Music cognition

Music cognition is an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the mental processes that support musical behaviors, including perception, comprehension, memory, attention, and performance. Originally arising in fields of psychoacoustics and sensation, cognitive theories of how people understand music more recently encompass neuroscience, cognitive science, music theory, music therapy, computer science, psychology, philosophy, and linguistics.

History

Music cognition was definitively recognized as a discipline in the early 1980s, with the creation of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition, European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music, and the journal Music Perception. The field focuses on how the mind makes sense of music as it is heard. It also deals with the related question of the cognitive processes involved when musicians perform music. Like language, music is a uniquely human capacity that arguably played a central role in the origins of human cognition. The ways in which music can illuminate fundamental issues in cognition have been underexamined, or even dismissed as epiphenomenal. The latter view was famously expressed by noted cognitive scientist Steven Pinker when he referred to music as "auditory cheesecake". But as cognition in music is increasingly acknowledged as fundamental to our understanding of cognition as a whole, music cognition should be able to contribute both conceptually and methodologically to cognitive science. Topics in the field include:

• A listener's perception of grouping structure (motives, phrases, sections, etc.)
• Rhythm and meter (perception and production)
• Key inference
• Expectation (including melodic expectation)
• Musical similarity
• Emotional, affective, or arousal response
• Expressive performance
• Music performance evaluation
• Conceptual processing

Some aspects of cognitive music theory describe how sound is perceived by a listener. While the study of human interpretations of sound is called psychoacoustics, the cognitive aspects of how listeners interpret sounds as musical events is commonly known as music cognition.

In the 1970s, music was studied in the sciences mainly for its acoustical and perceptual properties, in what were then the relatively novel disciplines of psychophysics and music psychology. Music scholars criticized much of this research for focusing too much on low-level issues of sensation and perception, often using impoverished stimuli (e.g., small rhythmic fragments) or music restricted to the Western classical repertoire, as well as for general unawareness of the role of music in its wider social and cultural context. The cognitive revolution made scientists more aware of these aspects.

Twenty years ago music went either completely unmentioned in psychology handbooks or appeared only in a subsection on pitch or rhythm perception. Today it is recognized, along with vision and language, as an important and informative domain in which to study the various aspects of cognition that activate psychic processes, including expectation, emotion, perception and memory, and how they apply to therapy. The role of music scholars and scientists in this latter research seems to be greater than ever. It could well be that music cognition will evolve into a prominent discipline contributing to our understanding of music just as much as more traditional analytic frameworks.

Research has been conducted into the pathways of emotional perception in the brain in response to music and vocal expression. It has been found that such pathways are inherently similar in that they accurately convey specific emotions, and that certain acoustic cues are specific to certain emotions.

Although the idea of music having an effect on cognition is fairly new, researchers say that musical training increases behavioral performance. This research linking music and cognition is helping scientists to understand the great power music has on our environment today.

Effects of identity on musical preferences

Psychologists generally accept the notion that nonclinical individual differences could be summarized according to five different dimensions. These dimensions are now known as the big five personality traits and include openness to new experiences, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Researchers interested in studying personality correlates with music preferences have focused on the big five and found significant correlations between popular music types and big five personality traits.

General Methods

Various questionnaires have been created to both measure the big five personality traits and musical preferences. The majority of studies attempting to find the correlation between personality and musical preferences administered questionnaires to measure both traits. Others used questionnaires to determine personality traits, and then asked participants to rate musical excerpts on scales such as liking, perceived complexity, emotions felt, and more.

Big five personality traits

Openness to new experiences

Openness is the most robust of the major personality traits when connecting music and personality qualities. This quality predicts a preference of reflective and complex music, and intense and rebellious music. Reflective and complex genres include classical, blues, jazz, and folk music, while intense and rebellious includes rock, alternative, and heavy metal music. It is also positively correlated with intellectual or cognitive use of music, which means that this individual enjoys analyzing complex musical compositions. Furthermore, individuals more open prefer a greater number of melodic themes in a work of music. Openness to experience has also been linked to those individuals who like music that makes them feel sad, presumably because this personality trait is also correlated with a greater appreciation to aesthetic experiences and beauty. Finally, open individuals show a preference for diverse musical styles, but do not prefer popular forms of contemporary music, indicating that there are limits to this openness.

Extraversion

Energetic extraverts have been linked to preferences in happy, upbeat and conventional music, as well as energetic and rhythmic music, such as rap, hip hop, soul, electronic, and dance music. Cheerful music with fast tempos, many melodic themes, and vocals are also preferred by extraverts. They are more likely than others to listen to music in the background while doing other activities, such as running, being with friends, or studying. This group also tends to use music to counter the monotony of everyday tasks, such as ironing. In a Turkish study, researchers found that extraverts preferred rock, pop, and rap because these genres facilitated dance and movement. These findings indicate that many musical preferences can be replicated cross-culturally.

Neuroticism

The more neurotic a person is, the less they like intense and rebellious music (such as rock and heavy metal), but prefer upbeat and conventional music, like country, sound tracks, and pop music. Additionally, neuroticism is positively correlated with emotional use of music. Those who scored high in neuroticism were more likely to report use of music for emotional regulation and experience higher intensity of emotional affect, especially negative emotion.

Conscientiousness

Conscientiousness is negatively correlated with intense and rebellious music, such as rock and heavy metal music. While previous studies have found a relationship between conscientiousness and emotional regulation, these results do not apply cross culturally- specifically, researchers did not find this relationship in Malaysia.

Agreeableness

Agreeable individuals preferred upbeat and conventional music. Additionally, listeners with high agreeableness displayed an intense emotional response to music which they had never before listened to.

Situational influences on musical preferences

Situations have been shown to influence individual’s preferences for certain types of music. Participants in a study from 1996 provided information about what music they would prefer to listen to in given situations, and indicated that the situation greatly determined their musical preferences. For example, melancholic situations called for sad and moody music, while an arousal situation would call for loud, strong rhythm, invigorating music.

Gender

Women are more likely than men to respond to music in a more emotional way. Furthermore, females prefer popular music more than males. In a study of personality and gender in preference for exaggerated bass in music, researchers found that males demonstrated more of a preference for bass music than females. This preference for bass music is also correlated with antisocial and borderline personalities.

Age

In a study of adolescent preferences of music in England, researchers found that girls regarded music as a worthwhile activity more than boys, but both boys and girls agreed that it does not need to be taught in schools. This finding is evidence that preferences and opinions toward music can change with age. In a Canadian study concerning how adolescent music preferences relate to personality, researchers found that adolescents who preferred heavy music demonstrated low self esteem, higher levels of discomfort within the family, and tended to feel rejected by others. Adolescents who preferred light music were preoccupied with doing the proper thing, and had difficulty balancing independence with dependence. Adolescents who had eclectic music preferences had less difficulty negotiating adolescence, and were flexible using music according to mood and particular needs at the time.

Season of the year

Season of the year can also affect preferences. After reflecting upon fall or winter seasons, participants preferred reflective and complex music, whereas after reflecting upon summer or spring, participants preferred energetic and rhythmic music. However, “pop” music seems to have a universal appeal, despite the season.

Familiarity

Familiarity and complexity both have interesting effects on musical preferences. As seen in other types of artistic media, an inverted U relationship is apparent when relating subjective complexity on liking music excerpts. Individuals like complexity to a certain degree, then begin to dislike the music when complexity gets too high. Furthermore, there is a clear positive monotonic relationship between familiarity and liking of music.

Self views

Music preferences can also be influenced by how the individual wants to be perceived, especially in males. Music preferences could be used to make self directed identity claims. Individuals might select styles of music that reinforce their self-views. For examples, individuals with a conservative self-view preferred conventional styles of music, while individuals with an athletic self view preferred vigorous music.

See also

Related fields

• Cognitive musicology
• Cognitive neuroscience of music
• Psychology of music
• Psychoacoustics

Topics

• Embodied music cognition
• Culture in music cognition
• Music therapy

Further reading

Encyclopedia entries

• Palmer, Caroline/Melissa K. Jungers (2003): Music Cognition. In: Lynn Nadel: Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Vol. 3, London: Nature Publishing Group, pp. 155–158.

Introductory reading

• Patel, Anirrudh D. (2010). Music, language, and the brain. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Day, Kingsley (October 21, 2004). "Music and the Mind: Turning the Cognition Key". Observer online.
• Jourdain, Robert (1997). Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination. New York: William Morrow and Company. ISBN 0-688-14236-2.
• Honing, Henkjan (2011). "Musical Cognition. A Science of Listening." New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4128-4228-0.
• Levitin, Daniel J. (2006). "This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession." New York: Dutton. ISBN 0-525-94969-0
• Purwins & Hardoon (2009). "Trends and Perspectives in Music Cognition Research and Technology." Connection Science. 21(2-3), 85-88.
• Snyder, Bob (2000). "Music and Memory: an introduction" The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-69237-6.

Intermediate reading

• Deutsch, D. (Ed.) (1999). The Psychology of Music, 2nd Edition.San Diego: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-213565-2.
• Dowling, W. Jay and Harwood, Dane L. (1986). Music Cognition. San Diego: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-221430-7.
• Hallam, Cross, & Thaut, (eds.) (2008). The Oxford Handbook of Music Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Krumhansl, Carol L. (2001). Cognitive Foundations of Musical Pitch. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-514836-3.
• Parncutt, Richard (1989). Harmony: A Psychoacoustical Approach. Berlin: Springer.
• Sloboda, John A. (1985). The Musical Mind: The Cognitive Psychology of Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-852128-6.
• Lerdahl, F., and Jackendoff, R. (²1996) A Generative Theory of Tonal Music. The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-62107-6.
• Jackendoff, Ray (1987): Consciousness and the Computational Mind. Cambridge: MIT Press. Chapter 11: Levels of Musical Structure, section 11.1: What is Musical Cognition?
• Temperley, D. (2004). The Cognition of Basic Musical Structures. The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-70105-1.
• Thompson, W. F. (2009). Music, Thought, and Feeling: Understanding the Psychology of Music New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-537707-1.
• Zbikowski, Lawrence M. (2004). Conceptualizing Music: Cognitive Structure, Theory, and Analysis. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 978-0-19-514023-1.
• North, A.C. & Hargreaves, D.J. (2008). The Social and Applied Psychology of Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-856742-4.

Journal articles

• Cross, Ian (1998). "Music Analysis and Music Perception". Music Analysis 17: 1. 
• Gur, Golan (2008). "Body, Forces, and Paths: Metaphor and Embodiment in Jean-Philippe Rameau's Conceptualization of Tonal Space". Music Theory Online 14: 1. 
• Honing, Henkjan (2006). "Computational modeling of music cognition: A case study on model selection". Music Perception 23 (5): 365–376. 
• Henkjan, Honing (2012). "Without it no music: Beat induction as a fundamental musical trait". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1252: 85–91. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06402.x. 
• Huron, David (1999). "Music and Mind: The foundation of cognitive musicology (The 1999 Ernst Bloch Lectures)" "Berkeley, University of California Press"
• Purwins, Herrera; Grachten, Hazan; Marxer, Serra (2008). Physics of Life Reviews 5 (3): 151–182. 
• Deutsch, D. (2010). "Hearing music in ensembles". Physics Today. 

External links

• MusicCognition.info - A Resource and Information Center

• Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC)

• European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (ESCOM)