The Academy's Psychology Section has announced the winners of the prestigious 2010–2011 James McKeen Cattell Award for "Outstanding Dissertation in Psychology." The award, in its 40th year, drew a distinguished pool of candidates from the United States and abroad.

This year, the awards committee designated one researcher as winner of the James McKeen Cattell Award:

Lisa R. Starr, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Dissertation: Mechanisms of Anxiety-Depression Co-Occurrence; Mentor: Joanne Davila.

The mentor and doctoral program that directed the winners were also awarded a citation certificate.

In addition to the honoree above, the committee awarded "honorable mention" to two researchers:

Amanda C. Brandone, University of Michigan, Dissertation: The Development of Intention Understanding in the First Year of Life: An Exploration of Infants' Understanding of Successful vs. Failed Intentional Actions; Mentors: Susan A. Gelman and Henry M. Wellman.

Brenda J. Salley, Virginia Tech, Dissertation: Relating Infants' Social Attention to their Emerging Language Skills; Mentor: Robin Panneton.

Dissertations were judged by the Section's Steering Committee in consultation with specialists in each area. Linda Z. Solomon, PhD, Vice Chair of the Psychology Section 2010–11 and Professor at Marymount Manhattan College, was responsible for processing applications and distributing the dissertations to the panel of distinguished internal and external reviewers. Also playing key roles in the process were Section Chair Mercedes McCormick, PhD, and Section Steering Committee members Helen Rozelman, PhD (Program Director); Richard Velayo, PhD; Florence Denmark, PhD; Bob Wesner, MA; Edwin Hollander, PhD; John Hogan, PhD, Uwe Gielen, PhD; Sheila M. Pfafflin, PhD; Frank Le Fever, PhD; Jeff Fish, PhD; Gwen Gerber, PhD; Margot Nadien, PhD; Henry Solomon, PhD; and Joanne Williams, PhD.

Information concerning the 2011–2012 James McKeen Cattell Award may be obtained by contacting Linda Solomon at lsolomon@mmm.edu.