Kimberly Cuevas

Associate Professor

Psychological Sciences

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Education

Ph.D., 2009, Rutgers

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Research Interests

Dr. Cuevas examines the development of basic and higher-order cognitive skills from infancy through early childhood, identifying the mechanisms and contextual factors that shape them. Drawing on developmental psychobiology and neuroscience, her research centers on three core areas—learning & memory, executive function, and neural mirroring systems—while advancing developmental EEG methods and establishing functional links between neural activity and emerging cognition. Dr. Cuevas’ interests include: 

• • Contingency Learning (Operant Conditioning) & Latent Learning
  • Long-term & Episodic Memory
  • Executive Function
  • Developmental Cognitive/Social Neuroscience
  • EEG/ECGs
  • Neural Mirroring Systems
  • Individual Differences

Research Websites
CAP Lab
ORCID

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Teaching

Undergraduate 

• PSYC 2400. Developmental Psychology
• PSYC 2500. Learning
• PSYC 2501. Cognition
• PSYC 3470. Current Topics in Developmental Psychology (Infancy, Cognitive Development)

Graduate 

• PSYC 5450. Infancy & Early Experience

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Publications

Recent 

Cuevas, K., & Colombo, J. (2025). A quarter century of research on infant contingency learning: Current and future directions. Infant Behavior and Development, 80, 102068.

Davinson, K., Learmonth, A. E., &. Cuevas, K. (2025). Infant long-term memory: The last quarter century and the next. Infant Behavior and Development, 81, 102136.

Bryant, L. J., & Cuevas, K. (2022). The effects of reward on children’s Stroop performance: Interactions with temperament. Child Development, 93, e17-e31.

Cuevas, K., & Bell, M. A. (2022). EEG frequency development across infancy and childhood. In P.A. Gable, M.W. Miller, & E.M. Bernat (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of EEG frequency (pp. 293-323). Oxford University Press.

Hofstee, M., Huijding, J., Cuevas, K., & Deković, M. (2022). Self-regulation and frontal EEG alpha activity during infancy and early childhood: A multilevel meta-analysis. Developmental Science, 25, e13298.

Representative

Bryant, L. J., & Cuevas, K. (2019). Effects of active and observational experience on EEG activity during early childhood. Psychophysiology, 56, e13360.

Cuevas, K. & Sheya, A. (2019). Ontogenesis of learning and memory: Biopsychosocial and dynamical systems perspectives. Developmental Psychobiology, 61, 402-415.

Cuevas, K., Rajan, V., Morasch, K. C., & Bell, M. A. (2015). Episodic memory and future thinking during early childhood: Linking the past and future. Developmental Psychobiology, 57, 552-565.

Cuevas, K., & Bell, M. A. (2014). Infant attention and early childhood executive function. Child Development, 85, 397-404.

Cuevas, K., Rovee-Collier, C., & Learmonth, A. E. (2006). Infants form associations between memory representations of stimuli that are absent. Psychological Science, 17, 543-549.

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Research Funding

9/2023-5/2028 NIH/NICHD- R01HD109221, Psychometrics and Predictive Validity of Infant Learning, MPI (MPI John A. Colombo, University of Kansas)

7/2022-4/2028 NIH/NICHD- R01HD104945, An Integrative Longitudinal Analysis of Neural Rhythms in Early Development, MPI (MPI Martha Ann Bell, Virginia Tech)

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Honors and Awards

• 2020 – Fellow, Eastern Psychological Association (elected)
• 2015 – Early Career Outstanding Paper Award American Psychological Association (APA), Division 7
• 2015 – Kucharski Young Investigator Award International Society for Developmental Psychobiology (ISDP)
• 2005 – Sandra G. Weiner Developmental Psychobiology Student Investigator Award, ISDP
• 2002 – National Psi Chi Undergraduate Allyn & Bacon Research Award, First Place