Basic and Applied Research 651and Public Policy Seminars) by psychologists to members of
Congress and congressional staffers arranged by the Federa-
tion of Behavioral, Psychological, and Cognitive Sciences
(Farley & Null, 1987). Talks given at these seminars, which
began in 1982 and have been held at the rate of approxi-
mately six per year, have dealt with the applicability of the re-
sults of psychological research to education, legal processes,
effects of television on behavior, family violence, human
error in medicine, and many other topics of general interest
and relevance to public policy making. A complete list of the
talks that have been given can be obtained at the federation’s
Web site, http://www.thefederationonline.org. Many, though
not all, of the talks have been published by the federation; in-
formation regarding whether specific talks exist in print can
be obtained either from authors or by an e-mail request to
[email protected].
Further evidence of current interest in drawing attention to
the practical applications of the results of psychological re-
search is the APA’s recently established practice of issuing
press releases regarding research findings that have been
published in APA journals and that are deemed to be of pub-
lic interest. Recent releases mention findings regarding the
effects of emotion suppression on cognitive functioning, the
effects of insufficient sleep on preteen children’s physical and
mental performance, the relationship between the playing of
violent video games and aggressive behavior, effects of a
cognitively demanding secondary task on driving perfor-
mance, and personal and environmental barriers to exercise
by older women. Copies of the releases can be accessed at
http://www.apa.org/releases.
In response to requests from experimentalists who wanted
a journal dedicated to the publication of theoretically
grounded experimental studies addressed to practical prob-
lems, in 1995 the APA launched the Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Applied. This journal is like the other Journals
of Experimental Psychologyin publishing articles that report
experimentation and like the Journal of Applied Psychology
in publishing those that address practical concerns, but it is
unlike these in that it requires experimental methodology and
applied orientation in combination. Articles published during
the first few years of the journal’s existence have addressed a
wide variety of topics, including education and training,
communication and information presentation, decision mak-
ing, health care and maintenance, driving and highway
safety, pilot performance, aging, computer interface design,
stress management, eye- and earwitness testimony, consumer
behavior, and many others.
In May 2000 the American Psychological Society pub-
lished the first issue of Psychological Science in the Public
Interestas a supplement to Psychological Science.The hope
expressed by the founding coeditors of this journal, which is
scheduled to appear with one major article twice a year,
is that the reports that appear in it, all of which are to be
commissioned by its editorial board, “will come to be seen
as definitive summaries of research on nationally important
questions, much like the reports commissioned by the Na-
tional Research Council, but focused on issues for which psy-
chological research plays a central role” (Ceci & Bjork, 2000,
p. 178). The first issue describes ways—well researched by
psychologists over many years—in which the accuracy of
diagnostic decisions, which are constantly being made with
serious consequences in a wide variety of real-world situa-
tions, can be enhanced (Swets, Dawes, & Monahan, 2000b;
see also Swets, Dawes, & Monahan, 2000a). In the second
issue, Lilienfeld, Wood, and Garb (2000; see also Lilienfeld,
Wood, & Garb, 2001) critically reviewed research on projec-
tive testing instruments often used in clinical and forensic
settings (Rorschach inkblot test, thematic apperception test,
and human figure drawings).
Among other topics for which Psychology in the Public
Interesthas commissioned papers are the relationship be-
tween academic achievement and class size, the question of
whether certain herbal products affect cognitive functioning,
the relationship of self-esteem to academic performance and
social adjustment, the effectiveness of coaching for the
Scholastic Achievement Test, and the best ways to teach
reading to different types of learners. One of the stated con-
siderations that motivated the establishment of this journal
and the approach it represents to publicizing findings from
psychological research that are deemed to be of public inter-
est was the concern that psychologists too often have pre-
sented research findings to the public prematurely and in
conflicting ways.
There are other reasons for believing that interest in appli-
cations of psychological research is relatively high at the
present (Nickerson, 1998). We note here the American Psy-
chological Society’s identification, under the “Human Capi-
tal Initiative,” of six priority areas for psychological research:
productivity in the workplace, schooling and literacy, the
aging society, drug and alcohol abuse, health, and violence in
America (“Human Capital,” 1992). To date the society has
issued six reports as follow-ups to the announcement of this
initiative: “The Changing Nature of Work,” “Vitality for
Life: Research for Productive Aging,” “Reducing Mental
Disorders: A Behavioral Science Research Plan for Psy-
chopathology,” “Doing the Right Thing: A Research Plan
for Healthy Living,” “Reducing Violence: A Research
Agenda,” and “Basic Research in Psychological Science: A
Human Capital Initiative Report.” These reports are avail-
able from the communications office of the American