Psychology chair named journal editor

Psychology chair named journal editor

BY B.J. ALMOND
Rice News staff

Randi Martin, the Elma Schneider Professor of Psychology and chair of the Department of Psychology, has been named editor of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition (JEP:LMC).

She is the first woman editor of this scientific journal and its first editor specializing in neuropsychology.

The American Psychological Association (APA) — the largest association of psychologists worldwide, with 150,000 members — publishes the monthly peer-reviewed journal. JEP:LMC features original experimental studies on basic processes of cognition, learning, memory, imagery, concept formation, problem solving, decision making, thinking, reading and language processing — fields that dovetail with Martin’s areas of expertise.

Martin’s research focuses on the cognitive mechanisms involved in language comprehension and production in people with brain damage as well as in people with healthy brains. A long-standing research interest in her lab is the relation between short-term memory and language processing. Martin also studies speech production and the processes involved in word, phrase and sentence production. She conducts research on the structure of reading and writing systems as well, examining patients with different types of reading disorders to test models of reading.

Martin wanted to be a candidate for the JEP:LMC editor because of the potential for expanding the journal’s content. “My vision statement for editor indicated that I would try to integrate more work on neuropsychology and neuroimaging into JEP:LMC, which has nearly exclusively published studies of normal cognition,” she said. “The opportunity to act on this proposal is what makes this opportunity worth the effort it is going to take.

“Each year I plan to have one issue with a special section on a specific topic with a guest editor,” Martin said. “This special section will invite papers on normal cognition and imaging, but also on neuropsychology and neuroimaging so that the same topics are approached from different directions. I also hope to recruit some editorial board members with expertise in neuroimaging and neuropsychology.”

The journal, which has five associate editors plus the chief editor, currently receives about 350 manuscripts each year. The APA will provide Martin with a full-time editorial associate to help with the voluminous workload. Because Martin will remain department chair through the next academic year, Dean of Social Sciences Bob Stein has created the position of associate chair for the psychology department and appointed David Lane to that role to assist Martin. Lane, associate professor of psychology and statistics, will continue to head the department’s graduate committee but will take on additional duties, mostly related to graduate funding.

Martin, who has a Ph.D. in psychology from Johns Hopkins University, joined the Rice faculty in 1982. She became chair of the department in 2002. Her research on short-term memory and language processing in aphasia has been funded continuously by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 1984. She received a Claude Pepper Award from the NIH in 1995 that provided seven years of grant funding. She is also co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation Advance Leadership award to support the development of the Women in Cognitive Science organization, a group dedicated to improving the opportunities and status of women in the field.

A fellow of the APA, the American Psychological Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Martin has been associate editor of the journals Cognitive Neuropsychology and Psychonomic Bulletin and Review and has served on a number of other editorial boards.

“Randi’s appointment as editor of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition is a most significant recognition of her intellectual and professional leadership in the discipline,” Stein said. “We are delighted that not only Randi but also Rice University was selected to house this premier scientific journal for the next six years.”

In January 2006, Martin will begin reviewing manuscripts for the January 2007 JEP:LMC, which will be her first issue as editor.

The Journal of Experimental Psychology was founded in 1916 with John Watson as editor. Watson was an eminent behaviorist who carried out the well-known classical conditioning studying involving “Little Albert.” Watson had served the year before as APA president. In 1975, the APA split the journal into four separate sections. In addition to the Learning, Memory and Cognition section that Martin will edit, the journal publishes sections on human perception and performance; animal behavior processes; and general. All are available by subscription only.