Music in our genes?

© ILLC Blog, Illustration by Marianne de Heer Kloots

 

 

"In 1984, a curious study on musicality in animals was published. The researchers from Portland, Oregon trained pigeons to distinguish two pieces of music – one by Bach, the other by Stravinsky. If the birds got it right, they were rewarded with food. Afterwards, the same pigeons were exposed to new pieces of music from the same composers. Surprisingly, they were still able to determine which piece was composed by which composer.

This finding confronted researchers with a new set of questions. To what extent are animals musical? What does it even mean for an animal to be musical? And what can this teach us about musicality in humans?" 

(From Music in our genes, ILLC Blog).

The interview is based on an episode of the podcast “Talk that Science” – an initiative started by students from the University of Amsterdam.

• Listen to the episode here (in Dutch);

• Link to the English transcript can be found here.

Interested in a challenging postdoc position in Amsterdam?

MCG in November 2024.

We are currently looking for a postdoc researcher that likes to work on the intersection of music cognition, biology, and the cognitive sciences. 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. 

More information, including details on how to apply, will be made available soon at our website.

Deadline for applications : 1 December 2024. 

 

 

Interested in a Summer School on Musicality?

From 14-24 June 2021 an impressive cast of international lecturers (click on poster on the left), from a wide range of disciplines, will try to unravel our capacity for music. Students will, next to attending lectures, work groups and online social events, work in groups with a designated tutor on a research project, within the broad topic of musicality, which they will present towards the end of the Summer School. 

The ABC Summer School will be taught online (Zoom); The closing ABC Symposium will be hybrid. 

Credits: 4 ECTS. Tuition: €275. N.B. This fee will be waived for all students registered at a Dutch university.

Detailed information can be found at mcg.uva.nl/summerschool.

Want to know how music works?

www.mcg.uva.nl/howmusicworks

The University of Amsterdam now offers two Master-level courses grouped under the name “How Music Works”. Several members of the Music Cognition Group contribute their various backgrounds to these courses, ranging from music theory and cognitive science to psychology and computer science. Next to outlining the theoretical underpinnings and presenting an up-to-date view of the field of music cognition, it provides practical hands-on classes presenting a variety of computational techniques and experimental designs.

See for more information: www.mcg.uva.nl/howmusicworks

What's new in Music Cognition and Cognitive Science?

In the latest issue of Topics in Cognitive Science (edited by Martin Rohrmeier and Patrick Rebuschat) Marcus Pearce and Martin Rohrmeier write in the introduction:

"Why should music be of interest to cognitive scientists, and what role does it play in human cognition? We review three factors that make music an important topic for cognitive scientific research. First, music is a universal human trait fulfilling crucial roles in everyday life. Second, music has an important part to play in ontogenetic development and human evolution. Third, appreciating and producing music simultaneously engage many complex perceptual, cognitive, and emotional processes, rendering music an ideal object for studying the mind. We propose an integrated status for music cognition in the Cognitive Sciences and conclude by reviewing challenges and big questions in the field and the way in which these reflect recent developments."

Pearce M, & Rohrmeier M (2012). Music cognition and the cognitive sciences. Topics in cognitive science, 4 (4), 468-84 PMID: 23060125