Arturo Hernandez Shares Vision as New Editor of Perspectives on Psychological Science

APS is excited to welcome Arturo Hernandez as editor of Perspectives on Psychological Science. The Observer asked Hernandez a few questions about how he plans to approach his new role and what he sees for the future of the journal.  

Hernandez is a professor of psychology at the University of Houston and is interested in the neural underpinnings of bilingual language processing and second-language acquisition in children and adults. Hernandez has been a member of the National Institutes of Health, Language and Communication Study Section and has served as editor-in-chief for the Journal of Neurolinguistics. In 2002, he was awarded a National Science Foundation fellowship to spend a year as a visiting professor at the Max Planck Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (now called the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences) in Leipzig, Germany. In 2014, he was awarded the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award to spend a year visiting Christian Fiebach at Goethe University Frankfurt to look at how dopamine-related genes influence switching in bilingual individuals.

His theoretical framework, Neurocomputational Emergentism, seeks to understand how the brain and cognition dynamically reorganize themselves over time to produce higher-level processes such as language. Hernandez has also been influenced by having learned four languages at various points during his life. In 2019, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholar Award to expand his research on bilingualism and aging while visiting the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language in San Sebastián, Spain. 

Can you tell our readers a bit about your background? How will your previous experiences help guide your approach as the new editor of Perspectives on Psychological Science?  

I am a developmental cognitive neuroscientist with a deep interest in the neural bases of bilingualism, a passion rooted in my own language learning experiences. I grew up learning Spanish and English simultaneously, became proficient in Portuguese during my college years, and later gained basic proficiency in German as an adult. My research has always bridged brain science, cognition, and language. 

In addition to publishing peer-reviewed articles, I have written two books aimed at making complex ideas accessible to broader audiences. My first book, The Bilingual Brain, connects my research with questions of wider relevance, such as how age impacts first and second language acquisition and the learning of motor skills like golf. My second book, Mastery, adopts an emergentist perspective on skill acquisition, applying it to both cognitive and motor learning. 

I have also spent time in international academic settings, which has given me valuable insight into the diverse ways people around the world approach psychology and psychological science. I plan to use these experiences, along with my commitment to engaging with broader audiences, to help me as editor for Perspectives on Psychological Science. 

Perspectives on Psychological Science is a unique journal that features an eclectic mix of provocative reports and articles. As the incoming editor, what visions do you have for the future of the journal and the articles it publishes?  

One of the attractive features of Perspectives is the use of different formats (opinion pieces, traditional reviews, etc.). In recent years, I have noticed how many outlets have begun to move beyond the written format. One avenue that I would like to consider for Perspectives is the use of short audio summaries of the articles that are published. I don’t think the written word should be fully abandoned. However, I do think that in our screen-saturated world, there are times when our eyes need a break. My goal is to explore avenues that allow people to engage with our content while resting their beleaguered eyes.  

A second trend in academic publishing has been the move to English-only content. The English language has become the lingua franca in psychological science. However, the movement to English-only publishing does run the risk of tipping scholarly work in favor of very specific sets of researchers in the Anglophonic sphere. Of course, this raises at least two questions: Which languages might serve as alternatives? And what types of content, and in what format should they be disseminated? I plan to raise the issue of publishing in languages other than English during our first editorial meetings to see what ways might be most suitable for Perspectives. 

In your opinion, what’s unique about Perspectives? 

I think the variety of submission formats places Perspectives at the forefront of dissemination in psychological science. This flexibility will allow us to potentially expand beyond the written word and the English language. The world is a big place with many discoveries in psychological science yet to be made. A quarter of the way into the 21st century, the future of academic publishing must adapt to this changing landscape. My sincere hope is that Perspectives can help lead the way. 

How do you plan to approach putting together the editorial board for Perspectives?  

We have put out an open call for five associate editors. Please send in materials or encourage others to do so. Once they have been appointed, the plan is to then work on ensuring a fair and equitable editorial board that represents the gender, ethnic, racial, linguistic, geographical, and cultural variability of the world.  

One of the things that makes this journal stand out is that it captures the full scope of psychological science. How will you preserve that breadth during your editorship?  

I plan to hold regular meetings with all the associate editors once they have been appointed. These individuals themselves will represent a large swath of subareas within psychology. The question of breadth is one that I will make sure to bring up on a regular basis. At the same time, the staff in publishing at APS has metrics on the range of areas that were covered in previous years. We can use these metrics as a starting point. Then, I plan to continually ask if there is something we are missing. All fields change—for example, the recent trend toward considering AI across many different fields. It is not so much the past breadth that I worry about. It is more that we might miss some emerging trend. With open discussion, it is my sincere wish that we make sure that Perspectives remains broad while at the same time maintaining the flexibility to keep adapting to the ever-changing nature of research in psychological science.  

Perspectives accepts both invited and submitted articles. What do you want prospective authors to consider when thinking about submitting to the journal? In addition to meta-analyses, replication reports, and longer, integrative review articles, are there other types of submissions you would like to see?  

I like retrospective/prospective pieces. I often refer to this as the “Bruno Mars” approach to publishing: Sound old but be new. We are living in a time of unprecedented distribution of academic information. As I read recently published papers, I have noticed an increasing trend of “forgetting” much of the work that gave rise to current issues. This leads fields to constantly rediscover what was already known. To counter this rise, I appreciate it when researchers take a bit of time to consider where a whole question began. Sometimes certain questions naturally lend themselves to this approach. When this is the case, I encourage submissions that take a retrospective/prospective approach. 

Is there anything else you would like to share with readers and potential authors about your plans as editor of Perspectives on Psychological Science?  

More than anything, I hope that Perspectives can keep both its variable format and range of contributions while remembering the need to remain respectful of others’ lived experiences. The importance of remaining respectful is key. Contributors are spending their time and energy and entrusting us with evaluating what they send us. The responses and decisions will not always be in their favor but at the very least they should feel valued and respected. As editor-in-chief, I plan to help ensure that all of us continue our dialogues with respect while engaging with views that do not always align with our own.  

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