Special issue journal on Mathematical Practice and Cognition

Special issue of Topics in Cognitive Science

We are pleased to announce a that special issue of the journal Topics in Cognitive Science will be devoted to the theme of mathematical practice and cognition.

Call for Papers

Researchers in mathematical practice and cognition are forming increasingly well-established communities with independent approaches and methodologies. The aim of this topiCS issue is to establish and strengthen connections between these and other areas of research, and, where relevant, to relate work carried out in such arenas to the cognitive science mainstream. Thus, this interdisciplinary issue aims to present commonalities and interactions between researchers who investigate how people do mathematics.

Research areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

- Mathematical cognition (mechanisms in the mind for mathematical thinking, as studied by cognitive scientists, psychologists and linguists. Examples include embodied cognition, mathematics and language, metaphors and conceptual blends used in mathematics);

- Perspectives on mathematical practice (observable behaviours, as analysed by historians and philosophers of mathematics and mathematicians themselves. Examples include ways in which mathematical definitions or axioms evolve, the role of analogy in mathematics, and heuristics for mathematical discovery);

- Social aspects of mathematics (interactions between mathematicians, or between teachers/students of mathematics, as studied by sociologists of mathematics, philosophers of informal mathematics and mathematics educators. Examples include the concept of a mathematical community, social constructivism as a philosophy of mathematics, and constructivism in mathematics education);

- AI approaches to mathematical thinking (computational representations of some of the above mechanisms, techniques and interactions, produced by AI researchers and cognitive scientists. Examples include computational models of cognitive or philosophical theories of mathematical thinking, and developmental robotics).

Key dates

Submission: Wednesday: 20th April
Author's Notification: Tuesday: 24th May
Deadline for final camera-ready copies: Friday 24th June

Submission details

Please inform Alison Pease via email (A.Pease@ed.ac.uk) of your intention to submit, by Wednesday 20th April. You will then receive registration details and be invited to upload your paper. Note -- it may take a few days to register you: once you are on our list of invited authors we will not close the system until you have submitted your paper. Please do not email your paper -- this will need to be uploaded by you to the TopiCS submission system. Thanks.

We are looking for articles of around 6,000 words (15 pages). If there is a special argument for longer articles then we will consider those on a case by case basis. This call is open to everyone and is not limited to symposium participants.