merrill, E. C. (2015). The impact of signal to noise ratio on contextual cueing in children and adults. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 132, 65-8. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2014.12.005

Yang, Y., & Merrill, E. C (2014). The impact of distracter-target similarity on contextual cueing effects of children and adults. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 121, 42-62.

Yang, Y., Conners, F., & Merrill, E.C. (2014). Visuo-spatial ability in individuals with Down syndrome: is it really a strength? –A literature review. Research in Developmental Disabilities. 35(7), 1473-500.

Merrill, E. C., Conners, F., Yang, Y., & Weathington, D. (2014). The acquisition of contextual cueing effects by persons with and without intellectual disability. Research in Developmental Disabilities. 35(10), 2341-2351.

Yang, Y. & Merrill, E.C. (November 2020). A Systematic Review of The development of Wayfinding Skills. Talk at the Psychonomic Society 61st Annual Meeting (Online, due to pandemic)

Merrill, E.C., Conners, F., Roskos, B., Robinson,T., Himmelberger, Z., & Yang, Y. (March 2019). Acquisition of Route and Survey Knowledge during Wayfinding by Individuals with Down Syndrome. Talk delivered at Society for Research in Child Development. Philadelphia, PA. USA.

Yang, Y. Merrill, E.C. & Wang, Q. (September, 2018). Children’s Utilization of Response, Landmark, and Metric Strategies in Spatial Memory. Talk delivered at the 7th International Conference on Spatial Cognition. Rome, Italy.

Yang, Y., & Merrill, E.C, Himmelberger, Z. (March, 2015). Contribution of sex, age, and spatial abilities to the development of route learning skills. Talk delivered at Society for Research in Child Development. Philadelphia, PA. USA.

Zakrzewski, S., Baker, M., Grinshpun, S., Yang, Y., Conners, F., & Merrill, E. Spatial Ability Development in Adolescents and Young Adults with Down Syndrome. (2025). The Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Theory in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, California, USA. April.

Conde, S., Bhullar, R. & Yang, Y. (2025). Spatial Abilities in Aging Adults with Down Syndrome: Normative Aging and Implications for Dementia. The Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Theory in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, California, USA. April.

Haas, M., Alalwan, N., Mere, L., Estrada, M., Lakusta, L., & Yang, Y (2025). Virtual Reality vs. Real Life: Investigating Spatial Navigation Development in Children. Eastern Psychological Association, New York, USA. March.

Bayron, J., Haas, M., Gaspar, A., Latorre, A., Baidwan, E., Flakne, L., Lakusta, L. & Yang, Y. (2025). Finding Their Way: The Development of Real-Life Wayfinding Skills in Children. Eastern Psychological Association, New York, USA. March.

Gaspar, A., Haas, M., Lakusta, L. & Yang, Y (2025). Investigating Design Influences on Children’s Wayfinding Behavior in a Virtual Environment. Eastern Psychological Association, New York, USA. March.

Zakrzewski, S., Grinshpun, S., Elgamal, K., Baker, M., Khera, K., Mo, M., Angon-Martinez, J., Ashley, K., Infante, C., Kaur, A., Yang, Y., Roskos, B., Conners, F., Merrill, E. (2024). Training Mental Rotation Abilities Using Puzzle and Block Play in Adolescents and Adults with Down Syndrome. Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Theory in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Kansas City, MO. April.

Elgamal, K., Grinshpun, S., Khera, K., Mo, M., Zakrzewski, S., Baker, M., Yang, Y., Merrill, E. (2024). The improvement of spatial abilities assessed in Down Syndrome youth. Cognitive Developmental Society Conference. Pasadena, CA. March.

Lasc, D., Baker, M., Bhullar, R., Conde, S., Hershkovich, A., Merrill, E., Yang, Y. (2024). Comparison of Route and Landmark Knowledge in Individuals with Fragile X Syndrome and Typically Developing Children. Cognitive Development Society Biennial Conference. Pasadena, CA. March.

Baker, M., Lasc, D., Yang, Y. (2024). Modality Differences in Assessing Static-Extrinsic Spatial Abilities in People with Down Syndrome. Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Theory in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Kansas City, MO. April.

Baker, M., Grinshpun, S., Elgamal, K., Zakrzewski, S., Khera, K., Merrill, M., Yang, Y. (2024). Efficacy of Indirect Perspective-Taking Training in Typically Developing Children. Cognitive Development Society Biennial Conference in Pasadena, CA. March.

Conde, S., Hershkovich, A., Bullar, R., Gregory, J., Duncan, N., Lasc, D., Baker, M., Merrill, E., Yang, Y. (2024). Visuospatial perspective taking in individuals with Fragile X Syndrome. Cognitive Development Society Biennial Conference. Pasadena, CA. March.

Grinshpun, S., Elgamal, K., Baker, M., Zakrzewski, S., Mo, M., Khera, K., Kaur, A., Yang, Y., Conners, F., Roskos, B., & Merrill, E. (2024). Poster presented at the 2024 Cognitive Developmental Society Biennial Conference, Pasadena, CA. March.

Baker, M., Yacoub, N., Lakusta, L., & Yang, Y. (2023). Variance in Language Prior to and Following Direction-Giving Instruction in Children. Eastern Psychological Association conference, Boston, MA. March.

Bracken, A., Lasc, D., Torresano, G., Patel, N., & Yang, Y. (2023). Serial Position Effect on Turn Accuracy in Wayfinding. Society for Research in Child Development, Salt Lake City, UT. March.

Conde, S., Hershkovich, A., Lasc, D., Buckman, T., Patel, N., Gorczynski, R., Salernitano, S., & Yang, Y. (2023). The Everyday Spatial Behavior Questionnaire for Children. Society for Research in Child Development, Salt Lake City, UT. March.

Grinshpun, S., Smith, A., Elgamal, K., Sandy, A., Sliman, H., Zakrzewski, S., Yang, Y., Conners, F., Roskos, B., Merrill, E. (2023). Play Time!: Using Block and Puzzle Play to Train Mental Rotation Abilities in Children. Society for Research in Child Development, Salt Lake City, UT. March.

Hershkovich, A., Lasc, D., Shah, S., Conde, S., Holzli, A., Yang, Y. (2023). Spatial Perspective Taking in People with Down Syndrome. Society for Research in Child Development, Salt Lake City, UT. March.

Lasc, D., Hershkovich, A., Conde, S., Shah, S., Salernitano, S., Buckman,T., Holzli, A., Bracken, A., Torresano, G., Patel, N., & Yang, Y.(2023). Mental Rotation and Perspective Taking Abilities as Predictors of Route Reversal in Children. Society for Research in Child Development, Salt Lake City, UT. March.

Yang, Y. Wilson, A., Morrell, B. & Merrill, E. (2023). The Role of Gaze and Action in Perspective Taking. International Convention of Psychological Science (ICPS), Brussels, Belgium. March.

Hershkovich, A., Lasc, D., Hauss, J., Abid, H., Salernitano, S., Conde, S., Shah, S., Freeman, R., Bohr, K., Adickes, A., Charles, J., Patel, N., Nemeh, M., Olanrewaju, J., Zivanovic, S., Gorczynski, R., Simmen, C., McGee, P. C., Yacoub, N., & Yang, Y. (2022). The relationship between mental rotation and perspective taking in children aged 4-9 years old. Poster will be presented at the Eastern Psychological Association Conference, New York City, NY.

Hauss. J., Hershkovich, A., Lasc, D., Khawar, S., Yacoub, N., Freeman, R., Conde, S., Patel, N., & Yang, Y. (2022). The role of visuo-spatial construction abilities in Raven’s matrices test. Poster will be presented at the Eastern Psychological Association Conference, New York City, NY.

Lasc, D., Hershkovich, A., Shah, S., Adickes, A., Simmen, C., Conde, S., Patel, N., Hauss, J., Abid, H., Freeman, R., Bohr, K., Charles, J., Yacoub, N., Nemeh, M., Gorczynski, R., Zivanovic, S., Olanrewaju, J., Salernitano, S., & Yang, Y. (2022). Predicting wayfinding performance using perspective-taking abilities in four- to nine-year-old children. Poster submitted to the Cognitive Development Society Conference, Madison, WI.

Shah, S., Charles, J., Hershkovich, A., Abid, H., & Yang, Y. (2022). Computer vs. paper testing of the Water Level Task in 4- 9-year-old children. The poster will be presented at the Eastern Psychological Association Conference, New York City, NY.

Grove, L*., Diggs, D*., Yang, Y. (2021). Caregiver involvement in Intellectual and Developmental Disability Research: A Systematic Analysis of Publication Diversity and Trends across the Decade. The Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Virtual. March

Diggs, D*., Grove, L*., Yang, Y., Czarnogursky, M*., & McGee, P*. (2021). Are all spatial perspective taking tasks the same? Society for Research in Child Development. Virtual. March.

Yang, Y. & He, W*. (2019). How do kindergarteners reason about ratios? --Evidence from 2D and 3D quantities. 60th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society. Montreal, Quebec, Canada. November.

Li*, W., Wang, Q., & Yang, Y. (2019). The development of spatial perspective taking in young children. Society for Research in Child Development. Baltimore, MD. March.

Yang, Y., He, W., & Merrill, E.C. (2017). Proportion reasoning of depths and 3D rectangular solids in preschool children and adults. Society for Research in Child Development. Austin, TX. April.

Yang, Y., Wang, Q., & Merrill, E.C. (2017). Choosing among response, landmark, and metric strategies in spatial learning. Society for Research in Child Development. Austin, TX. April.

He*, W., Yang, Y., & Li, M. (2017). Facilitate the judgment of equivalent proportions. Society for Research in Child Development. Austin, TX. April.

Robinson, T., Merrill, E., Yang, Y., Conners, F., Himmelberger, Z., & Davis, M. (2017). Developmental trajectory analysis of verbal and every day long term memory: A comparison of persons with intellectual disability with and without down syndrome. The Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. San Antonio, TX. March.

Yang, Y., Tang, X., Xiang, Y., Ma, X. (2016). Implicit learning of locations and identities in repeated visual search - A developmental study. Presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society. Boston, MA. November.

Yang, Y., & Merrill, E.C., & Conners, F (2015). Inhibiting location-based responses by people with intellectual disabilities. The Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. New Orleans, LA. April

Merrill, E.C, Yang, Y. Himmelberger, Z., Robinson, T., & Reid, C (2015). Do you know which way is north? Children’s Cardinal Direction Knowledge. Society for Research in Child Development. Philadelphia, PA. March.

Robinson*, A. T., Yang, Y. & Merrill, C. (2015) Sex Role correlates with Wayfinding competency. Presented at Southeastern Psychological Association. Hilton Head, NC. March.

Yang, Y., Merrill, E.C, Robinson, A. T. & Reid, C. (2014). Signal to noise ratio in contextual cueing. Presented at International Spatial Cognition Conference, Bremen, Germany. September.

Yang, Y., & Merrill, E.C. (2013). Selective attention in implicit contextual cueing of persons with intellectual disability. Presented at The Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, San Antonio, TX. March.

Yang, Y., & Merrill, E.C. (2013). Children’s selective attention in contextual cueing. Presented at Biennial Society for Research and in Child Development. Seattle, WA. April.

Yang, Y., Merrill, E. C., Steed, R., Shewmake, M., Stallworth, M. (2013). Is there implicit spatial learning when configurations repeat without targets? Presented at Midwestern Psychological Association. Chicago, IL. May.

Yang, Y., & Merrill, E.C. (2012). Implicit contextual cueing of persons with intellectual disability. Presented at The Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Annapolis, MD, March.

Merrill, E.C., & Yang, Y. (2012). Distracter similarity, attention, and contextual cueing effects. Presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Minneapolis, MN. November.

Merrill, E.C., & Yang, Y. (2011). Transfer effects in contextual cueing. Presented at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Seattle, WA, November.