Si On Yoon is an assistant professor in the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders. She received a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016.
Her research interests take a cognitive science approach to the study of complex language processes. She examines how people use social-pragmatic information in conversation, such as how speakers design what they say depending on their partner’s knowledge, and how previously-discussed information influences language production and comprehension in the moment. Yoon is also interested in how this ability to use social-pragmatic cues during language processing develops and how this ability varies across populations (e.g., adults with/without severe memory impairment or neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s). A theme throughout her work is understanding the cognitive mechanisms of natural conversation and the role of the memory representations that support natural language use. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Before joining NYU, Yoon was an assistant professor at the University of Iowa (2019-2023).