Hi all
I agree with Ian. This also connects to the debates regarding the value of music, or of art in general. If someone wants to show that
music is good for something then this refers to an instrumental conception of music: it yields something of value that is external to the music. However, we can also view music as having intrinsic value: it is a valuable _expression_ of humankind, of what it
means to be a human being. Apart from these instrumental and autonomous conceptions, one can further argue that the social and psychological processes that result from musical activity produce meaningful interactions and are therefore valuable to human life
(i.e. socio-epistemic value).
Thus, in my opinion, the researcher’s motivation may lie with the substantiation of either or all of these claims to value.
And frankly, ever since the Mozart effect I think psychology has been way too focused on a mere instrumental view of music, the arts
and also creativity. As such, I think also researchers sometimes implicitly and uncritically follow such neoliberal and instrumental rationales in studying music.
Just my 2 cts..
Erik
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From: AUDITORY - Research in Auditory Perception <AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of Ian Cross <ic108@xxxxxxxxx>
Reply to: Ian Cross <ic108@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Monday, 17 August 2020 at 11:38
To: "AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Papers on lack of effect of musical training
They might also be motivated by the need to produce arguments to substantiate a value for music in education in the face of neoliberal indifference and ineptitude…
On 17/08/2020 09:27, Colette McKAY wrote:
I agree with everyone about the importance of music to humankind. From this point of view it would be an interesting research study to look at the psychological
motivations of researchers who run studies to "show" the benefits gained by music training for non-music domains of cognition etc. Are they generally just interested in the scientific study of far transfer of learning effects, with music as an example?
Or are they motivated by a need to "prove" music education has non-music benefits based on a perception that music is not well-enough justified for its own sake? Or something like "I love music therefore it would be good to show how good for us it is"?
The tendency for poor design, unsubstantiated claims, and confirmation bias in many existing published studies makes the first option less likely in my opinion.
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I agree: music matters, and it matters ever more in times where those in power have none of it. As Shakespeare put
it " The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus"
As far as definitions of music are concerned, I'd direct interested parties to Tomas Turino's excellent book Music
as Social Life (Turino, T. (2008). Music as social life : the politics of participation. London: University of Chicago Press), ideas he covered in brief in a later paper (Turino, T. (2009). Four Fields of Music Making and Sustainable Living.
The World of Music, 51(1), 95-117). As for my own ideas about music — they evolve, but I'd suggest two papers that present ideas point in the direction of definitions:
Cross, I. (2012). Cognitive Science and the Cultural Nature of Music.
Topics in Cognitive Science, 4(4), 668-677.
Cross, I. (2014). Music and communication in music psychology.
Psychology of Music, 42(6), 809-819.
Ian Cross
--
Professor Ian Cross
Chair, Faculty Board of Music
Director, Centre for Music & Science
Faculty of Music
University of Cambridge
Cambridge CB3 9DP