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).

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

Please see http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/apease/aisb10/journal.html for details. Note that this page is under construction and will change.