Gognitive Psychology of Music

Cognitive Psychology of Music (172A)
Course Outline

Week 1

_ Philosophy of science.
_ Cognitive Psychology of Music and its area of study.
_ Process of Empirical Investigation.
_ Cartesian thought versus Humean thought.
_ A working definition of music.
_ Musical examples.

Week 2

_ The beginnings of Psychophysics.
_ New and old models of musical communication.
_ Physical attributes of acoustic waves.
_ Perceptual attributes of sound. Units. Absolute & difference thresholds.

Week 3

_ The Ear.
_ Seashore's model of music & his test for musical talent.
_ The breakdown of Seashore's model.

Week 4

_ C. E. Seashore & J. B. Davies: two different takes on the Psychology of Music.
_ Davies on the relationship between music and productivity, consumption, & emotion.
_ Operational definition of meaning and emotion. The 'Semantic Differential' method. Musical 'laws'.
_ Models of knowing. Implicit / Explicit knowledge.
_ Memory limits. Data reduction. Categories.

Week 5

_ The Octave. Pitch chroma / pitch height. The Pitch Spiral.
_ Scales. Chromatic scale. Intervals. Basic musical notation.
_ Beating. Critical band. Sensory / acoustic consonance & dissonance.
_ Musical scales as psychological constructs.
_ Global / local features of music.

Week 6

_ Mid-term review.
_ Mid-term Exam.

Week 7

_ Behaviorism: Stimulus-Response chains; Classical / Operant conditioning.
_ Neo-Behaviorism: Stimulus-Organism-Response chains; "Organism" as a function.
_ Cognitivism: Gestalt theory; Gestalt principles.
_ Absolute Pitch. Piaget's Genetic Epistemology. Synaesthesia.

Week 8

_ Analytic / Synthetic listening. Brain-area specialization.
_ Focusing Attention. Contrasts / Accents.
_ Melodic Contour / Rhythmic Contour. Contour interaction
_ Musical Preferences: The Wundt Curve and Information Theory.

Week 9

_ Musical meaning and emotion: L. Meyer; C. Peirce.
_ Relationship of music to film and visual motion.

Week 10

_ Music and film.
_ Final review.