Extension, Variability, and Normativity: Deniz Peters on Musical Experience

In his essay, “Musical Empathy, Emotional Co-Constitution, and the ‘Musical Other,’” Deniz Peters aims to present a non-reductive account of musical empathy in musical experience that takes seriously the contributions of bodily experience through what he terms “emotional co-constitution.”  I set Peters’ view in the context of what I call the Structural Object Model of musical experience and elaborate on some of the challenges Peters’ essay raises for both theoretical and empirical research on musical experience, concentrating on implications concerning ranges of cases covered by the theory, the variability of listeners’ experiences, the normativity of the theory, musical sophistication, and the cultural roots of musical experience.

Download Full-text

Music Listening in Classical Concerts: Theory, Literature Review, and Research Program

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.638783 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann ◽

Hauke Egermann ◽

Anna Czepiel ◽

Katherine O’Neill ◽

Christian Weining ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Literature Review ◽

Empirical Evidence ◽

Empirical Research ◽

Research Program ◽

Aesthetic Experience ◽

Theoretical Framework ◽

Musical Experience ◽

Specific Situation ◽

Music Listening ◽

Listening Experience

Performing and listening to music occurs in specific situations, requiring specific media. Empirical research on music listening and appreciation, however, tends to overlook the effects these situations and media may have on the listening experience. This article uses the sociological concept of the frame to develop a theory of an aesthetic experience with music as the result of encountering sound/music in the context of a specific situation. By presenting a transdisciplinary sub-field of empirical (concert) studies, we unfold this theory for one such frame: the classical concert. After sketching out the underlying theoretical framework, a selective literature review is conducted to look for evidence on the general plausibility of the single elements of this emerging theory and to identify desiderata. We refer to common criticisms of the standard classical concert, and how new concert formats try to overcome alleged shortcomings and detrimental effects. Finally, an empirical research program is proposed, in which frames and frame components are experimentally manipulated and compared to establish their respective affordances and effects on the musical experience. Such a research program will provide empirical evidence to tackle a question that is still open to debate, i.e., whether the diversified world of modern-day music listening formats also holds a place for the classical concert – and if so, for what kind of classical concert.

Download Full-text

Listening, Mediation, Event: Anthropological and Sociological Perspectives

Journal of the Royal Musical Association ◽

10.1080/02690400903414855 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 135 (S1) ◽

pp. 79-89 ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

Georgina Born

Keyword(s):

Empirical Research ◽

Empirical Studies ◽

Musical Experience ◽

Sociology Of Music ◽

Relational Analysis ◽

Musical Object ◽

The Social

ABSTRACTThis paper outlines an approach to listening drawn from the anthropology and sociology of music, arguing that there is a pressing need for comparative empirical studies of listening. I suggest that the terms of the discussion should shift from listening to the broader category of musical experience, in this way allowing questions of the encultured, affective, corporeal and located nature of musical experience to arise in a stronger way than hitherto. I propose a focus on the relations between musical object and listening subject, where this entails analysis of the social and historical conditions that bear on listening, and of the changing types of subjectivity brought to music. The point is that neither these conditions, nor the forms of music's mediation, nor the relations between musical object and subject can be fully known in advance. I sketch three perspectives from anthropology and sociology that indicate the kinds of insight offered by empirical research which takes listening-as-musical-experience, and the situated, relational analysis of musical subjects and objects, as its focus.

Download Full-text

Artefact in 20Å-Resolution Electron Images of Negatively Stained Twodimensional Membrane Protein Crystals

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100053231 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 40 ◽

pp. 92-93

Author(s):

Douglas L. Dorset ◽

Barbara Moss

Keyword(s):

Electron Scattering ◽

Cross Correlation ◽

Transmission Function ◽

Group Symmetry ◽

Asymmetric Structure ◽

Object Model ◽

Phase Object ◽

Computing Systems ◽

Resolution Electron ◽

Plane Group

A number of computing systems devoted to the averaging of electron images of two-dimensional macromolecular crystalline arrays have facilitated the visualization of negatively-stained biological structures. Either by simulation of optical filtering techniques or, in more refined treatments, by cross-correlation averaging, an idealized representation of the repeating asymmetric structure unit is constructed, eliminating image distortions due to radiation damage, stain irregularities and, in the latter approach, imperfections and distortions in the unit cell repeat. In these analyses it is generally assumed that the electron scattering from the thin negativelystained object is well-approximated by a phase object model. Even when absorption effects are considered (i.e. “amplitude contrast“), the expansion of the transmission function, q(x,y)=exp (iσɸ (x,y)), does not exceed the first (kinematical) term. Furthermore, in reconstruction of electron images, kinematical phases are applied to diffraction amplitudes and obey the constraints of the plane group symmetry.

Download Full-text

Selecting the Optimal FM System for Children With Cochlear Implants

Perspectives on Hearing and Hearing Disorders in Childhood ◽

10.1044/hhdc18.1.19 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 19-24

Author(s):

Erin C. Schafer

Keyword(s):

Speech Recognition ◽

Cochlear Implants ◽

Empirical Research ◽

Background Noise ◽

Signal To Noise Ratio ◽

Evidence Based ◽

Signal To Noise ◽

Speech Processor ◽

System Input ◽

Optimal Type

Children who use cochlear implants experience significant difficulty hearing speech in the presence of background noise, such as in the classroom. To address these difficulties, audiologists often recommend frequency-modulated (FM) systems for children with cochlear implants. The purpose of this article is to examine current empirical research in the area of FM systems and cochlear implants. Discussion topics will include selecting the optimal type of FM receiver, benefits of binaural FM-system input, importance of DAI receiver-gain settings, and effects of speech-processor programming on speech recognition. FM systems significantly improve the signal-to-noise ratio at the child's ear through the use of three types of FM receivers: mounted speakers, desktop speakers, or direct-audio input (DAI). This discussion will aid audiologists in making evidence-based recommendations for children using cochlear implants and FM systems.

Download Full-text

Musical Experience Shapes Neural Processing

Zeitschrift für Neuropsychologie ◽

10.1024/1016-264x/a000295 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 31 (2) ◽

pp. 81-86

Author(s):

Wido Nager ◽

Tilla Franke ◽

Tobias Wagner-Altendorf ◽

Eckart Altenmüller ◽

Thomas F. Münte

Keyword(s):

Mismatch Negativity ◽

Pure Tone ◽

Musical Instrument ◽

Active Listening ◽

Musical Experience ◽

Neural Processing ◽

Neural Adaptations

Abstract. Playing a musical instrument professionally has been shown to lead to structural and functional neural adaptations, making musicians valuable subjects for neuroplasticity research. Here, we follow the hypothesis that specific musical demands further shape neural processing. To test this assumption, we subjected groups of professional drummers, professional woodwind players, and nonmusicians to pure tone sequences and drum sequences in which infrequent anticipations of tones or drum beats had been inserted. Passively listening to these sequences elicited a mismatch negativity to the temporally deviant stimuli which was greater in the musicians for tone series and particularly large for drummers for drum sequences. In active listening conditions drummers more accurately and more quickly detected temporally deviant stimuli.

Download Full-text

The Impact of Visual Feedback Type on the Mastery of Visuo-Motor Transformations

Zeitschrift für Psychologie ◽

10.1027/2151-2604/a000084 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 220 (1) ◽

pp. 3-9 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Sandra Sülzenbrück

Keyword(s):

Empirical Research ◽

Visual Feedback ◽

Closed Loop ◽

Motor Planning ◽

Visual Input ◽

Closed Loop Control ◽

Loop Control ◽

Feedback Type ◽

Effective Use ◽

The Impact

For the effective use of modern tools, the inherent visuo-motor transformation needs to be mastered. The successful adjustment to and learning of these transformations crucially depends on practice conditions, particularly on the type of visual feedback during practice. Here, a review about empirical research exploring the influence of continuous and terminal visual feedback during practice on the mastery of visuo-motor transformations is provided. Two studies investigating the impact of the type of visual feedback on either direction-dependent visuo-motor gains or the complex visuo-motor transformation of a virtual two-sided lever are presented in more detail. The findings of these studies indicate that the continuous availability of visual feedback supports performance when closed-loop control is possible, but impairs performance when visual input is no longer available. Different approaches to explain these performance differences due to the type of visual feedback during practice are considered. For example, these differences could reflect a process of re-optimization of motor planning in a novel environment or represent effects of the specificity of practice. Furthermore, differences in the allocation of attention during movements with terminal and continuous visual feedback could account for the observed differences.

Download Full-text

Which Data to Meta-Analyze, and How?

Zeitschrift für Psychologie ◽

10.1027/2151-2604/a000357 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 227 (1) ◽

pp. 64-82 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Martin Voracek ◽

Michael Kossmeier ◽

Ulrich S. Tran

Keyword(s):

Empirical Research ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Curve Analysis ◽

Research Progress ◽

Primary Data ◽

Statistical Procedures ◽

Graphical Displays ◽

Primary Data Analysis ◽

Meta Analyses ◽

Data Analytic

Abstract. Which data to analyze, and how, are fundamental questions of all empirical research. As there are always numerous flexibilities in data-analytic decisions (a “garden of forking paths”), this poses perennial problems to all empirical research. Specification-curve analysis and multiverse analysis have recently been proposed as solutions to these issues. Building on the structural analogies between primary data analysis and meta-analysis, we transform and adapt these approaches to the meta-analytic level, in tandem with combinatorial meta-analysis. We explain the rationale of this idea, suggest descriptive and inferential statistical procedures, as well as graphical displays, provide code for meta-analytic practitioners to generate and use these, and present a fully worked real example from digit ratio (2D:4D) research, totaling 1,592 meta-analytic specifications. Specification-curve and multiverse meta-analysis holds promise to resolve conflicting meta-analyses, contested evidence, controversial empirical literatures, and polarized research, and to mitigate the associated detrimental effects of these phenomena on research progress.

Download Full-text