A monthly newsletter of the Psychonomic Society
May 2021 | Issue 15
In this Issue
  • Updates on the 2021 Annual Meeting
  • Call for Paper & Poster Abstracts (Submission Deadline: June 1)
  • PS Fellows Elected to National Academy of Sciences
  • Latest Research
  • Latest Digital Content
  • 2020 Annual Meeting Video Archive (Last Call! Access Expires May 21)
  • J. Frank Yates Student Conference Award (Application Deadline: May 15)
  • Graduate Conference Award (Application Deadline: May 15)
  • Join the PS Review Committee (Application Deadline: June 1)
  • 2022 PS Governing Board Nominations (Nomination Deadline: June 15)
  • 2022 Leading Edge Workshop (Initial Proposals Deadline: June 30)
  • Call for Submissions: 2nd Workshop on Mental Effort (Sponsored by the PS/APS Estes Fund)
  • Job Postings
Scroll down to read each section.
The 2021 Annual Meeting is currently scheduled for November 18-21, 2021 (dates subject to change). The conference is being planned as a hybrid event, with live and virtual components. The location of the meeting is still being finalized and will be announced around the end of May.

Please note that the meeting may become fully virtual if guidance from the CDC, WHO, and/or local health authorities prevents us from meeting in person. Regardless of the meeting format (hybrid or virtual), all presenters will have the option to present remotely if they so choose.
Submission Deadline: June 1
Abstracts may now be submitted for the 2021 program in accordance with the guidelines listed below. Submissions are due June 1.
 
Fellows and Emeritus Fellows may submit one abstract. The submission may request either a spoken or a poster presentation. For this year only, Fellows and Emeritus Fellows also may sponsor two additional submissions submitted by either a Graduate Student Member or a non-member.
 
Members may submit one abstract requesting either a spoken or poster presentation. Note that priority for spoken presentations goes to Fellows, but usually a few Members are selected for spoken presentations. Members may not sponsor student submissions.
 
Graduate Student Members may submit one abstract requesting a poster presentation. Graduate students are not allowed to submit a request for a spoken presentation. The student submission must be sponsored by a Fellow.

The National Academy of Sciences recently announced the election of 120 new members. Three of the new members are Psychonomic Society Fellows: Marisa Carrasco (New York University), Dedre Gentner (Northwestern University), Lynn Nadel (University of Arizona).

The Psychonomic Society congratulates Nadel, Gentner, and Carrasco on their election to the National Academy of Sciences!
Latest Research

By Matthew P. McCurdy, Andrea N. Frankenstein, Allison M. Sklenar, Pauline Urban Levy & Eric D. Leshikar 
The "generation effect" describes the phenomenon that self-generated information is remembered better than information that is read. This boost is limited because we are constrained by the amount of information we can self-generate. According to new research, item memory, not location memory, is impacted by these constraints. Read the article.

Math is cool! A good attitude toward math can improve math performance. What neuro mechanisms account for this finding? Activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus in children with positive attitudes and improvement in multiplication tasks suggests greater effort in retrieval. Read the article.


By Claudia Kawai, Gáspár Lukács & Ulrich Ansorge 
A new stimulus set of nearly 600 silhouette images is available for researchers to use in investigations of memory, language, attention, etc. Valence and arousal ratings were highly correlated among Chinese and US residents, suggesting that the stimuli may be suitable for research questions involving cultural differences. Read the article.

This information is being shared for educational purposes only and is not an endorsement by the Psychonomic Society.

Authors in our journals can share their content easily and legally through Springer’s SharedIt program.
Latest Digital Content
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Want to see your latest research featured on the Psychonomics Blog or Podcast? Contact Laura Mickes, Digital Content Editor.
All conference sessions from the Psychonomic Society's 2020 Annual Meeting have been available for free, on-demand viewing on the Virtual Psychonomics website, but the six month access window for those recordings is coming to a close. If there are sessions you still want to view from last year's conference, head over to the Virtual Psychonomics website and watch those videos before access expires on May 21, 2021. Simply provide your name and contact information for complimentary full site access.

The 2020 Keynote Address by Lynn Hasher, as well as last year's Special Symposium on Seeing Race in Cognitive Psychology, will continue to be available for free viewing on the Psychonomic Society's YouTube channel.
The Psychonomic Society annually gives up to twelve (12) J. Frank Yates Student Conference Awards (previously Student Travel Awards) for Graduate Student Members of the Society who are in underrepresented populations, including those who are disadvantaged or discriminated against in some way. Each awardee will receive a stipend of $1,000 USD.

The application deadline is May 15. Applications are submitted alongside a graduate student's abstract for the 2021 Annual Meeting. Apply now.
Application Deadline: May 15
The Psychonomic Society annually provides up to twenty (20) Graduate Conference Awards (previously Graduate Travel Awards) for Graduate Student Members of the Society. The application deadline is May 15. Any current Graduate Student Member who submits an abstract for the 2021 Annual Meeting is eligible to apply, provided they did not receive the award in 2020. Each Awardee will receive a stipend of $1,000 USD. Apply now.
Application Deadline: June 1
This is the last call for volunteers to join this year's PS Review Committee. The committee assists with the review of the graduate conference award applications during the month of July (dates subject to change). If you are an Emeritus Fellow, Emeritus Member, Fellow, or Member of the Society and would like to volunteer on the PS Review Committee, please complete and submit this online form by June 1. Volunteers will be asked to review approximately 5-10 abstract submissions.
Nomination Deadline: June 15
The Call for Nominations for the 2022 PS Governing Board is now open. The nomination deadline is June 15, 2021.

The Society will be filling two seats on the 2022 Governing Board, with board terms lasting six years (2022-2027). Each member (Emeritus Fellow, Emeritus Member, Fellow, or Member) may nominate up to four persons. Student members may not vote.

The names of the three persons who receive the greatest number of nominations, and who signify their willingness to serve, shall be placed on an election ballot. The Nominations Committee will select an additional three candidates (who may also be persons nominated by the membership) to be placed on the ballot. Thus, the final ballot to be submitted for vote by the membership will include six nominees.

Elections for the 2022 Governing Board will run from July 15 - August 31, 2021. New Board members will officially begin their terms on January 1, 2022. Learn more about the PS Governing Board election and nominate up to four potential candidates.
Initial Proposals Deadline: June 30, 2021
Proposals are invited for a Leading Edge Workshop to be sponsored by the Psychonomic Society in 2022. Financial support of up to $50,000 USD is available. The deadline for initial proposals (max 500 words) is June 30, 2021. Full proposals (by invitation only) will be due September 30, 2021. The final funding decision will be made in November.

Goals of the Leading Edge Workshop:

  1. Advance scientific knowledge and understanding of major, broad and contemporary topics within the remit of the Psychonomic Society and its journals.
  2. Bring special symposia to PS members at a meeting of the Society and generate special sections/issues of PS journals based on the outcome of each workshop.
  3. Facilitate involvement of early career researchers in PS activities.
  4. Facilitate greater involvement in PS activities of PS members who are based outside of North America.
  5. Facilitate interaction between PS members and scientists with cognate interests who are not members of the Society.
  6. Facilitate scientific advancement of topics that might be of interest to policy makers and the general public as well as to PS scientists.

The first two strategic goals above are essential for all workshops. Proposals need not fulfill all of the remaining goals, but a major criterion for evaluation will be the extent to which a proposal addresses the goals that it selects for inclusion.

The William K. and Katherine W. Estes Fund, a joint program of the Psychonomic Society and Association for Psychological Science, is proud to sponsor the 2nd Workshop on Mental Effort, taking place virtually on September 9-10, 2021.

Registrants have the opportunity to submit a motivational statement for participating in hands-on modeling tutorials covering a variety of techniques, including symbolic architecture & connectionist modeling, non-parametric Bayesian methods, dynamical systems, as well as reinforcement learning. Poster abstracts (2,000 characters) can be submitted to present related research on mental effort. Registration is free and is limited to the first 200 participants. Registration and the Call for Submissions closes on July 15, 2021. Learn more and register.
Job Postings
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