Call for Papers

Cognitive Research Inspired by Military Context

A New Thematic Series for
Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications (CR:PI)

Submission Deadline: March 1, 2025

Guest Editors
Tad Brunye, U.S. Army DEVCOM Soldier Center and Tufts University, USA
Holly Taylor, Tufts University, USA
Stephen Mitroff, The George Washington University, USA

CR:PI Editor-in-Chief
Sarah Creem-Regehr, University of Utah, USA

Special Issue
Modern and future military operations present unique challenges and opportunities for cognitive research. From decision-making under extreme stress to team coordination in dynamic and high-stakes environments, the military context offers a rich and demanding setting to motivate research into fundamental cognitive processes and their applications. Understanding these processes not only contributes to basic mechanistic and theoretical models in cognitive science, but also holds future potential for enhancing military training, performance, and operational effectiveness. Moreover, the knowledge gained for military applications can also directly impact and inform other applied fields such as aviation security, emergency first-responder performance, and medical image perception. This special issue aims to bring together articles that explore cognitive processes within military settings, emphasizing use-inspired basic research. We invite contributions that utilize military populations and/or military-relevant tasks to examine a variety of cognitive phenomena. Potential areas of emphasis include, but are not limited to decision-making under stress, attention and situational awareness, learning and memory, problem solving and adaptability, team cognition and coordination, human-machine interaction, training, trust in automation, and resilience. Methods may include, but are not limited to augmented/virtual reality, psychophysiology, cognitive electrophysiology, behavioral measures, and computational modeling. We also welcome new or updated theoretical perspectives on cognitive processes that address the interplay between cognitive science and military applications. Through this collection, we hope to advance our understanding of human cognition and its relevance to one of the most demanding and impactful applications.

In line with CR:PI's mission of promoting use-inspired basic research, this special issue will highlight how investigations into fundamental cognitive processes can inform practical applications in military training and operations. By bridging the gap between basic research and real-world applications, we aim to contribute to the development of more effective, efficient, and resilient military personnel and systems.

For manuscripts accepted for the special issue, the publication fee may be fully or partially waived depending on the number of manuscripts accepted for the special issue. The authors should indicate when they submit a manuscript if they are requesting a waiver of the publication fee.

Deadline/Submission Details
Submission is open, and papers should be submitted by March 1, 2025. You can find manuscript submission details here.

Questions?
If you have any questions about whether your paper would be appropriate for this special issue, please send an abstract or brief (< 1 page) description to the Guest Editors.

About CR:PI
Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications (CR:PI) is the open access journal of the Psychonomic Society. Its mission is to publish use-inspired basic research: fundamental cognitive research that grows from hypotheses about real-world problems. As with all Psychonomic Society journals, submissions to CR:PI are subject to rigorous peer review. For manuscripts accepted for the special issue, the publication fee may be fully or partially waived depending on the number of manuscripts accepted for the special issue. The authors should indicate when they submit a manuscript if they are requesting a waiver of the publication fee.