Introduction to Volume 12, Issue 2 of topiCS

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Two topics grace our second issue of Topics in Cognitive Science (topiCS) for 2020; (a) Lying in Logic, Language, and Cognition organized and edited by Hans van Ditmarsch (CNRS), Petra Hendriks (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen), and Rineke Verbrugge (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen), and (b) the Cultural Evolution of Cognition organized and edited by Sieghard Beller (formerly of the University of Bergen, Norway), Andrea Bender (University of Bergen), and Fiona Jordan (University of Bristol, UK). Ditmarsch, Hendriks, and Verbrugge bring us seven stimulating papers, each of which looks at various aspects of the human trait of lying. Puns and various other bad jokes aside, I can honestly say that this is a very interesting and wide-ranging topic, and I sincerely recommend it to our community. I also remind our community that, thanks to our publisher, the introductions written by our Topic Editors are available as free downloads to all. Our second topic is equally great and stimulating if dogged by a certain misfortune. It is quite clear that the influence of culture on cognition and the changes in that influence as culture evolves do not receive much attention in our research and theories. Hence, the papers in this topic are doubly welcomed: once for their excellence in scholarship and once for bringing a wide-range of methodologies and topics to their study of human culture. Left to the afterword is Keith Sterelny's interesting commentary on “Tough Questions, Hard Problems, Incremental Progress.” As a sad endnote to this introduction, as many but not all readers will know, Sieghard Beller died while the Cultural Evolution of Cognition topic was being written and edited. This work clearly shows his mark as does the journal, topiCS. Indeed, with the publication of this issue, topiCS is now honored to have been the recipient of three of Professor Beller's organizing efforts. The first, “Should Anthropology Be Part of Cognitive Science?” was published in volume 4, issue 3 (2012). The second, “Exploring Cognitive Diversity: Anthropological Perspectives on Cognition” appeared in volume 7, issue 4 (2015). Of course, the volume 12, issue 2 (2020) is the one before you. Sieghard's work for topiCS has always been a team effort with his wife and colleague Andrea Bender and these two have been joined by Douglas Medin in their first topic (2012) and Fiona Jordan for this one. To change topics, we remind our readers that, as always, our publisher, Wiley-Blackwell, allows us to offer the Topic Editors' introduction to their topics to all of our readers as a free download. 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 1–2 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 to 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 (email: [email protected]) 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).