Sammy Ahmed

Sammy Ahmed
  • Assistant Professor
  • Human Development and Family Science
  • Phone: 401.874.5960
  • Email: sammyahmed@uri.edu
  • Office Location: Transition Center, Room 208
  • Website

PLEASE NOTE: Dr. Ahmed will be accepting new doctoral students for the 2024-2025 academic year.

Biography

Sammy Ahmed is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Science and the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program at the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Ahmed received a B.S. in Applied Psychology from New York University, and a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Michigan. After his doctoral studies, Dr. Ahmed received postdoctoral training at Michigan State University, where he worked with the HighScope Educational Research Foundation to study the effects of preschool curricular enhancements on children’s executive function development. Dr. Ahmed’s teaching interests are in the areas of child development and quantitative methodology.

Research

Dr. Ahmed’s research focuses on the social and educational contexts
that shape young children’s cognitive development. Specifically, he
examines how children’s interactions with peers, teachers, and
caregivers support the development of executive function skills (e.g.,
working memory, inhibition, attention, cognitive flexibility), and how
these early cognitive skills relate to learning, social behavior, and
health outcomes across the lifespan. To answer these questions, he
and his team collect data in children’s homes and schools using a
variety of assessments and draw on national and international data
sets to study children’s short- and long-term developmental outcomes.
His work also focuses on the development and validation of
assessment tools for measuring children’s cognitive skills in
ecologically valid settings, including in classrooms, peer groups, and
remote environments. Additionally, he collaborates with school
districts and non-profit research organizations to design, implement,
and evaluate early childhood interventions that support children’s
cognitive development, with a particular emphasis on curriculum
enhancements and teacher professional learning programs. Across
these areas, Dr. Ahmed uses longitudinal, experimental, and
intervention-based methods to generate evidence that informs
developmental theory and educational practice.

Education

  • Ph.D., Psychology, University of Michigan, 2019
  • M.S., Psychology, University of Michigan, 2016
  • B.S., Applied Psychology, New York University, 2012

Selected Publications

Ahmed, S. F., Koepp, A. E., & Vandell, D. L. (2026). Teacher-student relationships and adult outcomes: Developmental cascades via childhood executive function and behavioral dysregulation. Child Development, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag080

Ahmed, S. F., Waters, N. E., & Skibbe, L. E. (2026). A randomized controlled trial of HighScope’s teacher professional learning on preschoolers’ executive function skills. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 76(3), 230-239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2026.03.012

 

Waters, N. E., Ahmed, S. F., & Davis-Kean, P. (2025). Socioeconomic status and academic achievement: Developmental pathways through parenting and children’s executive function. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 160, 106335. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106335

Chaku, N., Waters, N. E., & Ahmed, S. F. (2024). Links between socioeconomic position and cognitive and behavioral regulation in adolescence: The role of pubertal development. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 34, 1232–1246. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12964

McRoy, K., Skibbe, L. E., Ahmed, S. F., & Tatar, B. H. (2024). Guidelines and best practices for assessing preschoolers remotely. Frontiers in Public Health 12, 1376090. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1376090

Ahmed, S. F., Montroy, J. J., Skibbe, L. E., Bowles, R., & Morrison, F. J. (2023). The timing of executive function development is associated with growth in math achievement from preschool through second grade. Learning and Instruction 83, 101713. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2022.101713

Ahmed, S. F., Chaku, N., Waters, N. E., Ellis, A., & Davis-Kean, P. E. (2023). Developmental cascades and educational attainment. In C. S. Tamis-LeMonda & J. J. Lockman (Eds.), Advances in Child development and behavior (Vol. 64, pp. 289–326). Academic Press https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.acdb.2022.10.006

Grammer, J. K., & Ahmed, S. F. (2023). Informing the development of school-based strategies to promote children’s executive function skills: Considerations, challenges, and future directions. Mind, Brain, and Education 17, 383-390. https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12368

Koepp, A. E., Watts, T. W., Gershoff, E. T., Ahmed, S. F., Davis-Kean, P., Duncan, G. J., Kuhfeld, M., & Vandell, D. L. (2023). Attention and behavior problems in childhood predict adult financial status, health, and criminal activity: A conceptual replication and extension of Moffitt et al. (2011) using cohorts from the United States and the United Kingdom. Developmental Psychology, 59(8), 1389–1406. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001533

Ribner, A., Ahmed, S. F., Miller-Cotto, D., & Ellis, A. (2023). The role of executive function in shaping the longitudinal stability of math achievement during early elementary grades. Early Childhood Research Quarterly. 64(3), 84–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2023.02.004

Ahmed, S. F., Ellis, A., Ward, K., Chaku, N., & Davis-Kean, P. (2022). Working memory development from early childhood to adolescence using two nationally representative samples. Developmental Psychology. 58(10), 1962–1973. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001396

Ahmed, S. F., Skibbe, L. E., McRoy, K., Tatar, B. H., & Scharphorn, L. (2022). Strategies, recommendations, and validation of remote executive function tasks for use with young children. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 60(3), 336–347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2022.03.002

Ahmed, S. F., Kuhfeld, M., Watts, T.W., Davis-Kean, P., & Vandell, D. L. (2021). Preschool executive function and adult outcomes: A developmental cascade model. Developmental Psychology, 57(12), 2234–2249. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001270

Kim., M, Bousselot, T., & Ahmed, S. F. (2021). Executive functions and science achievement during the five-to-seven-year shift. Developmental Psychology, 57(12), 2119–2133. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001261

Ahmed, S. F., Grammer, J. K., & Morrison, F. J. (2021). Cognition in context: Validating group-based executive function assessments in young children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 208:105131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105131

Waters, N. E., Ahmed, S. F., Tang, S., Morrison, F. J., & Davis-Kean, P. (2021). Pathways from socioeconomic status to early academic achievement: The role of specific executive functions. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 54(1), 321–331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2020.09.008

Ahmed, S. F., Tang, S., Waters, N. E., & Davis-Kean, P. (2019). Executive function and academic achievement: Longitudinal relations from early childhood to adolescence. Journal of Educational Psychology. 111(3), 446-458. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000296