Minutes of the Division 3 Business Meeting at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting

Saturday, November, 12, 2005

7:00 a.m. Sheraton Centre

Toronto, Ontario

Present: Tom Zentall (President), Howard Egeth (President Elect), Alice Healy (Past President), Ralph Miller, Veronica Dark, Mark McDaniel, Nelson Cowan, Mark Ashcraft, Marvin Lamb, Deborah Clawson, Sharon Armstrong, Angelo Santi.

1. Tom Zentall provided a summary of the current membership of the Executive Committee as well as the current Chairs of various committees of Division 3.

2. Tom Zentall reminded those present that Divisions 3 and 6 were planning a co-ordinated program for the APA convention in August and that he has submitted a  grant request to the Committee on Division/APA Relations (CODAPAR) to support this initiative. At the time of the meeting there was no information available concerning the funding of this request.

3. Program Chair’s Report

      Marvin Lamb reported that the program planned for the 2006 APA convention would include 4 symposia on the topics of: Perception, Memory, Comparative Cognition, and Aging. A total of 14 hours of programming time is available for speakers including the Presidential Address. In addition, there will also be poster sessions. Although potential speakers for these symposia have been identified and letters of invitation have been prepared, none of the letters have been sent out because of uncertainty with respect to whether the convention will still be held in New Orleans as planned. There was some discussion concerning the location of the APA convention for 2006 as well as uncertainty regarding the actual dates that the convention would be held. Those present at the meeting expressed divergent opinions on whether it was a good idea to hold the meeting in New Orleans, and whether they would attend if it were held there. Despite the uncertainty regarding location and dates, it was decided that the potential speakers should be contacted as soon as possible and be made aware of the invitation to speak.

4. Fellows Chair’s Report

Mark Ashcraft provided an update on the nominations for Fellows. This year there are 24 individuals who were nominated and seconded. Ten of 24 nominees are women. Mark noted there has been some difficulty in the past in getting the nominated women to apply. Last year five women were nominated but only one applied. 

5. Other Business

Tom Zentall noted that at the meeting of the Psychonomic Society Governing Board there was a discussion of the suggestion that all members of the Psychonomic Society be made members of Division 3 as well. It was decided that further effort should be put into looking into this possibility with APA.

Tom also reported on the future convention locations for the Psychonomic Society. These are: Houston, Long Beach, Chicago, Boston, and St. Louis.

In July 2007, there will be a joint meeting of the Psychonomic Society and the  Experimental Psychology Society in Scotland. This will be in addition to the regular meeting of the Psychonomic Society in November 2007.

Nelson Cowan noted that some Psychonomic Society members are unaware that they are eligible for a 25% reduction in their APA dues. There was some discussion of how we might increase awareness of the dues reduction among the membership of the Psychonomic Society. One way of making sure that at least Division 3 members are aware of this would be to include a reminder in the fall newsletter or to send out an email reminding members of this reduction.

6. The Business meeting was adjourned at 7:50 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Angelo Santi

Secretary-Treasurer

Department of Psychology

Wilfrid Laurier University

Waterloo, Ont. Canada N2L 3C5

(519) 884-0710, ext. 3087 Fax: (519) 746-7605

asanti@wlu.ca