RISA People

Dr Yuan Cao (Sally) first completed her bachelor’s degree in psychology at the City University of Hong Kong, before receiving a master’s degree in neuroscience, another master’s degree in clinical psychology, and a PhD in psychology from The University of Queensland in Australia.

Dr Cao worked as a practising psychologist at a community health clinic and a researcher at an NGO in Australia, before returning to Hong Kong to work in academia. Her work experience across different settings has inspired her to conduct basic research with the potential of improving practice in the future. She is also interested in training and teaching students to develop a curious, scientist mindset when serving clients in clinical practice.

Most of her research is centred around social cognition (i.e., the ability to understand and relate to other people), which is relevant to both healthy populations and people with different mental health problems (e.g., schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, or autism). She uses a combination of behavioural tasks (e.g., computer-based games, questionnaires) and brain-imaging techniques (e.g., fMRI) to better understand social cognition across the lifespan.