Psychonomic Society

Psychonomic Society

Formation	1959
Type	Professional association
Headquarters	Madison, Wisconsin
Location	[United States]]
Membership	2,500
2015 Chair	Robert Logie, PhD, University of Edinburgh, UK
Key people	Governing Board, Louis Shomette, Executive Director
Website	www.psychonomic.org

The Psychonomic Society is one of the primary societies for general scientific experimental psychology in the United States. It is open to international researchers, and around 25% of members are based outside of North America. Although open to all areas of experimental psychology, its members typically study areas related to cognitive psychology, such as learning, memory, attention, motivation, perception, categorization, decision making, and psycholinguistics. Its name is taken from the word psychonomics, meaning "the science of the laws of the mind".

Membership

The society includes about 2,500 members, including graduate student members. Emeritus, Fellows, and Full Members hold Ph.D. or equivalent degrees in their field. To be eligible for Fellow status, researchers must have published significant research other than their doctoral dissertation.

History

The Psychonomic Society was formed in 1959 out of a "general unhappiness with the directions being taken by the American Psychological Association" (Dewsbury & Bolles, 1995). This unhappiness stemmed in part from the focus that the APA had on clinical psychology and its practitioners. (This same sentiment later led to the formation of the American Psychological Society, another research-based psychological organization with a broader focus than the Psychonomic Society. The American Psychological Society is now called the Association for Psychological Science.)

Its organizing committee included: Wilfred J. Brogden, William K. Estes, Frank Geldard, Clance H. Graham, Lloyd G. Humphreys, Clifford T. Morgan, William D. Neff, Kenneth W. Spence, Stanley Smith Stevens, Benton J. Underwood, and William S. Verplanck.

Meetings

The Psychonomic Society convenes every year in the fall, usually November. Normally, around 2,600 people attend, with 1,300 papers and posters presented.

The first meeting was held at the University of Chicago in 1960, in conjunction with the American Psychological Association meeting. Many of the meetings of the society have occurred in Chicago (in the 1960s) and St. Louis (in the 1970s). In recent years, the meeting has moved between major convention cities in the USA and Canada. There are occasional international meetings of the Society, the first of which was held jointly with the UK Experimental Psychology Society in Edinburgh, UK in 2007. Starting in 2001, the meeting instituted a keynote address honoring distinguished members.

Summary of Psychonomic Meetings

Year	Meeting	Location	Date	Keynote Speaker
1960	1st	Chicago, Illinois	Sept. 1-3	-
1961	2nd			-
1962	3rd			-
1963	4th	Chicago, Illinois		-
1964	5th			-
1965	6th	Chicago, Illinois		-
1966	7th	Chicago, Illinois		-
1967	8th			-
1968	9th	St. Louis, MO		-
1969	10th	St. Louis, MO		-
1970	11th	San Antonio, Texas		-
1971	12th	St. Louis, MO		-
1972	13th	St. Louis, MO		-
1973	14th	St. Louis, MO	November 1–3	C.T. Morgan (S. S. Stevens Memorial Lecture)
1974	15th	Boston, MA		-
1975	16th	Denver, Colorado		-
1976	17th	St. Louis, Missouri		-
1977	18th	Washington, D.C.		-
1978	19th	San Antonio, Texas		-
1979	20th	Phoenix, Arizona		-
1980	21st	St. Louis, Missouri		-
1981	22nd	Philadelphia, PA		-
1982	23rd	Minneapolis, Minnesota		-
1983	24th	San Diego, CA		-
1984	25th	San Antonio, Texas	November 8–10	-
1985	26th	Boston, MA		-
1986	27th	New Orleans, Louisiana		-
1987	28th	Seattle, Washington	November 6–8	-
1988	29th	Chicago, Illinois	November 10–12	-
1989	30th	Atlanta, Georgia		-
1990	31st	New Orleans, Louisiana		-
1991	32nd	San Francisco, CA	November 22–24	-
1992	33rd	St. Louis, Missouri	November 13–15	-
1993	34th	Washington, D.C.	November 5–7	-
1994	35th	St. Louis, Missouri	November 11–13	-
1995	36th	Los Angeles, California	November 10–12	-
1996	37th	Chicago, Illinois	October 31-November 3	-
1997	38th	Philadelphia, PA	November 20–23	-
1998	39th	Dallas, Texas	November 19–22	-
1999	40th	Los Angeles, California	November 18–21	-
2000	41st	New Orleans, Louisiana	November 16–19	-
2001	42nd	Orlando, Florida	November 15–18	William K. Estes
2002	43rd	Kansas City, Missouri	November 21–24	Roger Shepard
2003	44th	Vancouver, B.C., Canada	November 6–9	Gordon Bower
2004	45th	Minneapolis, Minnesota	November 18–21	Anne Treisman
2005	46th	Toronto, ON, Canada	November 10–13	Michael I. Posner
2006	47th	Houston, TX	November 16–19	Mary C. Potter
2007	48th	Long Beach, CA	November 15–18	Marcia Johnson
2008	49th	Chicago, IL	November 13–16	Daniel Kahneman
2009	50th	Boston, MA	November 19–22	Henry L. Roediger, III
2010	51st	St. Louis, MO	November 18–21	Robert A. Bjork
2011	52nd	Seattle, WA	November 3–6	Nora Newcombe
2012	53rd	Minneapolis, MN	November 15–18	John R. Anderson
2013	54th	Toronto, ON, Canada	November 14–17	Elizabeth Loftus
2014	55th	Long Beach, CA	November 20–23	Larry L. Jacoby
2015	56th	Chicago, IL	November 19–22	Asher Koriat

Journals

The Psychonomic Society publishes six journals covering the full range of experimental psychology:

• Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

The journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review provides coverage spanning a broad spectrum of topics in all areas of experimental psychology, intended for a general readership. The journal is primarily dedicated to the publication of theory and review articles and brief reports of outstanding experimental work. Areas of coverage include attention and perception, cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, behavioral and cognitive neuroscience, memory, comparative psychology, social cognition, and cognitive development.

• Memory & Cognition

Memory & Cognition covers human memory and learning, conceptual processes, psycholinguistics, problem solving, thinking, decision making, and skilled performance, including relevant work in the areas of computer simulation, information processing, mathematical psychology, developmental psychology, and experimental social psychology.

• Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics (formerly Perception & Psychophysics)

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics spans all areas of research in sensory processes, perception, attention, and psychophysics. Most articles published are reports of experimental work; the journal also presents theoretical, integrative, and evaluative reviews. Commentary on issues of importance to researchers appears in a special section of the journal.

• Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience

Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience (CABN) offers theoretical, review, and primary research articles on behavior and brain processes in humans. Coverage includes normal function as well as patients with injuries or processes that influence brain function: neurological disorders, including both healthy and disordered aging; and psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and depression. CABN is the leading vehicle for strongly psychologically motivated studies of brain–behavior relationships, through the presentation of papers that integrate psychological theory and the conduct and interpretation of the neuroscientific data. The range of topics includes perception, attention, memory, language, problem solving, reasoning, and decision-making; emotional processes, motivation, reward prediction, and affective states; and individual differences in relevant domains, including personality.

• Learning & Behavior (formerly Animal Learning & Behavior)

Learning & Behavior presents experimental and theoretical contributions and critical reviews concerning fundamental processes of learning and behavior in nonhuman and human animals. Topics covered include sensation, perception, conditioning, learning, attention, memory, motivation, emotion, development, social behavior, and comparative investigations.

• Behavior Research Methods (formerly Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers)

Behavior Research Methods publishes articles concerned with the methods, techniques, and instrumentation of research in experimental psychology. The journal focuses particularly on the use of computer technology in psychological research. An annual special issue is devoted to this field.

Beginning with the 37th Annual meeting, abstracts of the society's annual meeting are published in Abstracts of the Psychonomic Society, starting with Volume 1 (in 1996), and numbered consecutively. Prior to this, the abstracts were published in the 'Program of the Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society.'

References

• Dewsbury, D. A., & Bolles, R. C. (1995) The founding of the Psychonomic Society. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 2, 216-233.
• Dewsbury, D. A. (1996) History of the Psychonomic Society II: The Journal Publishing Program. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 3, 322-338.

External links

• http://www.psychonomic.org/