''L'Année Psychologique'' (the "Annual Journal of Psychology") is the oldest French

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

academic journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and d ...

dedicated exclusively to scientific

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

. It covers

cognitive psychology Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and reasoning. Cognitive psychology originated in the 1960s in a break from behaviorism, which ...

experimental psychology Experimental psychology refers to work done by those who apply experimental methods to psychological study and the underlying processes. Experimental psychologists employ human participants and animal subjects to study a great many topics, in ...

developmental psychology Developmental psychology is the science, scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult deve ...

social psychology Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the r ...

neuropsychology Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology concerned with how a person's cognition and behavior are related to the brain and the rest of the nervous system. Professionals in this branch of psychology often focus on how injuries or illnesses of t ...

psychopathology Psychopathology is the study of abnormal cognition, behaviour, and experiences which differs according to social norms and rests upon a number of constructs that are deemed to be the social norm at any particular era. Biological psychopatholo ...

, and

history of psychology Psychology is defined as "the scientific study of behavior and mental processes". Philosophical interest in the human mind and behavior dates back to the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Persia, Greece, China, and India. Psychology as a field of ...

History

Established in 1894 by

Alfred Binet Alfred Binet (; 8 July 1857 – 18 October 1911), born Alfredo Binetti, was a French psychologist who invented the first practical IQ test, the Binet–Simon test. In 1904, the French Ministry of Education asked psychologist Alfred Binet to ...

, this was the first French journal for scientific psychology, and is today one of the leading journals in that field in French. It was among the first psychology journals in the world, among ''

Philosophische Studien ''Philosophische Studien'' (''Philosophical Studies'') was the first journal of experimental psychology, founded by Wilhelm Wundt in 1881. The first volume was published in 1883; the last, the 18th, in 1903. Wundt then founded a similar volume ...

'', established in 1881 by

Wilhelm Wundt Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (; ; 16 August 1832 – 31 August 1920) was a German physiologist, philosopher, and professor, known today as one of the fathers of modern psychology. Wundt, who distinguished psychology as a science from philosophy and ...

; the ''

American Journal of Psychology The ''American Journal of Psychology'' is a journal devoted primarily to experimental psychology. It is the first such journal to be published in the English language (though ''Mind'', founded in 1876, published some experimental psychology earl ...

'', established in 1887 by

Granville Stanley Hall Granville Stanley Hall (February 1, 1846 – April 24, 1924) was a pioneering American psychologist and educator. His interests focused on human life span development and evolutionary theory. Hall was the first president of the American Psy ...

; the , established in 1890 by

Hermann Ebbinghaus Hermann Ebbinghaus (24 January 185026 February 1909) was a German psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory, and is known for his discovery of the forgetting curve and the spacing effect. He was also the first person to describ ...

; and the ''

Psychological Review ''Psychological Review'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal that covers psychological theory. It was established by James Mark Baldwin (Princeton University) and James McKeen Cattell (Columbia University) in 1894 as a publication vehi ...

'', established in 1894 by

James McKeen Cattell James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

and

James Mark Baldwin James Mark Baldwin (January 12, 1861, Columbia, South Carolina – November 8, 1934, Paris) was an American philosopher and psychologist who was educated at Princeton under the supervision of Scottish philosopher James McCosh and who was one o ...

. The history of the creation of the journal is closely associated with that of the institutionalization of French psychology.

Théodule Ribot Théodule-Augustin Ribot (August 8, 1823September 11, 1891) was a French realist painter and printmaker. He was born in Saint-Nicolas-d'Attez, and studied at the École des Arts et Métiers de Châlons before moving to Paris in 1845. There he ...

's election to the newly created chair of Experimental and Comparative Psychology at the

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment (''grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ne ...

in 1888 is followed by the creation of the first French laboratory of experimental psychology at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

in 1889, under the direction of Henri-Étienne Beaunis. The laboratory's research is first published in a journal titled "Travaux du Laboratoire de Psychologie Physiologique" (with 2 volumes published in 1893 and 1894). Alfred Binet, who joined the laboratory in 1891, suggests overhauling the laboratory's communication by effectively creating a new journal. With Beaunis' agreement, he established ''L'Année Psychologique'' in 1894 to boost the outreach of the laboratory's research. The journal's orientation and reputation is associated, through its successive directors, to that of the

Institute of Psychology of the University of Paris The Institute of Psychology is a graduate school of psychology and constitutes the department of psychology of the Paris Cité University. It is currently located at the ''Centre Henri-Piéron'', 71 avenue Édouard-Vaillant, Boulogne-Billancourt ...

, founded by

Henri Piéron Louis Charles Henri Piéron (18 July 1881 – 6 November 1964) was a French psychologist. He was one of the founders of scientific psychology in France. He developed the Toulouse-Piéron Cancellation Test (TP) with Édouard Toulouse. Biograph ...

in 1920 and expanded by

Paul Fraisse Paul Fraisse (20 March 1911 – 12 October 1996) was a French psychologist known his work in the field of perception of time. Biography Fraisse did not go directly into psychology but initially planned to become a Jesuit priest. These plan ...

. In 1984, L'Année Psychologique became a quarterly journal of experimental psychology. In 2012, it officially became an international bilingual journal (French/English), taking the subtitle ''Topics in Cognitive Psychology''.

Directors

Since its creation in 1894, the journal had directors such as

, and

, major figures that have set the scientific orientation of the journal.Fraisse, P. (1994). L'Année Psychologique - Quatre directeurs en cent ans. In P. Fraisse & J. Segui (Eds.), Les origines de la psychologie scientifique: centième anniversaire de L'Année Psychologique (1894-1994). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. * 1894-1911 :

is director. * 1912-1964 :

replaces Binet and remains director until 1964. * 1947-1994 :

joins Henri Piéron as director, and will remain until 1994. * 1980-1984 : Georges Noizet shares the direction with Paul Fraisse. * 1988-1994 : Juan Segui shares the direction with Paul Fraisse. * 1995-2003 : Juan Segui becomes the sole director. * 2003-2005 : Ludovic Ferrand shares the direction with Juan Segui. * 2006-2017: Ludovic Ferrand becomes scientific director (until 2017), and

Serge Nicolas Serge Nicolas is a French professor of psychology at the Institute of Psychology of the University of Paris since 2003. He specializes in the study of memory and history of psychology. He is also chief-editor of the journal L'Année psychologi ...

becomes the editorial director. * 2017: Pascale Colé becomes scientific director.

Notes

:Though the French title literally translates to ''The Psychological Year'', the official English title is ''Annual Journal of Psychology''.

References

{{reflist Psychology journals Academic journals established in 1894