This is my last Bulletin column as president of the Society for Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Science. My term ends at the August convention in Chicago, and I remain on the executive committee for one more year as past president. It has been one of the greatest honors of my professional life to lead this storied society, totally humbled by contemplation of those presidents who went before, including Tolman, Skinner, Hull, Harlow, Hebb (I’m from Canada, and he was and is one of my heroes) and so many others noted in my previous Bulletin column, “APA Div. 3 — A National Treasure.”
I have learned much during my tenure. One thing is that Div. 3 carries a very strong reputation for science leadership inside APA, along with a handful of other divisions. This reputation makes it incumbent upon us to work effectively with the association and additionally take every opportunity to “give psychological science away” beyond the Association and the discipline. And that brings me to the upcoming Chicago Convention and possibly future conventions. Despite 21st century digitization and device-delivery of all things communication, these traditional face-to-face, meet-and-mingle conventions remain popular and are generally well attended. The submission of session proposals by Div. 3 members was however quite poor. Outstanding poster submissions were aplenty. Posters have shown much popularity in science associations over the past many years. We are no exception. But often members want to hear a special talk or an interactive symposium. So, dear Div. 3’rs, please put San Diego, Calif., August 2020, on your dance card and submit a symposium or related session.
For the upcoming convention in Chicago, we have organized several invited sessions. I note the continuing-from-last-year separate Conversation Hours with legends Aaron T. Beck and Noam Chomsky, and I’ve invited a new addition this year of legend-in-the-making Carol Dweck. Aaron Beck will turn 98 this year and continues an active research and writing program. These are block-buster sessions with SRO attendance in the 700+ vicinity for each, and I hope you can join us. I plan to pass out Div. 3 membership recruitment forms at the door for each of these three sessions to help move the needle on membership numbers in the division.
The other great Chicago sessions are noted in our Division Program Chair Krishna Kumar’s report elsewhere in this issue of the Bulletin. And I would like to send kudos to Kumar for his tremendous work on the Chicago program, and I am delighted to note that President-elect Steve Goldinger has appointed him program chair for next year as well. We all know the power of replication.
There is one Chicago session I want to particularly highlight here. It is titled “Summit on Psychological Science — Present and Future, With Town Hall Meeting and Audience Participation” and takes place Saturday, Aug. 10, from 8:00 a.m.-9:50 a.m. (Convention Center Room W470b). This session is devoted to discussion of the current status of psychological science and its future prospects and includes a who’s who of APA leadership: current APA President Rosie Phillips Davis; APA President-Elect Sandra L. Shullman; APA’s newly appointed Chief Scientific Officer Russell Shilling; APA’s newly appointed Chief Advocacy Officer Katherine McGuire; current chair of APA’s Board of Scientific Affairs Keith Widaman; President-elect of Div. 3 Stephen D. Goldinger; President of Div. 6 Michael J. Beran; President-elect of Div. 6 Mark Kraus; and myself as chair/organizer and also president of Div. 3. The idea of this session is to find out what’s happening concerning science inside APA, on the Hill and in the public about science advocacy with APA leadership and what our two sponsoring science Divs. 3 and 6 are thinking about the present and future of our science. Following discussion on stage among the foregoing participants, I will turn it over to the audience in a classic town hall format. Given the wide-spread debates about our science at this time (e.g., replication, open science, etc.), I hope you will attend this session and weigh-in with your perspectives.
Beyond the convention and the great honor of this presidency, I’d like to touch on one or two additional points. APA is presenting a conference on Technology, Mind and Society (TMS), Oct. 3-5, 2019, and I’m delighted to report I have arranged for Div. 3 to be a collaborating organization for this exciting APA venture. There is no financial implication for the division, and it provides a discounted registration fee for Div. 3 members. I hope many of you will attend this conference. It, of course, fits beautifully the “cognitive science” added to our divisional title some years ago. We will also receive recognition at the TMS Conference and on its website and can provide literature and materials about Div. 3 at the conference. Our contribution will be to help promote the conference to all of you in our Bulletin, such as I am doing here, and on our Listserv. To register for this conference go onlineopens in new window. The Div. 3 member discount code is DIV03 (that is a zero before the 3), and is valid through Oct. 6. More information is available at the TMS websiteopens in new window.
Our division is active in many ways, but one item that I’d like to see emphasized more than it is our Listserv. An active Listserv can be a great way of discussing new developments, interesting research and articles, trends in the field, noting member honors and so on. Some APA divisions have quite active Listservs, although some are quite inactive, and I’m not sure what the key ingredients are for an active Listserv. Ours is relatively inactive, and yet the science of psychology and cognitive science are very much alive and at the leading edge of many important developments. I pass this challenge for a more active and interactive Listserv to incoming division President Steve Goldinger.
Thank you, dear Div. 3 members, for all your contributions to experimental psychology and cognitive science and especially if you have been active in the division and/or plan to attend the upcoming Chicago convention. And thank you for giving me this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lead this so important and storied society at the heart and head of this great science. May your research and professional life going forward be thrilling, fulfilling and productive. I close with Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Ulysses “All Experience Is An Arch Wherethrough Gleams That Untraveled World.”
With Best Wishes,
Frank Farley, PhD
President
Div. 3 (Society for Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Science)