Google Scholar

Check out Dr. Sun’s google scholar for a full list of publications and links.

Full List of Journal Publications

1. Marks, R. A., Bouhali, F., Sun, X., Caballero, J. F., Kepinska, O., Uchikoshi, Y., Beltz, A., Kovelman, I., & Hoeft, F. (2026). Functional connectivity fingerprints of emerging reading skill in the first months of schooling. Developmental Science, 29(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.70142

2. Wang, Y., Tang, X., Wu, S., & Sun, X. (2026). Growth mindsets are less endorsed and less associated with academic performance in non-WEIRD cultures. Npj Science of Learning, . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-026-00406-w

3. Wang, Y., Khadra, L., & Sun, X. + (2025). Perceptions of Academic Ups and Downs: A Cross-cultural Comparison of Beliefs in Chinese and Canadian Children. Child Development, . https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacaf016

4. Tang, X., Sun, X., & Guo, J. (2025). Relations of an implicit measure of growth mindset with its explicit measures and academic performance. Social Psychology of Education, 28(166). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-025-10125-6

5. Yu, C.L., Eggleston, R., Zhang, K., Nickerson, N., Sun, X., Marks, R.A., Hu, X., Brennan, J., Wellman, H., Kovelman, I. (2025). Neural processing of children’s theory of mind in a naturalistic story-listening paradigm. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsaf022

6. Wang, Y & Sun, X. + (2025). Growth mindset in Chinese culture: A meta-analysis. Social Psychology of Education, 28(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-024-09955-7

7. Zhang, K., Sun, X., Flores-Gaona, Z., Yu, C.L., Eggleston, R., Nickerson, N., Caruso, Tardif, T., & Kovelman, I. (2024). Cross-linguistic and bilingual transfer effects in contributions of phonology and morphology to word reading: A longitudinal perspective. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 28(2). https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728924000439

8. Eggleston, R., Marks, R.A., Sun, X., Yu, C.L., Zhang, K., Nickerson, N., Caruso, V., Hu, X., & Kovelman, I. (2024). Brain bases of morphological awareness differ between typical readers and children with dyslexia. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 67(7). https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_JSLHR-23-00293

9. Nickerson, N., Sun, X., Caruso, V., Zhang, K., Yu, C.L., Eggleston, R., Chaku, N., Hu, X., Satterfield, T., & Kovelman, I. (2024). What’s in the sound? Common and language-specific patterns in brain activation and functional connectivity for phonological awareness in Spanish-English bilinguals. Mind, Brain, and Education, 18(3). https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12410

10. Sun, X., Norton, O., & Nancekivell, S.E. (2023). Beware the myth: Learning styles affect parents’, children’s, and teachers’ thinking about children’s academic potential. npj Science of Learning, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-023-00190-x
Featured in Forbes and Podcast Tea for Teaching

11. Zhang, K., Sun, X., Yu, C.L., Eggleston, R., Marks, R.A., Nickerson, N., Caruso, V., Hu, X., Tardif, T., Booth, J., Chou, T.L., & Kovelman, I. (2023). Cross-linguistic and Bilingual Effects in Brain Development for Learning to Read: Evidence from Young Chinese-English Bilinguals. Human Brain Mapping, 44(13). https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26419

12. Sun, X., Nancekivell, S.E., Shah, P., Gelman, S.A. (2023). How essentialist reasoning about language acquisition relates to educational myths and policy endorsements. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-023-00481-2

13. Sun, X., Marks, R.A., Eggleston, R., Zhang K., Yu, C.L., Nickerson, N., Caruso, V., Chou., T., Hu., X., Tardif, T., Booth, J.R., Beltz, A.M., & Kovelman, I. (2022). Bilingual proficiency enhances neural network density: Sources of heterogeneity in children’s functional connectivity during English word processing. Neurobiology of Language, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.1162/nol_a_00092

14. Sun, X., Marks, R.A., Eggleston, R., Zhang, K., Lau, C., Yu, C.L., Nickerson, N., Kovelman, I. (2022). Impacts of the COVID-19 disruption on the language and literacy development of monolingual and heritage bilingual children in the United States. Reading and Writing, 36(2). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-022-10388-x

15. Marks, R.A., Labotka, D., Sun, X., Nickerson, N., Zhang, K., Eggleston, R., Yu, C., Uchikoshi, Y., Hoeft, F., & Kovelman, I. (2022). Morphological awareness contributes to early literacy in linguistically-diverse learners. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 26(2), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728922000517

16. Marks., R.A., Sun, X., López, E.M., Nickerson, N., Caruso, V., Hernandez, I., Satterfield, T., Kovelman, I. (2022). Cross-linguistic transfer of morphological awareness and reading skill in Spanish-English bilingual children. International Journal of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education, 25(10), 3907-3923. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2022.2090226

17. Sun, X., Zhang K., Marks, R.A., Karas, Z., Eggleston, R., Yu, C.L., Nickerson, N., Chou., T., Caruso, V., Hu, X.S., Tardif, T., Satterfield, T., & Kovelman, I. (2022). Morphological and phonological processing in English monolingual, Chinese-English bilingual, and Spanish-English bilingual children: An fNIRS neuroimaging dataset. Data in Brief, 42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2022.108048

18. Sun, X., Marks, R.A., Zhang, K., Yu, C.L., Eggleston, R., Nickerson, N., Chou, T.L., Hu, X.S., Tardif, T., Satterfield, T., & Kovelman, I. (2022). Brain bases of English morphological processing: A comparison between Chinese-English, Spanish-English bilingual, and English monolingual children. Developmental Science, 26(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13251

19. Sun, X., Zhang K., Marks, R.A., Nickerson, N., Eggleston, R., Yu, C.L., Chou., T., Tardif, T., & Kovelman, I. (2021). What’s in a word? Cross-linguistic influences on Spanish-English and Chinese-English bilingual children’s word reading development. Child Development, 93(1), 84-100. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13666
Ranked top 10 most-cited papers published in Child Development between 2022.1-2023.12

20. Nancekivell, S.E., Sun, X., Gelman, S.A., & Shah, P. (2021). A slippery myth: How learning style beliefs shape reasoning about multimodal instruction and related scientific evidence. Cognitive Science, 45(10). https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13047
Related public outreach article: Sun, X. (2021). Debunking the myth of learning styles: A case for evidence-based instruction and communication. Intercom (Magazine of the Society for Technical Communication). 68(5), 31-33.

21. Sun, X., Nancekivell, S.E., Gelman, S.A., & Shah, P. (2021). Growth mindset and academic outcomes: A compariso­­­n of US and Chinese students. npj Science of Learning, 6(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-021-00100-z

22. Sun, X., Nancekivell, S., Gelman, S., & Shah, P. (2021).  How mindset beliefs mean differently to Chinese and US students. npj Science of Learning Community Behind the Paper Blog Post, .
Top 5 npj Science of Learning Behind the Paper posts in 2021

23. Marks, R. A., Eggleston, R., Sun, X., Yu, C. L., Zhang, K., Nickerson, N., Hu, X., & Kovelman, I. (2021). The neurobiological basis of morphological processing for typical and impaired readers. Annals of Dyslexia, 72, 361-383. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-021-00239-9

24. Sun, X., Nancekivell, S.E., Gelman, S.A., & Shah, P. (2021). Perception about the Malleability of Fluid Versus Crystallized Intelligence. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 150(5), 815-827. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000980

25. Memmini, A. K., Sun, X., Kim, J., Hu, X., Weissman, D.H., Kovelman, I., Rogers, A.J., Herzog, N. L., Broglio, S. P. (2020). Persistent alterations of cortical hemodynamic response in asymptomatic concussed patients. Concussion, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.2217/cnc-2020-0014

26. Yan, M., Li, Y., Sun, X., Zhou, X., Hui, Y., & Li, H. (2020). The role of decoding and vocabulary in Chinese reading development: Evidence from a 3-year longitudinal study. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 91(1), 300-314. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12365

27. Zhang, H., Miller, K. F., Sun, X., & Cortina, K. S. (2020). Wandering eyes: Eye movements during mind-wandering in video lectures. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 34(2), 449–464. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3632

28. Sun, X., Cortina, K.S., Miller, K.F., & He, N. (2019). Willpower as cultural construct: Do Chinese students believe less in its depletion?. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 998. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00988

29. Deng, Y., Yan, M., Chen, H., Sun, X., Zhang, P., Zeng, X., & Lye, Y. (2016). Attachment security balances perspectives: Effects of security priming on highly optimistic and pessimistic explanatory styles. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1269. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01269

Full List of Book Chapters

Huo, M., Sun, X., Kovelman, I., & Chen, B. (2023). Literacy development in Southeast Asia. In Verhoeven (Ed.), Variation in Literacy Development. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009242585

Michal, A., Fansher, M., Sun, X., Zhang, H., & Shah, P. (2018). Cognitive development. The Oxford Handbook of Educational Psychology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199841332.013.7

Public outreach & Non-academic Publications

Q&A with Dr. Xin Sun on exploring infant & toddler minds (lexico-semantic representations) (June 11, 2025). UBC Language Sciences. Link to the interview: https://languagesciences.ubc.ca/news/june-06-2025/qa-dr-xin-sun-exploring-infant-toddler-minds-lexico-semantic-representations

Invited Community Talk: The Bilingual Child (May 21, 2024). United Chinese Community Enrichment Services Society (S.U.C.C.E.S.S), Coquitlam, Canada

Tea for Teaching Podcast: Beware the myth: learning styles affect parents’, children’s, and teachers’ thinking about children’s academic potential. Link to the episode: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-imzr4-14fbbd4

Impacts of the COVID-19 disruption on the language and literacy development of monolingual and heritage bilingual children in the United States: Q&A with Xin Sun. (December 5, 2022). UBC Language Sciences. Link to the interview: https://languagesciences.ubc.ca/news-events/announcement-research-news/dec-5-2022-impacts-covid-19-disruption-language-and-literacy

Graduate Research Spotlight - Xin Sun (2022). Link to the interview: https://lsa.umich.edu/psych/news-events/all-news/graduate-news/graduate-research-spotlight—xin-sun.html

Sun, X., Nancekivell, S., Gelman, S., & Shah, P. (2021). How mindset beliefs mean differently to Chinese and US students. npj Science of Learning Community Behind the Paper Blog Post

Sun, X. (2021). Debunking the myth of learning styles: A case for evidence-based instruction and communication. Intercom (Magazine of the Society for Technical Communication). 68(5), 31-33.

Sun, X.(2010). Dream [in Chinese]. Journal of Poetry (诗刊). 24, 77.