Music Perception and Cognition

Recommended Prerequisites

NA

Teaching Methods

There will be expository theoretical classes with musical and documentary complementary examples and practical laboratory classes to present concrete examples of music listening and discuss the results of systematic psychological studies.

Learning Outcomes

We will offer an introductory approach to the perceptive and cognitive processes that underlie our sound and musical sensations. We will adopt a computational, functional, and practical perspective to facilitate the organization and development of the concepts discussed in the classroom. We will explore how basic attributes of music and sound are perceived and processed by human sensory devices, and we will address the relationship between the acoustic characteristics of sounds and our emotional, cognitive, and aesthetic interpretation.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. The human perceptual system

2. Psychophysics of the basic sound dimensions: Frequency Resolution, Loudness, Pitch and Timbre

3. Perceptual organization and musical illusions

4. Neuroscience of the Auditory System

5. Parallels with speech and language

6. Memory, familiarity and musical anticipation

Head Lecturer(s)

Lénia Alexandra Leal Amaral

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Analysis and critical discussion of an article or book chapter related to Cognition and Musical Perception 40; Group development of a small computer-aided empirical study 60: 100.0%

Bibliography

Arbib, M. A. (Ed.). (2013). Language, music, and the brain: A mysterious relationship. The MIT Press.

 

Ball, P. (2010). The music instinct: how music works and why we can't do without it. London: The Bodley Head.

 

Deutsch, D., ed. The Psychology of Music. 2nd ed. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780122135651.

 

Handel, S. Listening: An Introduction to the Perception of Auditory Events. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989. ISBN: 9780262081795.

 

Huron, D. (2006). Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation. The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/6575.001.0001

 

Levitin, D. This Is Your Brain On Music. New York, NY: Dutton Adult/Penguin, 2006. ISBN: 9780525949695.

 

Snyder, B. Music and Memory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780262194419.

 

Aello, R., ed. Musical Perceptions. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780195064759.

 

Lyon, R.E. (2017). Human and Machine Hearing: Extracting Meaning from Sound. Cambridge: CUP.

 

McAdams, S., and E.