Music psychology Contemporary trends

1. Music psychologyContemporary trends Richard Parncutt Centre for Systematic Musicology University of Graz, Austria Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor 4 April 2012 SysMus Graz

2. Resultsofsomeempiricalstudiesjust towhetyourappetite… Melody: Recognition depends mainly on contour not interval sizecontour = thesequenceofupsanddowns Harmony: Its perception is based on speech perception The ear extracts the harmonic series from voiced speech sounds Emotion: Basic emotions are perceived across cultures Other musicalemotionsareculture-specific Aesthetics: We prefer familiar styles with medium info content Optimal complexity depends on personality Sport: Music that you like reduces pain & improves performance But music with a strong beat may make you run/cycle slower! Development: “Talent” is mainly learned; audiation is central audiation = imagining complex pitch-time structures

3. Contents • What is music psychology? • Representations of music • History of mp: Then and now • Infrastructures • Leading music psychologists • My research • Musikologiein Graz • Current trends in mp

4. Music psychology Musicology Psychology

5. What is music psychology? Object of research: music All aspects of musical experience and behavior: • the “music itself” • physical/physiological: ear, brain, voice, body • experiential: sensations, emotions • abstract: notation, discourses, cognition • musical agents • musicians, listeners • their abilities, development… Means of research: psychology • methods, findings, theories • all subdisciplines

6. Musical experienceandbehaviortheobjectofresearch in musicpsychology • Perceptionofmusic • concerts, recordings, ownperformance • listening, reacting, ignoring • Playingmusic • practice, performance, ensemble, interpretation, improvisation • Writing music • transcription, composition, arrangement, analysis • Imaginingmusic (audiation) • reconstruction, association, invention • Selectingmusic • preference, rejection, aesthetics • Movingtomusic • dance, gesture

7. Subdisciplines of psychologyall subdisciplines contribute to music psychology • Biopsychology(incl. neuropsychology) • brain, motorcontrol, voice • Cognitivepsychology • sensation, perception, learning, memory • language, thinking, consciousness • motivation, emotion • Developmentalpsychology • life span fromprenataltooldage • Healthpsychology • stress, coping, therapy • Personalityand differential psychology • talent, creativity, intelligence • Socialpsychology • socialcognition, groupbehavior, gender

8. Physical world (matter and energy) • Experience (sensations, emotions) • Information and knowledge • …but what about… • Agents (souls, consciousnesses)? • 4 different representations of • music • people •  4 different areas of music psychology? Reality according to Karl PopperHis “three worlds” SysMus Graz

9. 1. Music psychology in thephysicalworldrelatedtomusicacousticsandmusicphysiology Music physiology: Assumption: behavior & experiencedepend on physiology Aspects: ear, brain, voice, motorcontrol Behavioralpsychology: Assumptions: • behavior, thinking & feelingarelearned • learningis observable (stimulus-response paradigm) • Pavlov: classicalconditioning • Skinner: operant conditioning

10. 2. Music psychology & subjectiveexperiencerelated to music theory, analysis, semiotics, cultural studies • Consciousness - what we are aware of • ultimate source of all knowledge? • Subjectivity and intersubjectivity • object and subject of research are not separate • we perceive the subjectivity of other people (empathy) • Research paradigms • qualitative (based on language, not numbers) • holistic (not analytic or reductionist)

11. 3. Music psychologyandinformation Cognition • information processing in living organisms • “mental processes” in the brain • underlies experiences in World 2 Music cognition • mental processes support musical behaviors • perception, comprehension, memory, attention, performance • interdisciplinary basis • neuroscience, music theory, computing, philosophy, linguistics

12. 4. Music psychologyandagency • People, groups, and their intentionality • basis of behavior and experience? • Socialpsychologyofmusic • Are socialinteractionstheoriginandbasisofmusic?

13. Music psychology & other psychologiesmusic as a way of understanding… • Biopsychology(incl. neuropsychology) • brain, motorcontrol, voice • Cognitivepsychology • sensation, perception, learning, memory • language, thinking, consciousness • motivation, emotion • Developmentalpsychology • life span fromprenataltooldage • Healthpsychology • stress, coping, therapy • Personalityand differential psychology • talent, creativity, intelligence • Socialpsychology • socialcognition, groupbehavior, gender

14. Music psychology & other musicologiespotential for future research • Music history • history of musical syntax and perception • psychology of composers and their music • Ethnomusicology • cross-cultural music psychology • comparative musicology • Music theory, analysis, composition • perception and cognition of musical structure • Music performance • application of psychology in performance

15. History of music psychologyGerman roots in late 19th and early 20th Centuries Franz Brentano, Christoph von Ehrenfels, Gustav Theodor Fechner, Hermann von Helmholtz, Erich Moritz von Hornbostel, August Knoblauch, Ernst Kurth, Robert Lach, Theodor Lipps, Ernst Mach, Alexius Meinong, Hugo Riemann, Carl Stumpf, Richard Wallaschek, Wilhelm Wundt… Example: Is perceived consonancebased on smoothness (lack of roughness; Helmholtz) or fusion(Stumpf) or both?

16. The dominance of empirical methods in modern (music) psychologyAt the International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition(ICMPC, Sapporo, Japan, 2008) about ¾ of the presentations focused on empirical studies and data analysis: “other” = methods, pedagogy, software development, analysis…

17. Data in empirical (music) psychologyForms ofsystematicobservation in empiricalresearch Quantitative (numbers) e.g. ratingscales (subjective): Howmuch do youlikethismusic on a scalefrom 1 to 7? e.g. behavioralobservation(objective): Howoftenyouactuallylisten tothismusic?  statistical analysis to address random variations, individual differences, context effects, serial order… Qualitative (words) e.g. interview: Whyyoulikethismusic? (subjective) e.g. ethnography, participant observation, focus group…  text analysis, e.g. grounded theory, conversation analysis, discourse analysis, thematic analysis, interpretative phenomenological analysis…

18. Quantitative vs qualitative datain musicpsychology: examplesfromtimbreperception Quantitive: 3D-summary ofsimilarityratingsofpairsoftimbres (fromMcAdams et al.) • Qualitative: Categorizationofwordsusedtodescribetimbreof jazz vocalists (Daniela Prem, currentdoctoraldissertation) • Words usedby all 6 participants: • open, bright, classical, airy, vibrato • Words usedby 5 out of 6: • pressure, fixed/firm, breathy, clear, forceful, loose, nasal, natural, pressed, harsh, smoky, spoken, full

19. Modern infrastructuresofmusicpsychologythebiggestsubdisciplineofsystematicmusicology? • International Conference on Music PerceptionandCognition (ICMPC) • everytwoyearssince 1989 in different countries • 300-400 activeparticipants (≈half students) • manyothersmallerconferences (SMPC, ESCOM, etc.) • Peer-reviewedjournalsfounded in the 1980s • Music Perception; Psychomusicology (USA) • Jahrbuch Musikpsychologie (D) • Psychologyof Music (GB) • MusicaeScientiae (B) • Journal of New Music Research (B; mainlycomputing) • Peer-reviewedjournalsfoundedsince 2000 • Musica Humana (Korea) • Music Performance Research (GB) • EmpiricalMusicology Review (USA)

20. Quality control in musicpsychologyandmanyotherdisciplines… Peer review • quality control by anonymous international experts • works best in international language (usually English) • experts in China, Brazil, Germany, Sweden etc. can review • promotes intercultural validity; no experts are excluded A typical procedure • author/s send/s manuscript to editor of journal • (sub-) editor forwards manuscript to anonymous expert reviewers • (sub-) editor checks reviews are appropriate • (sub-) editor informs author that submission is (i) accepted, (ii) accepted pending minor/major revisions, or (iii) rejected • if (ii), (sub-) editor checks revisions  accept/reject

21. Peer reviewIs it really the best form of quality control? Arguments against peer review: • It suppresses motivation and creativity! • Reviewers have ulterior motives! (bias) • It permits discrimination by sex, nationality etc! • Great historic papers/books were not reviewed! But in fact: • Reviewers give authors good ideas. • Conflicts of interest can be systematically avoided. • Double-blind review avoids discrimination. • Most historic papers/books had no impact at all. Winston Churchill: Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried. You could also say: Peer review is the worst form of academic quality control except for all those others that have been tried.

22. Cognitive music psychologistsThe queen and king of music psychology today? Carol Krumhansl(Cornell Univ., USA) • music, language, emotion • musical pitch and tonality • methods: statistics, mathematics • multidimensional scaling, clustering John Sloboda(Keele Univ., England) • music, language, emotion • music performance research • musical skill acquisition • music in everyday life

23. The queen and king of…Music psychology in the humanities Helga de la Motte-Haber (TU Berlin) • founded modern German music psychology • promotes systematic musicology • documented history of German music psychology • modernist: musical structures need not be audible Fred Lerdahl (Columbia Univ., New York) • famous book: Generative theory of tonal music • links music psychology to music theory • applies music theory/psychology in composition • rationalist: musical structures should be audible

24. The queen and king of…Psychology of expressive performance Caroline Palmer (McGill, Canada) • speech and language • expressive piano performance • rhythm perception and performance • motor control Bruno Repp (Haskins Labs, CT) • speech and language • expressive piano performance • rhythm perception and performance • motor control

25. The queen and king of…Neuropsychology of music Isabelle Peretz (Université de Montreál) • biological foundations of music • neural organisation of music • music and emotion • neural correlates of amusia Robert Zatorre (McGill, Montreal) • neural processing of music and speech • auditory spatial processes • cross-modal plasticity • anatomy of auditory cortex • hemispheric asymmetries

26. Perception of musical structure • Harmonyandtonality • psychologicalroleoftheharmonicseries in everyvoicedspeechsound • Historical versus perceptualorigins • Predictionofrootsandtonics • Rhythmandmeter • Psychological roleofisochronouspatterns in heartbeatandwalking • Historical versus perceptualorigins • Predictionofthedownbeat

27. Synergizing contrasting epistemologies Epistemology • What is knowledge? • Which knowledge exists? • How is knowledge acquired? Humanities and sciences • Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology • Journal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies Research and education/ practice • The science and psychology of music performance

28. Origin of music and mother-infant bond Prenatal classical conditioning • sound patterns (voice, heart, breath, feet, stomach…) • shared emotional states Postnatal operant conditioning • sound patterns evoke prenatally experienced emotions? • motherese, play  ritual? Problems: • What is “prenatal emotion”? • Can a causal link be demonstrated? • Evaluation of theories or music’s origin

29. Music, identity, migrationwith Angelika Dorfer and Martin Winter Music in everyday life Active versus passive “musicking” Music and the construction of group identities Music and feeling at home in a new environment

30. Expression in piano musicwith Erica Bisesi Modulation of tempo, dynamics, articularion just beforeand after accentsusing a computermodel

31. BachelorstudiumMusikologieGrazSchwerpunktMusikpsychologie und Akustik

32. Music psychology: Current trends Hot topics • Brain andbehavior • Emotion • Amusia • Evolution • Gesture, movement, dance • Entrainment • Music andlanguage • Improvisation • Development • Healthandwellbeing Interdisciplinarity Ethnomusicology non-western musics Historical musicology historicalcontext Sociology socialcontext Qualitative psychology methods Systematicmusicology acoustics, sociology, neuroscience, computing, philosophy Practice education, performance, medicine, therapy • Institutionalisation •  a normal partofmusicologyandpsychology?

33. Music psychology: The futurebig questions without clear answers (yet) • Why do humans spend so much time, effort, and money on musical activities? • Is the (natural) scientific research paradigm appropriate for studying human culture? • Can music psychology research shed light on • human values? • human identity? • human nature?

34. CentreforSystematicMusicologyUni Graz, Austria Bernd Brabec Ethnomusicology Erica Bisesi Expression in piano music Daniela Prem Timbre in Jazz Lina Dornhofer Applied Interculturality Res. Andreas Gaich Cognition Early Polyphony Martin Winter Music andidentity