The International Social Cognition Network (ISCON) is seeking nominations for this year’s Early Career Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Study of Social Cognition. The purpose of the award is to recognize and encourage a distinguished junior scientist who has made outstanding theoretical and empirical contributions to the understanding of social cognition.

The award will be made on the basis of originality, quality, and impact of scientific research in the study of social cognition. The award winner will be invited to present a distinguished address at the SPSP Social Cognition Preconference in Austin, TX, in February of 2014.

Eligibility: Nominees should have completed their Ph.D. no more than 6 years prior to nomination. This year’s award is for achievement through 2013. Thus, nominees must have received their Ph.D.s no earlier than 2007.

Social cognition is not a content area, but an approach to understanding social psychological phenomena. It is a level of analysis that aims at understanding social phenomena by investigating the mental processes that underlie them. The major concerns of the approach are the processes involved in the perception, judgment, and memory of social stimuli; the effects of cognitive, affective, and motivational factors on social information processing; and the behavioral and interpersonal consequences of mental processes. This level of analysis may be applied to any content area within social psychology, including research on intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup processes.

Nominations should include a letter of nomination addressing the nature and impact of the nominee’s contribution to the study of social cognition, a copy of the nominee’s CV, and no more than 3 papers selected for their relevance to the award. Nominating materials must be submitted electronically to Bernadette Park (bernadette.park@colorado.edu) with "ISCON Early Career Award” in the subject line. The deadline for nominations is June 1, 2013. Nominations arriving after the deadline cannot be considered.

The 2013 Early Career Award Committee consists of Patricia Devine (University of Wisconsin at Madison, USA), Bernadette Park (University of Colorado at Boulder, USA), Gün Semin (Utrecht University, Netherlands), and Bill von Hippel (University of Queensland, Australia). The award winner will be announced in September 2013.

Bertram Gawronski
President, International Social Cognition Network