The Estes Fund is jointly overseen by the Psychonomic Society and the Association for Psychological Science.

 Application Process Now Closed

Initial Proposal Deadline: September 1, 2025

Final Proposal Deadline (by Invitation): December 1, 2025

Review the Application Process for proposal requirements.

The mission of the William K. and Katherine W. Estes Fund is to support the advancement of mathematical psychology, construed broadly, including psychological statistics, experimental methodology, and formal approaches to psychological research.

The Estes Fund was established to extend the legacy of one of the most influential psychological scientists of the past century. Bill Estes was an intellectual force of nature whose pioneering work had a profound influence in psychological science and earned him the nation’s highest scientific honors, including the National Medal of Science.

Jointly overseen by the Psychonomic Society and the Association for Psychological Science, the Estes Fund supports a variety of activities aimed at strengthening methodology in mathematical, quantitative and experimental psychology and related areas.

Bill Estes was a major contributor to both organizations: He served on the founding committee that established the Psychonomic Society and later chaired its Governing Board and was a charter member of the Association for Psychological Science. Bill served as the founding editor of the journal Psychological Science, with Kay serving as managing editor.

Supported Programs

2023 Funded Projects

Computational Cognitive Models of Learning and Development
Organizer: Elizabeth Bonawitz

Applications of Machine Learning for Measuring and Modeling Psychological Concepts via Different Methods of Communication
Organizer: Adam Natoli

Computational Summer school on Modeling Social and Collective Behavior (COSMOS)
Organizer: Charley Wu

2022 Funded Projects

Mental Effort: One Construction, Many Faces?
Organizers: Sebastian Musslick, Maria Wirzberger, and Ivan Grahek

Computational Summer school on Modeling Social and collective behavior (COSMOS) Konstanz 2022
Organizers: Wataru Toyokawa and Charley M. Wu

Bayesian Longitudinal Data Modeling
Organizers: Cynthia Tong and Han Du

PVEST as Meta Theory; The use of Bayesian Analysis to inform Educational Research
Organizers: Cheryl Talley and Avis Jackson

2021 Funded Projects

Mental Effort: One Construction, Many Faces?
Organizers: Sebastian Musslick, Maria Wirzberger, and Ivan Grahek
Sept 9-10, 2021 | Held Virtually 

Summer School in Nonlinear Dynamics for the Life Sciences with Applications to Neuroscience and Psychology
Organizers: Caroline Palmer and Anmar Khadra
May 31 - June 11, 2021 | Montreal, Canada 

Introduction to Causal Discovery Analysis for Psychology, Neuroscience, and Psychiatry
Organizers: Eric Rawls, Erich Kummerfeld, and Sisi Ma 
July 5-9, 2021 | Held Virtually 

2020 Funded Projects

Summer School
Computational Cognitive Modeling for Language at UCI
Organizer: Lisa Pearl | Irvine, CA, USA 
August 1-5, 2022

Workshop
Model-Based Cognitive Electrophysiology 
Organizer: Michael Kahana
Dates TBA | PA, USA 

2019 Funded Projects

Workshop
Multinomial-Processing-Tree (MPT) Modeling: Basic Methods and Recent Advances
Organizers: Edgar Erdfelder, Daniel W. Heck, and Franziska Meissner
March 19-20, 2022 | Cologne, Germany

Summer School
Barcelona Summer School on Advanced Modeling of Behavior
Organizers: Alexandre Hyafil, Christopher Summerfield, and Klaus Wimmer
Sept 4-10, 2019 | Barcelona, Spain

Workshop
Methods for Analyzing Sound and Modeling Auditory Plasticity (MASMAP)
Organizers: Eduardo Mercado, III, Micheal Dent, and Cynthia Henderson 
June 5-7, 2019 | Buffalo, NY, USA

2018 Funded Projects

Summer School
Nonlinear Dynamics in Life Sciences 
Organizers: Caroline Palmer and Anmar Khadra
Summer 2018 | Montreal, Canada

Summer School
Deep, Fast and Shallow Learning in Humans and Machines
Organizers: Franco Pestilli, Robert Goldstone, and Linda Smith
Summer 2018 | University of Indiana Bloomington, USA

2017 Funded Projects

Workshop
Data on the Mind: Collecting, Analyzing, and Sharing Research Using Big Data and Naturally Occurring Datasets
Organizers: Thomas Griffiths, Alexandra Paxton, Michael C. Frank, and Todd Gureckis
Summer 2017 | Berkeley, CA, USA

Summer School
Model-based cognitive neuroscience summer school
Organizers: Birte Forstmann, Dora Matzke, Uta Noppeney, Andrew Heathcote, Brandon Turner, Gilles de Hollander, and Guy Hawkins
July 31 - August 4, 2017 | Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Summer School
Computational tools for developing and testing models of quantum cognition (PDF)
Organizers: Jerome Busemeyer, Tim Pleskac, Emmanuel Pothos, Jennifer S. Trueblood, and Zheng Wang
July 20-21, 2017 | University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom

2016 Funded Projects 

Workshop
Bayesian Estimation of Evidence Accumulation Architectures in Neuroscience and Cognition (PDF)
Lead organizer: Andrew Heathcote
November 7-11, 2016 | Boston, MA, USA

Workshop
Contemporary Neural Network Models: Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Cognition
Lead organizer: James L. McClelland
August 8-9, 2016 | Philadelphia, PA, USA

Summer School
Computational and Mathematical Modelling of Cognition
Lead organizer: Stephan Lewandowsky
July 12-24, 2016 | Bolzano, Italy

Lectures and Symposia

Lecture
Translating Clark Hull’s Learning Theory Into Estes’ Statistical Theory: A 60-Year Retrospective (video)
Gordon H. Bower, Stanford University, USA
May 2016 | Chicago, IL, USA

Symposium
This Is Your Mind on Technology (video)
Daphne Bavelier, University of Rochester and Université de Genève, Switzerland
Jeffrey Lin, Riot Games
May 23, 2015 | New York, NY, USA

Symposium
From Principles of Cognitive Science to MOOCs (video)
Janet Metcalfe, Columbia University, USA (Chair)
Richard C. Atkinson, University of California, San Diego, USA
Henry L. Roediger, III, Washington University in St. Louis, USA
Robert A. Bjork, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Daniel L. Schacter, Harvard University, USA
May 2014 | San Francisco, CA, USA


           

In Memoriam

William K. Estes
(1919 – 2011)
Professor and Distinguished Scholar
of Psychology and Cognitive Science
Indiana University

Wikipedia

Encyclopedia Britannica

APS tribute

Katherine W. Estes
(1920 - 2011)

Estes Fund Committee

D. Stephen Lindsay
(Chair)
University of Victoria, Canada

Pernille Hemmer
Rutgers University, USA

Melvin J. Yap
National University of Singapore, Singapore

Jolynn Pek 
The Ohio State University, USA