PSYCHE: an interdisciplinary journal of
research on consciousness


Section 1: General Introduction

PSYCHE (ISSN: 1039-723X) is a refereed electronic journal dedicated to supporting the interdisciplinary exploration of the nature of consciousness and its relation to the brain. PSYCHE publishes material relevant to that exploration from the perspectives afforded by the disciplines of cognitive science, philosophy, psychology, physics, neuroscience, artificial intelligence and anthropology. Interdisciplinary discussions are particularly encouraged.

PSYCHE publishes a large variety of articles and reports for a diverse academic audience. As an electronic journal, the usual space limitations of print journals do not apply; however, the editors request that potential authors do not attempt to abuse the medium.

The journal publishes from time to time all of the following varieties of articles. Many of these (as indicated below) are peer reviewed; all of them are reviewed by editorial staff.


Section 2: Notes for Authors

Prospective authors should send articles directly to the Executive Editor. The following notes describe Psyche publication requirements that an accepted article must follow; submissions for review should also follow these requirements for ease of processing. PLEASE NOTE: Psyche is an all-volunteer effort; we do not have the time or money to apply extensive edits to your article. Articles which do not adhere to the following requirements may be rejected for that reason alone.

In the event that an article needs to be modified for publication the author will be responsible for making any alterations requested. Manuscripts must be submitted in standard APA format. Authors are encouraged to look at the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (1994, 4th Ed.). The on-line APA crib sheet may be of interest: http://www.wooster.edu/psychology/apa-crib.html. All articles published in Psyche are distributed via the electronic mailing list PSYCHE-L and are uploaded to the Psyche web site. Please follow these rules:

1. Final (accepted) articles must be in plain text (ASCII) -- not MS WORD, postscript, PDF, HTML or any other special format. If you are using MS WORD to prepare your article you should use the "Save As" feature with the "save as type" being "Text Only (*.txt)" for any draft to be sent to Psyche. Articles may be accompanied by HTML-accessible figures and tables, including JPG images, and authors are encouraged to take advantage of this. (Any such add-ons will not be included in the plain text PSYCHE-L distribution.) Any special markup instructions may be sent in a cover letter or as an attachment; ordinary markups (e.g., italics) should be indicated per the instructions below.

2. You should not use any 'funny' characters, such as acutes or umlauts, since these are not in the ASCII standard and are not supported by every platform. More specifically, you should not use any ASCII or extended ASCII codes outside the range 32 to 126 inclusive. If you need acutes or umlauts in the HTML version, this requirement should be specified separately from the article (e.g., in a cover letter).

3. The maximum line width should not exceed 72 characters, so that people with any kind of terminal can read it without irritating line-wrapping.

4. Since attributes such as boldface, underlining and italics are not available in ASCII format, please bracket text to be emphasized in these ways using the characters below (since underline and boldface do not generally show well in HTML, we encourage the exclusive use of italics for emphasis):

5. Footnotes in the text of the article should be set in 'pointy brackets', e.g. <1>, and the actual citations should be placed as notes at the end of the article.

6. All sections of the text should be divided by blank lines, namely section headings, paragraphs, entries in the reference list and individual footnotes.

7. Submissions should be preceded by a header containing the title of the paper, the name(s) of the author(s), author affiliations, mail and e-mail addresses, and telephone numbers.

8. After the header there should be an abstract of no more than 100 words. Please use the 'expanded' abstract form to outline your paper's concept.

9. The abstract should be followed 5 to 8 indexable keywords.

10. The list of keywords should be followed by the text of the paper according to the text format described. This should then be followed by the notes (if any) and references.

11. As Psyche is aimed at an interdisciplinary audience, authors are strongly encouraged to avoid jargon wherever possible, and, where technical terms are unavoidable, to introduce them carefully.

12. Authors of accepted material assign to Psyche the right to publish the text both electronically and as printed matter and to make it available in an electronic archive. However, authors retain copyright of their work and may republish it in any form they wish so long as Psyche is clearly acknowledged as the original source of publication.

13. Neither male nor female nouns and pronouns may be used to refer to persons of both sexes; for such references gender-neutral or plural forms should be used. (See the APA publication manual, Ed. 4, Chapter 2, for more information on the non-sexist use of language.)

14. Psyche follows APA reference and citation rules. For a complete description of APA style see the APA Publication Manual (1994, 4th Ed.).

REFERENCES are collected at the end of the article in alphabetical order. Author name(s), year, title, page numbers, place of publication and publisher name are all required, if available.

Journal articles are formatted as in this example:

Dennett, D., & Kinsbourne, M. (1992). Time and the observer: The where
and when of consciousness in the brain. *Behavioral and Brain Sciences,
15,* 183-247.
Books as in:
Dennett, D. (1991). *Consciousness explained.* Boston: Little Brown.
Chapters as in:
Dennett, D. (1990). Quining qualia. In W. G. Lycan (Ed.), *Mind and
cognition: A reader* (pp. 519-547). Oxford: Blackwell.
CITATIONS in the text use an author-year format. For example:
He is neither a phrenologist nor a "Cartesian materialist" (Dennett,
1991; Dennett and Kinsbourne, 1992).
If the author name(s) occurs in the text, only the year is included in the parenthetical citation:
He also puts the arch-rivals Searle (1992, 1998) and Dennett (1991) in
the same camp on this issue.
15. Authors may use up to four header levels, which are numbered and formatted as in:
1. A FIRST LEVEL HEADER
1.1. A SECOND LEVEL HEADER
1.1.1. A THIRD LEVEL HEADER
1.1.1.1. A FOURTH LEVEL HEADER
16. Psyche front matter follows a specific format. Please prepare your front matter in the same style as the example below:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
PSYCHE: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON CONSCIOUSNESS 
-----------------------------------------------------------------

'BINDING THROUGH THE FOVEA': A TALE OF PERCEPTION IN THE SERVICE OF ACTION

  Paul Cisek<1> & Martine Turgeon<2>

  <1>Dept. de physiologie
  Universite de Montreal
  C.P. 6128 Succursale Centre-ville
  Montreal (Quebec) H3C 3J7
  CANADA
  cisekp@magellan.umontreal.ca
  http://www.cisek.org/pavel

  <2>Psychology Department
  McGill University
  1205 Dr. Penfield Ave
  Montreal (Quebec) H3A 1B1
  CANADA
  martine@hebb.psych.mcgill.ca
  http://www.psych.mcgill.ca/labs/auditory/labmembers.html#turgeon

  Copyright (c) Paul Cisek & Martine Turgeon 1999

  PSYCHE, 5(34), December 1999
  http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/v5/psyche-5-34-cisek.html

  KEYWORDS: attention, audition, binding problem, two visual systems,
  sensorimotor control.

  COMMENTARY ON: A. David Milner & Melvyn A. Goodale. (1995) *The Visual Brain
  in Action.* (Oxford Psychology Series, No. 27). Oxford: Oxford University
  Press. xvii + 248pp. ISBN: 0198524080. Price: $35 pbk.

  ABSTRACT: By characterizing the function of the ventral and dorsal
  visual streams as, respectively, vision-for-perception and
  vision-for-action, Milner and Goodale (1995) have brought some action
  onto the perceptual scene. However, with the distinction of the ventral
  "what" system and the dorsal "how" system, comes a dilemma: How is the
  operation of the two systems united toward common goals? This is an
  example of a *binding problem*. We propose that for binding these two
  systems, no mechanism needs to exist in the brain to bring ventral and
  dorsal representations together. Coherent behavior may be accomplished
  by focusing the two streams upon the same external object through a
  strategy of spatial selection, using either the fovea or selective
  attention. This strategy exploits the simple fact that two objects
  cannot occupy the same place at the same time. Other kinds of binding,
  like that involving the perceptual binding of the elements of a scene
  into coherent perceptual units, may be accomplished by exploiting other
  regularities of the environment, such as the likelihood that two
  simultaneous sounds were caused by a common event. From an evolutionary
  perspective, the most effective way to cope with the distant environment
  is to use different but complementary sensors, both contributing to
  aspects of identification and action guidance. For example, audition
  plays a role both in perceptual analysis and in action guidance,
  suggesting the possibility of segregated processing of auditory
  information. Thus, the functional distinction between a "what" system
  and a "how" system may not be limited to the visual modality, but may be
  a fundamental distinction for behavioral control in general.

Section 3: Book Reviews

Publishers who wish to have books reviewed should send copies for consideration to:

Patrick Wilken
Department of Psychology
University of Melbourne
MELBOURNE VIC 3010
AUSTRALIA

p.wilken@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au


Section 4: Subscriptions to PSYCHE

Subscriptions to the plain ASCII version of PSYCHE may be initiated by sending the following message to <listserv@listserv.uh.edu>:

SUBSCRIBE PSYCHE-L YourFirstName YourLastName

PSYCHE is also available on the web. Check out: http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au

To receive short announcements of new papers published send the following message to <listserv@listserv.uh.edu>:

SUBSCRIBE PSYCHE-A YourFirstName YourLastName


Section 5: Psyche-D & Psyche-B

Guidelines For Posting To Psyche-D & Psyche-B

The study of consciousness covers a broad range of questions, and is likewise relevant to many fields of study. The neuroscientist who explores the biological basis of consciousness, the philosopher concerned with how age old questions of human experience are explained, the psychologist seeking a more comprehensive view of the nature and dynamics of subjective experience, and the cyberneticist who dreams of a robot that thinks for itself, all work with closely related and overlapping subjects, and all stand to benefit from and contribute to a common pool of knowledge.

The rapid growth of information technology has paralleled a revival of interest across disciplines in the nature of consciousness. However, these forums are only the latest in a long history of deeply involved and often heated dialog on the nature of the mind and the meaning of human experience. In the interest of fostering constructive dialog on a very complex subject, we ask that you observe the following guidelines when posting:

  1. The basic aim of the lists is to encourage discussion and exchange information on research on consciousness in cognitive science, neuroscience, philosophy, and other relevant disciplines in the sciences and humanities; with the aim of understanding the nature, function, and underlying mechanisms of consciousness.

  2. As the overall goal of this discussion is communication toward the advancement of knowledge, simple courtesy calls for patience and an attitude of mutual respect when disagreement or misunderstanding arises. Please save rhetoric for constructive use, and take personal issues off list.

  3. Please keep in mind that the study of consciousness crosses many disciplinary boundaries, and Psyche is intended to provide a nexus for this dialog. Arguments over the finer points of disagreement, and extended discussion concentrated within a specialization, should be taken off list. Keep your posts relevant to the main topic, and be sensitive to the disciplinary diversity of your audience.

  4. Please take care to direct your dialog to the appropriate list:

    PSYCHE-D: Areas of discussion appropriate for Psyche-D, where the focus is on theory related issues, include the following:

    A) How do we define consciousness? In the broader sense, what natural phenomena are we trying to understand? What needs to be explained, and why?

    B) What theoretical approaches are being offered in the study of consciousness, and how do they contribute to our understanding with reference to our definition of the problem?

    C) Just how big is this problem, and why?

    Feel free to draw from research, but focus on what it means for theory, not on issues of research methodology.

    PSYCHE-B: Areas of discussion appropriate for Psyche-B, where the focus is on research issues from an empirical point-of-view, include the following:

    A) What directions in research are suggested by theory? What questions are ripe for research?

    B) What can we put our hands on? How can the neural (or other) correlates of consciousness be operationally defined and tested?

    C) What research has been done, and what does it contribute to our understanding with reference to our definition of the problem?

    Feel free to draw from theory, but focus on what it means for research, not on issues of theoretical differences.

  5. The lists are moderated. Messages will not be automatically forwarded back to the lists. Think of this as like a letter column in some newspaper or magazine. Only letters that have something substantial to say will be forwarded on to the group. This is not to say that controversial messages won't be posted, rather that all messages need to be argued well.

  6. Please include the following information in all messages: subject header; name and email address at the bottom; when quoting research include references. As for formatting, please don't exceed 72 characters per line. Paragraphs should not be indented; please leave a space between each paragraph. Avoid quoting previous messages any more than absolutely necessary --we've already read them once.

  7. To avoid a flood of email a limit of around 10 messages per day will be forwarded to each list.

  8. While it is expected that all messages will have something substantial to say, posts that are very large are less likely to be approved. As a general rule of thumb messages that are longer than 2000 words (approx. 12k) are getting too large to post to the group. An ideal size appears to be somewhere between 500 to 1500 words.

  9. While I would like to respond directly to every writer who's posting I reject I simply do not have time. If your message does not appear within 48 hours there is a high probability that it has been rejected for one or more of the reasons listed above. Writers are welcome to resubmit posts that do not appear, but no correspondence will be entered into as to why posts are rejected.



Subscription

To subscribe to PSYCHE-D send the following message to <listserv@listserv.uh.edu>:

SUBSCRIBE PSYCHE-D YourFirstName YourLastName

To unsubscribe send the the following message to <listserv@listserv.uh.edu>:

UNSUBSCRIBE PSYCHE-D

PSYCHE-D is mirrored by the Usenet group 'sci.psychology.consciousness'.

To subscribe to PSYCHE-B send the following message to <listserv@listserv.uh.edu>:

SUBSCRIBE PSYCHE-B YourFirstName YourLastName

To unsubscribe send the the following message to <listserv@listserv.uh.edu>:

UNSUBSCRIBE PSYCHE-B

There is no Usenet group mirroring Psyche-B at this time.


Searching Psyche-B or Psyche-D

The digests of either Psyche-B or Psyche-D can be searched. The University of Huston has provided a very nice interface from their website. The following links will take you to the appropriate links: It is also possible to directly query databases of the lists via email. To do so follow the following guidelines:

A basic database session

Let's say that you are looking for messages in the psyche-d mailing list that pertain to the list header keyword "implicit memory". You set up a very simple CJLI job as follows and mail it to listserv@listserv.uh.edu:

//      JOB  Echo=No
Database Search DD=Rules
//Rules DD   *
Select 'implicit memory' in psyche-d
Index
/*

Sample CJLI job

The above script when sent to LISTSERV, says: "Look for the string 'implicit memory' in all of the archives you have for list psyche-d. Then, send me back an index of all messages in the archives that include that string."

LISTSERV obligingly searches the psyche-d archives, finds the following, and sends it back to you in an e-mail message:

> Select 'implicit memory' in psyche-d
--> Database PSYCHE-D, 5 hits.

> index
Item #   Date   Time  Recs   Subject
------   ----   ----  ----   -------
000057 93/05/04 17:52  223   Re: Consciousness and Reduction
000126 94/03/21 00:09 1255   Tucson Conference Information
000835 95/10/11 19:24   51   Re: psyche-95-2-15-implicit-1-willingham
000895 95/10/23 22:30   35   Re: psyche-95-2-15-implicit-1-willingham
001001 95/11/18 02:34   47   TOC for Consciousness & Cognition 4(4)
The next step is to send a CJLI job to request the specific message(s) you are interested in. Let's say that you are interested in an article published by PSYCHE by Willingham and you therefore would like to see messages 835, 895. You set up the following CJLI framework:
//      JOB  Echo=No
Database Search DD=Rules
//Rules DD   *
Select 'implicit memory' in psyche-d
Print 835 895
/*

This example says: "Look for the string 'implicit memory' in all of the archives you have for list psyche-d. Then, send me back message numbers 835 and 895."

LISTSERV will repeat the search above and will package the two messages you have requested into a return mail message and send it back to you.

You will get the following information:

>>> Item number 835, dated 95/10/11 19:24:25 -- ALL
Date:         Wed, 11 Oct 1995 19:24:25 -0400
Reply-To:     PSYCHE Discussion Forum 
Sender:       PSYCHE Discussion Forum 
From:         Andrew Leeds 
Subject:      Re: psyche-95-2-15-implicit-1-willingham

With apologies should these comments be out of context due to joining the
list in the middle of a thread, the following is offered as a potentially
useful perspective.

Implicit memory is memory at encoded in memory networks which hold somatic
(sensory) memory elements such as kinesthetic, auditory, imaginal or
olfactory impressions processed by the evolutionary older parts of the brain
stem (limbic system) and the sensory cortex.

[snip.snip.snip]

Any interest in a memory classification scheme which "carves nature at its
joints" must take into account the evolutionary structure of the brain and
the research on the neurological and biochemical foundations of memory
formation in both normal and traumatic life experiences.

Andrew M. Leeds


>>> Item number 895, dated 95/10/23 22:30:49 -- ALL
Date:         Mon, 23 Oct 1995 22:30:49 0000
Reply-To:     PSYCHE Discussion Forum 
Sender:       PSYCHE Discussion Forum 
From:         Michael D 
Organization: Simon Fraser University
Subject:      Re: psyche-95-2-15-implicit-1-willingham

Hello, just found this area on my computer.  Unfortunately, I can't read
the entire article/posting because the monitor is giving me a headache.
However, I do have two comments:

1) On point 5.9  What about implicit measures other than priming?  Do
they show specificity?
[snip.snip.snip]

Michael Dorken --Simon Fraser University

Narrowing the search

It is possible to add further parameters to your search in order to narrow it. You can limit a search by date with a "since. . . " predicate. Likewise, you can limit by sender and/or by the subject line with a "where . . ." predicate. For instance:

    Select 'implicit memory' in psyche-d since 94/01/01
    Select 'implicit memory' in psyche-d where sender contains 'Thomas'
    Select * in psyche-d where sender is ERIC@SEARN
    Select * in psyche-d since 94/01/01 where subject contains 'Digest'
are all valid search commands that will (hopefully) dramatically reduce the number of index or print entries returned to you.

Where to find more information on Database Functions

You can get more detailed information on database functions and the database command syntax by requesting the file LISTDB MEMO from listserv@listserv.uh.edu or from any other LISTSERV host. You can send either a "GET LISTDB MEMO" command or an "INFO DATABASE" command to retrieve the file.


Section 6: The Executive Editor, Associate Editors and Editorial Board

Executive Editor

Patrick Wilken
Department of Psychology
University of Melbourne
PARKVILLE VIC 3010
AUSTRALIA

Vox: +61 3 8344 7613
p.wilken@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au

Associate Editors

Editorial Board


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