Call for papers - early rationality

Call for PapersSpecial Issue: Early Rationality in Action Perception and Production?
A special issue of the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology (JECP), guest-edited by Markus Paulus and Ildiko Kiraly, will be devoted to empirical research articles investigating questions concerning early rationality in action perception and production. Within recent years, the question of early rationality in action perception and production has become a topic of great interest in developmental psychology, comparative psychology, and cognitive science. On the one hand, studies have provided evidence for rational action perception and action imitation even in very young infants. On the other hand, scholars have recently questioned these interpretations and proposed that the ability to rationally evaluate actions is not yet in place in infancy. Others have examined the development of the ability to make rational action choices and have indicated limitations of young children’s ability to act rationally. Given the relevance of knowledge about the (early) development of rationality in action perception and production for several areas of developmental psychology (e.g., social cognition, action control, inferential and counterfactual reasoning), JECP calls for papers dedicated to the investigation of these issues. We encourage contributions investigating questions pertaining to young children’s rationality in action perception and production as well as the neurocognitive mechanisms subserving this developing capacity. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):
*Young children’s developing ability to evaluate the rationality of others’ actions or to act rationally and/or the limitations of these abilities (including alternative explanations for previously reported evidence on these abilities) in young children; the developmental trajectories of these abilities
*Task and context specificity of these abilities
*Individual differences in either the ability to evaluate the rationality of others’ actions or the developing capacity to act rationally, especially their antecedents (e.g., early perceptual and motor experiences; cognitive abilities, language development); concurrent correlates (e.g., social cognition, brain development); and sequelae (e.g., social interaction, action control)
*The early development of inferential reasoning abilities as they pertain to the context of action perception and production
*Comparative research, especially studies with chimpanzees, but also other species
*Comparisons of typically- and atypically-developing children
*Cultural/cross-cultural studies
*Neural correlates (e.g., electrophysiological studies)
Consistent with the editorial policy of JECP and the topic of the special issue, we expect the main focus to be on infancy and early childhood.
Manuscripts should be submitted by February 29, 2012, using the Elsevier Editorial System at: http://ees.elsevier.com/jecp. Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the usual guidelines [see the Guide for Authors on the journal homepage (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jecp) for details and address]. Authors should indicate in their cover letters that they wish their manuscripts to be considered for the Special Issue on Early Rationality. Papers submitted by Editorial Board members, their collaborators, or their students must be prepared for blind peer review; papers submitted by others may be prepared for blind peer review if the authors wish. Manuscripts that meet JECP criteria for scientific merit and importance but that are not selected for the special issue may be published in a regular issue of JECP. Inquiries, including questions about appropriate topics, may be sent electronically to Markus Paulus (markus.paulus@lmu.de) and Ildiko Kiraly (kiralyi@mtapi.hu).