Understanding Higher-Order Cognitive Abilities and Their Development in the Anthropocene

Dear Colleagues,

It is always timely to contemplate our scientific understanding of higher-order cognitive abilities. Questions about these abilities have been at the core of research in human intelligence since the advent of scientific psychology, and they have remained a common area of interest in research on human intelligence. Additionally, scientific attention to these abilities originated from a common concern, particularly the preoccupation on the status of these abilities in learning and instruction. Higher-order skills such as reasoning, problem solving, and creativity, among others, are not usually given enough attention in schools. Yet, these skills are especially important for addressing many challenges in real life, especially those we are experiencing globally today.

Since the mid-twentieth century, human activity has altered the planet in such a way that the ecological consequences of this activity have become permanent. Because of this human impact on the geology of the world, scientists at the beginning of the 21st century proposed that we are living in a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. The everyday manifestations of the Anthropocene are now most evident in issues such as climate change, pollution, the global pandemic, and the societal crises that they cause. Unfortunately, we are still unprepared for the challenges posed by the Anthropocene, and schools are struggling to adapt to this new reality. This has become evident during the recent pandemic, which has provoked a substantial change in our educational practices. Beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, this is the first time since World War II that entire new generations are facing up again to the prospect of an uncertain future with unprecedented crises, and there is an urgent need to develop new abilities and strategies to overcome them.

In order to address the multiple challenges that have originated during the Anthropocene, there is a growing need to capitalize on those abilities of human psychology that have served us so well during our natural and cultural evolution, but which we might have neglected in formal mass schooling during the last century. There is no way out of the contemporary societal and environmental crisis without employing our higher-order cognitive skills. We need to be able to imagine alternative worlds to the one we are currently living in now, since our current way of life is unsustainable. We need to make inferences and decisions based on the analysis of complex and dynamic evidence in order to create new solutions to complex problems. We need to engage in cooperative arrangements to enact changes that mean our planet is still habitable for an ever-growing population in future generations. Additionally, our contemporary challenges require us to consider how we educate and prepare the citizens of the future so that they can eventually find the solutions to these new emergencies.

Thus, the purpose of this Special Issue is to produce a collection of recent papers on higher-order cognitive skills in the Anthropocene, focusing on their potential to help us address the challenges of the present and those predicted in the future. We are interested in contributions from different areas of psychology, but especially on those dealing with the development and education of psychological strengths that are necessary to deal with a time of incertitude and unpredictability. Therefore, research on positive psychological attributes or constructive and adaptive attentional dispositions, such as mindfulness or meditation, and their relationship with higher-order cognitive abilities, is of particular interest to this issue. We are open to review papers that adopt a diverse set of research approaches, including experimental, correlational or longitudinal approaches. In addition to empirical pieces, theoretical papers will be welcomed.

Please note that the “Planned Papers” Section on the webpage does not imply that these papers will eventually be accepted; all manuscripts will be subject to the journal’s normal and rigorous peer review process.

Prof. Dr. David D. Preiss
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• intelligence
• creativity
• reasoning
• problem solving
• Anthropocene