The Psychonomic Society is an international scientific society of over 4,500 scientists in the field of experimental psychology. The mission of the Psychonomic Society is to foster the science of cognition through the advancement and communication of basic research in experimental psychology and allied sciences. It is open to international researchers, and almost 40% of members are based outside of North America. Although open to all areas of experimental and cognitive psychology, its members typically study areas 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". History The Psychonomic Society was founded by a group of experimental psychologists during a meeting in Chicago, Illinois, USA in December 1959. The main goal was to create a society that would support open communication about psychological science with minimal structure. An interesting article about the Society's inception and history can be found in Dewsbury, D. A., & Bolles, R. C. (1995). The founding of the Psychonomic Society. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2, 216-233. The society was founded in 1959 by a small group of experimental psychologists, who recognized the need for a distinct society that would support open and accessible communications about new research on experimental and cognitive psychology. They broke away from the dominant association of the day, the American Psychological Association, to create a smaller, more select and less formal society with a minimal structure and sole focus on experimental work rather than practice-related research. Their early success in publishing a journal to report on the latest experimental research paved the way for the Psychonomic Society ("Society" or "PS") to ultimately self-publish six distinct journals. However, psychology is a science that is constantly evolving, and the past ten years have seen dramatic changes and an expansion of the field, particularly at its juncture with neuroscience. New and more specialized societies have been created to focus on particular types of science, much as the Psychonomic Society was created in 1959. There has also been a dramatic shift for the Society as it embraced the modern publishing process, divested itself of its own publishing house, and contracted with Springer Publishing to produce its six journals. There was also a transition of Society management from internal staff to an external management firm. In addition, the publishing contract brought in a new and substantial revenue