Subject: Re: Difference between cognition and perception? From: Eliot Handelman <eliot(at)GENERATION.NET> Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2004 16:49:40 -0400Martin Braun wrote: >As I had written, "cognition is not needed". It can occur, of course. > > Dear Martin, As I've already suggested, the perception of ANY kind of temporal relation must involve memory and comparison. Among the simplest is the detection of pulse or meter. No necessary cognition? no sense of pulse. Are you suggesting that sense of pulse is also not needed to enjoy metered music? Or that pulse detection isn't cognitive? You may be using the word "cognition" here to mean what's usually called "music appreciation" -- being able to say things like "that piece is in ABA form," or something similar. I agree that no one NEEDS to know this kind of detail in order to enjoy music. Indeed students taking music appreciation courses, who must be examined on this sort of lifeless grind, often feel that it detracts from the emotion and mystery that they otherwise experience in music. But this doesn't mean that there's no information-processing taking place, though potentially at a very fine-grained level. -- eliot