CALL FOR PAPERS

Pragmatics & Cognition announces a special issue on


FACIAL INFORMATION PROCESSING:
A MULTIDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVE

Guest Editors Itiel E. Dror and Sarah Stevenage


In many senses, faces are at the center of human interaction. At a very basic level, faces indicate identity. However, faces are remarkably rich information carriers. For example, facial gestures may be used as means of conveying intentions. Faces may also permit a direct glimpse into the person's inner self (by unintentionally revealing, for example, aspects of character or mood). Given their salient role, the processing of the information conveyed by faces and its integration with other sources of interactional information raise important issues in cognition and pragmatics.

Research on facial information processing has investigated these (and other) issues utilizing a variety of approaches and methodologies, and developments in both computer and cognitive sciences have recently carried this research forward. The emerging picture is that there are cognitive subsystems which specialize in different aspects of facial processing. This has been supported by neuropsychological evidence suggesting that brain damaged patients show dissociations between the different aspects of face processing. In addition, research on the development of facial processing abilities, and on aspects of the face itself which affect these processing abilities, has contributed to our understanding of how facial information is perceived.

This special issue of Pragmatics and Cognition is intended to provide a common forum for a variety of the topics currently under investigation. Given the breadth of issues and approaches used to investigate faces, we encourage submissions from a wide range of disciplines. Our aim is that this special issue will tie together the diverse research on faces, and show their links and interdependencies.


Deadline for submission: August 1, 1998
Editorial decisions: November 1, 1998
Revised papers due: February 1, 1999
Expected publication: October 1999

Papers should be submitted according to the Guidelines of the Journal. All submissions will be peer reviewed. Please send five copies of your submission either to:

Dr. Itiel Dror (e-mail: dror@coglab.psy.soton.ac.uk) or:
Dr. Sarah Stevenage (e-mail: svs1@soton.ac.uk)
Dept. of Psychology
Southampton University
Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ
England