Shikang Peng

Rotman Research Institute

University of Toronto

Toronto, ON

Hey! I am a 3rd-year PhD student at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, University of Toronto, working with Drs. Brian Levine and Bradley Buchsbaum. I obtained my MA in psychology from the University of Chicago working with Dr. Wilma Bainbridge, and my BSc from the Univeristy of Alberta.

My research interests lie at the intersection of naturalistic perception, memory, and imagery, using computational cognitive neuroscience approaches with data from behavior and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), as well as how the individual differences that shape them.

Outside of my research, I enjoying watching movies, playing video games, cooking, or camping once for a while.

News

Aug 15, 2026	My undergrad project investigating how 3D in virtual reality affects vividness experience is now out as (preprint). More papers coming soon :)
Sep 19, 2025	Check out my Master’s project on investigating memorabilty’s predictability on social media virality (Peng & Bainbridge, 2026) 🌐🔥.

Selected publications

PsyArXiv

Seeing events in 3D enhances scene memory and vividness

Peggy St Jacques, Julia Feminella, and Shikang Peng

PsyArXiv, 2026

DOI Bib

@article{event3D,
  title = {Seeing events in 3D enhances scene memory and vividness},
  author = {St Jacques, Peggy and Feminella, Julia and Peng, Shikang},
  journal = {PsyArXiv},
  doi = {https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/z9thr_v1},
  year = {2026},
}

CHB

Image memorability predicts social media virality and externally-associated commenting

Shikang Peng and Wilma A. Bainbridge

Computers in Human Behavior, 2025

DOI Bib

@article{memMedia,
  title = {Image memorability predicts social media virality and externally-associated commenting},
  author = {Peng, Shikang and Bainbridge, Wilma A.},
  journal = {Computers in Human Behavior},
  doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2025.108799},
  volume = {174},
  number = {108799},
  year = {2025},
  publisher = {Elsevier}
}