2007 APA Program Preview: Uniting Psychology Through Memory—Anne Cleary & Veronica Dark

APA Council Report—Lewis Lipsitt & Tom Zentall

Division 3 Executive Meeting Minutes—Angelo Santi

2007 APA Program Preview: Uniting Psychology Through Memory—Anne Cleary & Veronica Dark

The 2007 APA Convention in San Francisco runs from Friday, August 17, through Monday, August 20. While the Division 3 program for the 2007 APA convention may appear on the surface to cover an eclectic set of topics, there is method to the madness. The invited addresses and symposia were chosen to fit under this year’s Division 3 theme: Uniting Psychology Through Memory. This theme provides a way to link the diverse interests of “Experimental Psychologists”. It also meshes well with the APA Presidential Theme for this year’s convention: Building Bridges, Expanding Horizons: Interdisciplinary and International Perspectives. The program was developed to provide something of interest to all Division 3 members and, as a result, it is full of cross-disciplinary events.

The interdisciplinary nature of the program is well illustrated in the symposia. On Friday, Division 3 is sponsoring a two-hour symposium entitled, Memory Dynamics and the Optimization of Instruction, which will be hosted by Elizabeth Ligon Bjork and Robert A. Bjork. This symposium features two opening talks followed by an invited poster session on memory research as it applies to education and training. The symposium is co-listed with Division 15 (Educational Psychology), along with Division 16 (School Psychology), Division 21 (Applied Experimental and Engineering Psychology), Division 22 (Rehabilitation Psychology) and Division 40 (Clinical Neuropsychology). The titles of the talks and the posters, as well as the names of all of the presenters for this session, can be found at the link at the bottom of this page.

Division 3 is co-sponsoring four additional symposia with other divisions. Two of these symposia are co-sponsored with Division 6 (Behavioral Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology). The first of these, Origins of Causal Reasoning, which is scheduled for Friday, will be chaired by Aaron Blaisdell. The second, Numerical Competence in Non-human Animals: Looking Back and Looking Forward, is scheduled for Sunday and will be chaired by Michael J. Baren.

Advancing Psychological Science by Studying Complex Tasks and Expertise, a symposium on Saturday that is co-sponsored with Division 21 (Applied Experimental and Engineering Psychology), will be co-chaired by Earl B. Hunt and Leo Gugerty. Language Comprehension and Aging, a symposium on Monday that is co-sponsored with Division 20 (Adult Development and Aging), will be chaired by Debra McGinnis.

Along with the five symposia, Division 3 is sponsoring eight invited addresses plus the presidential address. The Friday addresses are by Jonathon D. Crystal, Steven E. Clark, and Elizabeth J. Marsh. The Sunday addresses are by Lynne M. Reder, Alan S. Brown, and Arthur P. Shimamura. The Monday addresses are by Steven J. Luck and Anthony D. Wagner. Howard Egeth's presidential address is Saturday.

A new addition to this year's program is the inclusion of a graduate student Best Poster Award as part of the poster session. Fifteen graduate students are in the competition, so be sure to stop by during the poster session on Saturday morning.

Finally, there is a joint social hour with Divisions 3 and 6 on Saturday, after the presidential address.

Although the schedule is not final until it has APA's stamp of approval, the tentative schedule of events is available at the following link, as are the titles of the talks and symposia presentations and the names of the presenters:

http://lamar.colostate.edu/~acleary/Division3Program.htm

We hope to see you in San Francisco!

 APA Council Report—Lewis Lipsitt & Tom Zentall

Your Division 3 Representatives participated in a lively mid-year Council meeting, with some of the proceedings resulting in rapid news releases from the central office in the ensuing few days. Discussions which occurred and several resolutions voted on are of likely interest to members of Division 3.

            An extensive and informative report on the Association’s financial condition, and budget considerations for 2007, was given by Treasurer Carol Goodheart and Chief Financial Officer

Jack McKay. The fiscal condition of the APA has improved steadily for the past five years, and appears to be very sound due largely to the Association’s exceptionally profitable real estate holdings. Of note, too, is the fact that the largest part of the operating budget of the Association is attributable to the APA publications program, including the increasingly profitable electronic journals.

            Council discussed and voted on the following proposals:

1. Convention Programming of Science sessions. Council allocated $13,500 from its 2007 discretionary funds to establish a Task Force to look at how the APA convention can be better organized to attract scientists to attend the convention and become APA members. The action item was approved without discussion.

2. Intelligent Design vs. Evolutionary Theory. It was proposed that the Council of Representatives adopt as APA policy a Resolution rejecting Intelligent Design as Scientific and reaffirming support for Evolutionary Theory. Although most of the discussion was in support of the resolution, there was some discussion by practitioners about the possible loss of clients whose beliefs were challenged by this resolution. Also discussed was the possible loss of support in conservative states for legislation relevant to psychologists. Finally, a Representative urged that we not take a stand on this issue in the interest of being inclusive. Despite these few reservations, the resolution passed overwhelmingly. For more information, see: www.apa.org/releases/IntelligentDesign.pdf

3. Gay, lesbian, bisexual issues. The Council of Representatives passed a resolution opposing discriminatory legislation and initiatives aimed at gay, lesbian, and bisexual persons.

4. Sexualization of girls. On grounds that children, especially girls, are exposed increasingly and harmfully to sexual stereotypes by magazines, television, video games, and music videos, the Council of Representatives adopted a Report of the Task Force on Sexualization of Girls and recommended that psychologists conduct research to examine these effects and suggest ways of reducing their impact. The report is available at  www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualization.html.

5. Sexual orientation in the military. The Council of Representatives allocated $3,000 from its 2007 discretionary fund to help support two meetings of the Task Force on Sexual Orientation and Military Service.

6. Accreditation of Canadian Graduate Programs in Clinical Psychology. At present many clinical psychology programs in Canada are accredited by the APA. The Canadian Psychological Association and 80% of the clinical psychology programs in Canada request that the APA discontinue accreditation of their programs. More important, Canadian universities are unable to comply with the diversity requirements required for APA accreditation because, by Canadian law, Canadian universities are not permitted to collect diversity data. The Council of Representatives voted to cease accrediting Canadian universities beginning far enough in advance, involving a seven-year phase-out plan, to assure that no present students are affected by this change.

7. Mental Health Services in the Military. Council adopted as association policy a Report of the Task Force on Military Deployment Services for Youth, Family, and Service Members. This report calls attention to the increasing demand for mental health services for military personnel and their families -- needs which are straining the military mental health services.

8. APA’s Strategic Planning Process. Council approved a strategic planning process for the Association, strongly advocated and to be implemented by Chief Executive Officer Norman Anderson, to be developed and evaluated by a Strategic Planning Advisory Committee.

Division 3 Executive Meeting Minutes—Angelo Santi

(ignore squiggly border above this—can’t get rid of it….sorry)

Minutes Division 3 Business Meeting at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting

Sunday November 19, 2006

7:00 a.m. Americas-Houston Hotel

Houston, Texas

Present: Howard Egeth (President), Nelson Cowan, Gilles Einstein, Mark Faust, Kristi Multhaup, Ralph Miller, Mark McDaniel, Angelo Santi.

1. Howard Egeth provided a summary of the current membership of the Executive Committee as well as the current chairs of various committees of Division 3.

2. It was noted that Division 3 is participating in the Mentoring Fellowship Award for advanced graduate and postdoctoral students working with nonhuman animals. Those receiving the award will receive a $1000 travel award to attend the APA Annual Convention in San Francisco. Members of the Executive Committee will select the awardees during February-March of 2007 and awardees will be notified in April 2007. Mark Faust has placed an announcement of the availability of this award on the Division 3 website. Rebecca Singer has also circulated the announcement to graduate student members of Division 3 via email.

3. Howard Egeth informed the committee that a new graduate student representative will need to be appointed to replace Rebecca Singer when her term of office expires in August 2007. There was general agreement with Mark McDaniel’s suggestion that the appointment should be for a two-year term. Howard Egeth also suggested that the graduate student representative should receive travel expense reimbursement to attend the APA convention in San Francisco. It was decided that the amount of support would be $1000. Rebecca Singer, the current representative, would be offered this travel support for the APA convention in 2007. The new graduate student representative would be appointed to serve for two years from September 2007 – August 2009.

4. Howard Egeth informed the committee that Neil Johnson would not be running the Division 3 ListServ and that a replacement was needed. There was discussion of whether the Division 3 ListServ was really needed given other ways of communicating with the membership. Mark Faust suggested that perhaps APA should be providing the IT support to handle all of the electronic communication needs of the division. Kristi Multhaup commented on the problems in maintaining up-to-date email addresses for members of Division 3. She will be contacting APA to solicit their help in managing the email address list.

5. Program Chair’s Report

Anne Cleary was not able to be present. Howard Egeth reminded the committee of the decisions reached at the last executive committee meeting regarding this year’s program. For the 2007 APA convention in San Francisco, Division 3 will not pay for an Invited Speakers Dinner but instead would defray the costs of giving a talk at the convention by paying an Honorarium of $100 to all speakers.

In addition, the New Investigator Awards would be presented at the Business Meeting instead of during the Social Hour. There was some discussion of the low amount of the Honorarium, but Division 3’s finances make it difficult to provide larger amounts. Nelson Cowan noted that in the past APA provided money for foreign speakers giving invited talks and we should check to see if this is still available.

There were several suggestions made regarding enhancing Division 3’s program at the convention. Gil Einstein and Mark McDaniel suggested getting more undergraduate students attending the convention and presenting posters. Mark Faust noted that undergraduate students were more likely to attend regional meetings. Nelson Cowan suggested a novel 1-hr session format in which a professor would speak for 30 minutes and then graduate and undergraduate students would present miniature posters in the room. The audience would then be able to interact with the students and the professor for the reminder of the hour. There was agreement that this would be worth thinking about further. Anne Cleary (program chair) and Veronica Dark (program co-chair) will be contacted by Howard to see if this suggestion could be implemented for the APA convention in San Francisco.

As noted in the September issue of the Division 3 Newsletter, the theme for our convention programming will be “Uniting Psychology through Memory.”  Division 3 will again host invited addresses by distinguished researchers. There will also be a poster session, and an award will be given to the best poster presented by a graduate student first author.

6. Fellows Chair’s Report

Linda Parker sent an email update on the nominations for Fellows prior to the meeting. For this year, 28 individuals (22 male and 6 female) were nominated. Linda has started the process of notifying the nominees that they will need to get their application materials to her by Jan. 26, 2007. She will prepare the chairs statement for each of them and have it to APA by their deadline of Feb. 12, 2007. It was noted that in 2005, there were 24 individuals who were nominated and seconded. Ten of 24 nominees were women. In 2004, five women were nominated but only one applied.

Gil Einstein suggested that some form of recognition should be sent when Fellows of another division are also made Fellows of Division 3. Fellows nominated in this fashion often do not receive any official notification from the division or APA.

Mark McDaniel asked about the relative proportion of fellows to members in the division and whether we should reduce the number being nominated for Fellow status each year. Ralph Miller noted that conferring Fellow status was an excellent way to encourage continued membership and involvement in APA.

7. Other Business

The committee considered a request to provide some financial support for the re-housing of the Wilhelm Wundt museum at the University of Leipzig. The committee was sympathetic to the request and agreed to provide $500 of support with a request that the contribution be recognized with a plaque in the new museum. Howard Egeth will contact representatives in Leipzig to see what can be arranged.

Discussion returned to the topic of the APA convention. Nelson Cowan suggested that the Division 3 program should be advertised in advance to other Divisions in APA as well as our own. Howard Egeth noted that the Science Directorate was able to send out a program for scientists in advance of the meeting last year. We will try to send out via email some earlier advertising of the invited speakers for this year’s convention even if we don’t have the scheduling information finalized. Nelson Cowan, Gil Einstein, and Mark McDaniel also made note of the value of targeting translational research topics into our division programming for the convention in order to attract larger audiences to the sessions.

8. The Business meeting was adjourned at 8:00 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