Interested in a 4 year PhD in Amsterdam?

Are you looking for a PhD position where you can combine insights from music cognition, cognitive behavioral ecology, and cognitive science? If you are excited about doing this kind of research in an interdisciplinary environment, with a team of smart and friendly colleagues, then you may want to join us.

All information on the research project and how to apply can be found here.

Deadline for applications is 1 November 2021.

Interested in a 3 year Postdoc in Amsterdam?

Are you looking for a postdoctoral position where you can combine insights from music cognition with psychometrics and cognitive science? If you are excited about doing this kind of research in an interdisciplinary environment, with a team of smart and friendly colleagues, then you may want to join us.

All information on the research project and how to apply can be found here.

Deadline for applications is 1 November 2021.

 

Hou je van podcasts? [Dutch]

Hou je van podcasts? Hier onder vier recentelijk verschenen afleveringen over het thema 'muzikale dieren'. 

Een headbangede zeeleeuw of een dansende kaketoe: er zijn genoeg voorbeelden van muzikale dieren te vinden op het internet. Maar zijn ze ook net zo muzikaal als mensen?  

 

• Universiteit van Nederland: https://www.universiteitvannederland.nl/podcast/zijn-dieren-net-zo-muzikaal-als-mensen
• Radio Swammerdam: https://soundcloud.com/swammerdam/muzikaliteit-bij-dieren
• BBC: https://play.acast.com/s/63fb67c5-f719-43f7-b264-390cd7edb120/414af9ec-0449-4a39-ade6-2d1f38f66c1b?seek=598
• NRC: https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2018/11/07/onbehaarde-apen-zijn-wij-de-enige-muzikale-dieren-a2754249

Does music have evolutionary origins?

Figure R1 from Savage et al. (2021)*

Recently a special issue of Behavioral and Brain Sciences came out, dedicated to the topic of music and evolution. Two target articles and 60 commentaries (on these target articles) by 109 experts reveal the current and complex debate about the origins of music. This debate is nicely depicted in Figure R1 (see left), showing a wide spread of positions with regard to both target articles.*

Personally, I'm really happy with this special issue and the effort that the authors of both target papers put in formulating their ideas and responded to the commentaries. It will hopefully give another boost to the scientific study of music/ality and its origins!

Nevertheless, in my commentary, I note that both proposals focus on overt musical behavior and largely ignore the role of perception and cognition. Furthermore, both articles blur the boundaries between the potential origins of language and music. It invites for an alternative approach, and concludes that the research focus should be on what makes the capacity for music distinct from that of language. For details see Honing (2021).

Honing, H. (2021). Unravelling the origins of musicality: Beyond music as an epiphenomenon of language. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 44, E78. doi:10.1017/S0140525X20001211

Mehr, S., Krasnow, M., Bryant, G., & Hagen, E. (2021). Toward a productive evolutionary understanding of music. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 44, E122. doi:10.1017/S0140525X21000030

Savage, P., Loui, P., Tarr, B., Schachner, A., Glowacki, L., Mithen, S., & Fitch, W. (2021). Toward inclusive theories of the evolution of musicality. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 44, E121. doi:10.1017/S0140525X21000042

*Software use to generate the Figure (an informal rating of two of the authors) can be found here.