Kimberly Andrews Espy, PhD
Professor - Department of Psychology
Associate Vice Chancellor for Research
303 Canfield Administration Building
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0433
(402) 472-2851

Biography

Trained as a Clinical Neuropsychologist, Dr. Espy is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and Associate Vice Chancellor for Research. Her research focuses on identifying the antecedents of learning, attention, and behavioral disorders in medically at-risk populations, including those born prematurely, those exposed to substances of abuse during pregnancy, and those exposed to toxicants in their environment. Another area of study includes normative development of emergent cognitive skills in young children and infants, including executive control, learning, memory, and attention. In collaboration with colleagues at Georgia State University and the University of Aberdeen, Dr. Espy is exploring the comparative parallels in executive control in young children and primates, and the relation of executive control to everyday behavioral and academic outcomes. In her work, she utilizes developmental cognitive neuroscience paradigms to investigate cognitive development, and its perturbations, in young children, infants, and neonates.  Finally, Dr. Espy has an overarching interest in advanced multivariate statistics in general, and growth modeling in particular.

In 2001, Dr. Espy received the Rita G. Rudel Award for Pediatric Neuropsychology and Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. In 2005, she received the Early Career Award from Division 40 (Clinical Neuropsychology) of the American Psychological Association, and also was selected as a Fellow of the same division. Her work currently is funded by The National Institutes of Health / National Institute on Drug Abuse, The National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Institute of Child Health and Development. She serves on the editorial board of Developmental Neuropsychology and Assessment, and is an ad-hoc reviewer for many journals. Dr. Espy is a member of the NIH study section, Child Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities.

 

Recent Publications

Journal Articles

Wiebe, S. A., Espy, K. A., & Charak, D. (in press).  Using confirmatory factor analysis to understand executive control in preschool children:  I. Latent structure. Developmental Psychology.

Espy, K. A., Senn, T. E., Charak, D., Tyler, J., & Wiebe, S. (in press). Perinatal pH and neuropsychological outcomes at age 3 years in children born preterm: An exploratory study. Developmental Neuropsychology.

Fang, H., Brooks, G. P., Rizzo, M. L., Espy, K. A., & Barcikowski, R. S. (in press). A Monte Carlo power analysis of traditional repeated measures and hierarchical multivariate linear models in longitudinal data analysis. Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods.

Espy, K. A., Bull, R. B., Martin, J., & Stroup, W. (2006).  Measuring the development of executive control with the Shape School. Psychological Assessment, 18, 373-381.

Espy, K. A., & Bull, R. B. (2005). Inhibitory processes in young children and individual variation in short-term memory. Developmental Neuropsychology, 28, 669-688.

Crawford, J. S., Espy, K. A. , Isquith, P. K., & Gioia, G. G. (2005). Assessment of executive functions in preschool aged children. Mental Retardation and Developmental Disability Research Reviews, 11, 100-104.

Espy, K. A., & Cwik, M. F. (2004). The development of a trail making test in young children: The TRAILS-P. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 18, 411-422.

Espy, K. A., Molfese, V. J., Molfese, D. L., & Modglin, A. (2004). Development of auditory event-related potentials in young children and relations to word-level reading abilities at age 8 years. Annals of Dyslexia, 54, 9-38.

Espy, K. A., McDiarmid, M. D., Cwik, M. F., Senn, T. E., Hamby, A., & Stalets, M. M. (2004). The contributions of executive functions to emergent mathematic skills in preschool children. Developmental Neuropsychology, 26, 465-486.

Senn, T. E., Espy, K. A. , & Kaufmann, P. M. (2004). Using path analysis to understand executive function organization. Developmental Neuropsychology, 26, 445-464.

Isquith, P. K., Gioia, G., & Espy, K. A . (2004). Executive functions in preschool children: Examination through everyday behavior. Developmental Neuropsychology, 26, 403-422.

Espy, K. A. (2004). Introduction to the special issue: Using developmental, cognitive, and neuroscience approaches to understand executive control in young children. Developmental Neuropsychology, 26, 379-384.

Bull, R., Espy, K. A., & Senn, T. E. (2004). A comparison of performance on the towers of London & Hanoi in young children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 45, 743-754.

Espy, K. A., & Senn, T. E. (2003). The incidence and correlates of breast milk feeding in hospitalized preterm infants. Social Science & Medicine, 57, 1421-1428.

Senn, T. E., & Espy, K. A . (2003). Effects of neurobehavioral assessment on neonatal feeding and weight gain in preterm infants. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 24, 1-4.

Research Projects

The Emergence of Cognitive Control
National Institues of Health
Role: Co-PI

Executive Function Development in Preschool Children
National Institues of Health
Role: PI

Prenatal Tobacco Exposure: Perinatal and Genetic Risks
National Institues of Health
Role: PI