Introduction to Volume 10, Issue 3 of topiCS.

Abstract

“The Structure, Processing, and Modeling of Abstract Concepts” is this month's lead topic. Topic Editors Marianna Bolognesi and Gerard Steen (both of Universiteit van Amsterdam) have brought together a group of scholars who provide us with a snapshot of the current work on these topics. In what might become a more regular feature of topiCS, each paper was the center of a sometimes lively debate which is summarized at the end of the paper. In a commentary to the topic “Thirty Years After Marr's Vision” (topiCS volume 7, issue 2, 2015), Mark Blokpoel (Radboud University Nijmegen) takes issue with how Topic Editors David Peebles (University of Huddersfield) and Richard Cooper (Birkbeck, University of London) handled the discussion of Marr's levels. Cooper and Peebles acknowledge the importance of the issues Blokpoel raises but maintain that the solution advocated by Blokpoel raises more problems than it solves. These two notes provide a lively discussion that raises issues that many of us (myself included) did not consider while reading Cooper and Peebles’s 2015 introduction to their topic. See what you think! In case you missed it… a brief mention of topics appearing in recent issues of topiCS. A year ago, in July 2017 (volume 9, issue 3), we featured two topics. In a field like ours, a year is not much time for new work to gather citations, which makes the 24 citations (as of June 8, 2018) to papers in Christiansen and Arnon's topic, “More Than Words: The Role of Multiword Sequences in Language Learning and Use,” very impressive. Two years ago, in July 2016 (volume 8, issue 3), we lead with a Visions of Cognitive Science paper by authors Rouder, Morey, Verhagen, Provice, and Wagenmakers, “Is There a Free Lunch in Inference?” This work addressed the vexing “crisis of confidence” in the field of cognitive science and psychology brought on by logic problems with inference in published work. In the 2 years since its publication, their paper has been cited 19 times, and our bet is that this will become a citation classic. Those of you concerned with the “crisis in confidence” would do well to read this important work. July 2016 also saw the publication of Topic Editors Robert L. Goldstone and Gary Lupyan's topic, “Discovering Psychological Principles by Mining Naturally Occurring Data Sets.” Papers from this important collection have already been cited 25 times. To our readers, keep searching and reading topiCS for our high-quality, curated collections of papers on timely topics of interest to the broad cognitive science community. topiCS encourages letters and commentaries on all topics, and proposals for new topics. Letters are typically 400–1,000 words (maximum of two published pages) and will be published without abstract or references (possibly one to two but usually none). Commentaries are often solicited by Topic Editors prior to the publication of their topic. However, commentaries after publication are also considered and should range between 1,000 and 2,000 words. Most commentaries would not have an abstract and would not include many references. The Executive Editor and the Senior Editorial Board (SEB) members are constantly searching for new and exciting topics for topiCS. Feel free to open communications with a short note to the Executive Editor (wayne.gray.cogsci@gmail.com) or an SEB member (SEB members are listed under the Editorial Board heading on the publisher's homepage for topiCS (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1756-8765/homepage/EditorialBoard.html).