Call for Papers: “Applied Memory Research”

As psychologists, we have an opportunity to make both theoretical and practical contributions to knowledge. These domains are not mutually exclusive. In particular, theory can inform practice, and vice versa. Memory research has painted a particularly compelling picture of the interplay between theory and practice, with significant contributions to theories of episodic memory from forensic psychology, encoding and retrieval processes from educational psychology, and loci of memory systems from clinical research. In turn, theoretical research has informed practice, leading to improved use of eyewitness testimony, better teaching practices, and new treatments for diseases of aging.

One question that arises from the interplay between theory and application is whether it makes sense for psychology as an academic field to move toward and promote applied research, which has traditionally been at home in corporations, such as the airline industry in the case of human factors research. To what degree can the field of memory research benefit from applied memory research? Most research on memory has been conducted with college students, and applied settings present an opportunity to break this mold. In what ways is use of a less homogenous population desirable versus detrimental to advancement of the field of memory?

It is against this background that we invite papers to this topical issue of the Zeitschrift für Psychologie to examine issues of applied memory research, including, for example, methods for improving memory, consequences of memory errors, techniques for circumventing specific deficits, and acquisition of practical skills. Our goal is to highlight the ways in which theory can inform real-world practice, and vice versa. We hope to cover a wide range of psychology topic areas, including educational, forensic, and clinical psychology, and any additional topic areas in which the interplay between theory and application can be demonstrated, within the domain of memory. In addition to suggestions for full original or review articles, shorter research notes and opinion papers are also very welcome.

We invite scholars from various areas of psychology, including but not limited to clinical, educational, forensic, and human factors, to submit their abstracts on potential papers electronically to the guest editor: Melody Wiseheart (mailto:ncepeda@yorku.ca).

How to submit: Interested authors should submit a letter of intent including: (1) a working title for the manuscript, (2) names, affiliations, and contact information for all authors, and (3) an abstract of no more than 500 words detailing the content of the proposed manuscript.

There is a two-stage submissions process. Initially, interested authors are requested to submit only abstracts of their proposed papers. Authors of the selected abstracts will then be invited to submit full papers. All papers will undergo blind peer review.

• Deadline for submission of abstracts is April 15, 2013.
• Deadline for submission of full papers is August 15, 2013.

The journal seeks to maintain a short turnaround time, with the final version of the accepted papers being due by December 15, 2013. The topical issue will be published as issue 2 (2014).

For additional information, please contact the guest editor.

General Information About the Journal

The Zeitschrift für Psychologie, founded in 1890, is the oldest psychology journal in Europe and the second oldest in the world. One of the founding editors was Hermann Ebbinghaus. Since 2007 it is published in English and devoted to publishing topical issues that provide state-of-the-art reviews of current research in psychology.

For detailed author guidelines, please see the journal’s website at www.hogrefe.com/journals/zfp/