Editor Spotlight

Robert Kunzendorf, PhD, is a professor emeritus of the psychology department at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

I've devoted my career to the study of consciousness, starting with my 1979 dissertation, Imagery and consciousness, and culminating in my recent book, On the evolution of conscious sensation, conscious imagination, and consciousness of self.

I started off a mind-brain identity theorist, but in the course of doing psychophysiological research on imagined sensations, hypnosis research on subconsciousness, and source-monitoring research on self-consciousness, I have embraced double-aspect materialism.

Presently a professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, I co-edited the journal Imagination, Cognition, and Personality from 2000 to 2014.

Since Steve Lynn became founding Editor of Psychology of Consciousness in 2013, I have enthusiastically supported Steve and the journal, initially as an author, subsequently as a reviewer and consulting editor, and ultimately as an associate editor.

After accepting the position of Incoming Editor, I put together a team of four associate editors with expertise on four broadly defined aspects of consciousness:

• Liliana Albertazzi on sensory consciousness
• Elisabeth Norman on subconsciousness
• E. J. Masicampo on self-consciousness
• Thilo Hinterberger on the psychophysiology of consciousness

Following Steve Lynn's lead, I want to ensure that the journal and high-quality consciousness research flourish for many years to come.

I am concerned that the mid-20th-century rejection of consciousness by behavioral scientists might recur as the mid-21st-century rejection of consciousness by neuroscientists. For the late-19th-century founders of psychology, consciousness was the core of psychological science, and could not be rejected, nor be relegated to the fringes as it too often is today.

Mindful of our field's founders, the associate editors and I are preparing special issues on topics that return consciousness to psychology's core—topics that include the "Causal Efficacy of Consciousness," the "Mental Simulation of Alternative and Future Realities," and the "Salutogenic Effects of Self-Transcendence."

In addition, mindful that the theoretical underpinnings of consciousness research are oftentimes implicit and sometimes metaphysical, the associate editors and I will be encouraging reviewers to evaluate manuscripts without theoretical bias—and will be encouraging authors to make explicit their underlying theories, so that other researchers can empirically test those theories and can consequently discover some interesting new findings.

Consciousness-related theories that exhibit discovery value and that address core psychological issues may also have discovery value for other areas of psychology.

Guided by this vision, I look forward to putting my time and effort into serving the journal's contributors and readers.

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