Rate My Professor Carrie Clark

Dr. Carrie Clark serves as Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, specializing in Developmental & Learning Sciences within the field of Education. She obtained her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2009, with a dissertation on executive function in early school-age children born very preterm, and a Bachelor of Arts from the same university in 2001. Prior to her current role, which began as Assistant Professor in 2016 and progressed to Associate Professor, Clark held positions including Research Associate in the Memory Development and Disorders Laboratory at the University of Arizona (2014-2016), Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and Prevention Science Institute at the University of Oregon (2012-2014), Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Project Site Director in the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2009-2012), and Lecturer in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Canterbury (2008-2009). She is a member of the American Psychological Society Division 7 and the Society for Research in Child Development.

Clark's research centers on the development of executive function and self-regulation during early childhood, exploring how perinatal and early caregiving experiences shape developmental pathways for self-regulation and how cognitive control, emotion regulation, reflection, metacognition, and other aspects contribute to learning and academic achievement, particularly in mathematics. Her methodologies include neuropsychological assessments, neuroimaging, and physiological measures. Highly cited publications include 'The structure of executive function in 3-year-olds' (Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2011; 1133 citations), 'Preschool executive functioning abilities predict early mathematics achievement' (Developmental Psychology, 2010; 1102 citations), 'Longitudinal associations between executive control and developing mathematical competence in preschool boys and girls' (Child Development, 2013; 250 citations), and recent articles such as 'Children’s Arithmetic Strategy Use Trajectories: Exploring the Roles of Executive Functions and Socio-Demographic Characteristics' (Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2025) and 'Relation of life sciences students’ metacognitive monitoring to neural activity during biology error detection' (2024). With 5172 citations and an h-index of 27, her scholarship has advanced knowledge on neurocognitive outcomes in preterm children and early academic skills. Clark has earned awards including the James S. McDonnell Foundation Fellowship (2016), NIH Multimodal Neuroimaging Training Program Fellowship (2014), International Neuropsychological Society Merit Award (2008), and University of Canterbury Dean’s List for Doctoral Scholars (2008). She has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on grants from NSF, NICHD, DHHS, and others, including a $311,606 NSF EHR Core Research Award (2020-2023) and a $412,863 NICHD R21 grant (2020-2022).