Warren Brodsky

Auditory imagery from musical notation in expert musicians

Anecdotal evidence has suggested that musical notation can trigger auditory images. Expert musicians silently read scores containing well-known themes embedded into the notation of an embellished phrase and judged if a tune heard aloud thereafter was the original theme (i.e.,melodic target) or not (i.e.,melodic lure). Three experiments were conducted employing four score-reading conditions: normal nondistracted reading, concurrent rhythmic distraction, phonatory interference, and obstruction by auditory stimuli. The findings demonstrate that phonatory interference impaired recognition of original themes more than did the other conditions. We propose thatnotational audiation is the silent reading of musical notation resulting in auditory imagery. The research suggests that it also elicits kinesthetic-like phonatory processes.

Mental representation: what can pitch tell us about the distance effect?

Reaction time (RT) profiles for comparing magnitudes (e.g., numbers, physical sizes) are similar - the larger the difference between the compared stimuli, the shorter the RT (distance effect). Nevertheless, it is unclear whether such correspondence is due to similar, two-dimensional, linear mental representations of magnitudes. In contrast, pitch perception has a more complex, two-dimensional, helical representation. This study examined whether comparisons of music pitches are similar to other magnitude response functions. Experiment 1 employed a comparison task, resulting in an RT profile identical to that obtained when comparing other magnitudes. In contrast, Experiment 2 employed a discrimination task, resulting in RTs that matched the helical representation and were dissociated from the classical distance effect. Experiment 3 replicated the results of Experiment 1 using a comparison task with different stimuli and intervals. These findings imply that the distance effect under comparison tasks might reflect a general sensorimotor transformation, rather than mental representation per se.

Background music as a risk factor for distraction among young-novice drivers

There are countless beliefs about the power of music during driving. The last thing one would think about is: how safe is it to listen or sing to music? Unfortunately, collisions linked to music devices have been known for some time; adjusting the radio controls, swapping tape-cassettes and compact-discs, or searching through MP3 files, are all forms of distraction that can result in a near-crash or crash. While the decrement of vehicular performance can also occur from capacity interference to central attention, whether or not music listening is a contributing factor to distraction is relatively unknown. The current study explored the effects of driver-preferred music on driver behavior. 85 young-novice drivers completed six trips in an instrumented Learners Vehicle. The study found that all participants committed at-least 3 driver deficiencies; 27 needed a verbal warning/command and 17 required a steering or braking intervention to prevent an accident. While there were elevated positive moods and enjoyment for trips with driver-preferred music, this background also produced the most frequent severe driver miscalculations and inaccuracies, violations, and aggressive driving. However, trips with music structurally designed to generate moderate levels of perceptual complexity, improved driver behavior and increased driver safety. The study is the first within-subjects on-road high-dose double-exposure clinical-trial investigation of musical stimuli on driver behavior.

Developing a functional method to apply music in branding: Design language-generated music

Manufacturers, marketing agencies, and researchers of consumer studies have handled music in a haphazard fashion. Music is often captive to financial resources, political agendas, or lack of know-how; choices rarely reflect criteria attributable to the brand. Linking music to a brand or product is a liability, as consumers’ impressions can be manipulated by incongruent music, causing brand image to shift. The current study developed a strategy for applying music by employing design language as a template for composition. Two General Motors (GM) automobile brands served as products under investigation. Four studies, in two countries, recruited potential customers, sales clerks, walk-in buyers, and targeted consumers. The investigation found that consumers could decode composers’ intentions to express brand characteristics and product features, and were consistently successful in designating design language-generated music to the appropriate brand. The study found both culturally specific and cultural-free brand images as expressed through music preferences.

Rationale behind investigating positive aging among symphony orchestra musicians: A call for a new arena of empirical study

Musicianship is seen as a life-long process, requiring specific adjustments to changes in age and environment, based on developmental stages each unique in structure of musical activity, motivations, and achievements. Nonetheless, studies relating to music development have focused exclusively on precocious musical beginnings and early childhood, prodigious adolescents, or academy trainees. As yet, there has been no great interest in musicians above age 50, and needless to say while very little is known about older musicians, a small number of studies published highlight underperformance and loss in support of age-linked deficits to music performance. Without a doubt, there is a serious need for attention to be placed on those who still can perform music – not only on those who can no longer perform music. Collective efforts should begin to focus on performing musicians who have maintained a professional career well into the fifth decade of their lifespan, especially as performing musicians live to an older age, extending their phase of active music-making well beyond what was once considered time to withdraw from effective professional activity. The current paper puts forth a call for music science to embrace a new arena of empirical study – positive aging among symphony orchestra musicians.

Handclapping songs: a spontaneous platform for child development among 5–10‐year‐old children

The impact of music activity on children’s motor and cognitive skills has been investigated with music learning, instrument lessons and classroom music. While none have employed natural utterances, singing games or playground/street songs, these musical experiences of childhood are acknowledged as a major platform for child development. The current study isolated handclapping songs exploring the association of performance quality with classroom academic achievement and examined whether children who spontaneously engage in handclapping songs activity demonstrate improved motor or cognitive abilities. Finally, the study investigated the outcome of a two‐group eight‐week classroom intervention. The study found that: (1) children who were more skillful at performing handclapping songs were more efficient First Graders; (2) Second Graders who spontaneously engage in handclapping songs were advantaged in bimanual coupling patterns, verbal memory and handwriting; and (3) classroom handclapping songs training was more efficient than music appreciation classes in developing non‐music skills among Second and Third Graders.

Joseph Schillinger (1895-1943): Music Science Promethean

Joseph Schillinger is a cult figure among music theorists. While he composed over thirty pieces between 1917 and 1941, including the first known work for an electronic instrument and orchestra in 1929, he is best known as the teacher of George Gershwin, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Vernon Duke, Oscar Levant, Charles Previn, and Carmine Coppola.1 However, more than anything else Schillinger was a music scientist receptive to new technologies and experimentation related to the arts. He helped solve the problem of artistically coordinating soundtrack with film track, patented inventions that foreshadowed the rhythm box and color organ, and codeveloped with Leon Theremin the first electronic synthesizer (manufactured by RCA in the early 1930s). It is claimed that his treatise describing the mathematical basis of art was heralded by Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell.2

Parental preferences to music stimuli of devices and playthings for babies, infants, and toddlers

Music communications and interactions are important to child development. Yet modern day technology may have caused social modifications of musical engagement for parents and their children. Today, music-based electronic devices seem too often to be used in place of human musical interactions. The current investigation developed an alternative music based on pre-language sounds (for devices and playthings) that we assume can engage babies, and presented these to parents for their judgment. In Study 1, parents of babies in waiting rooms of child development centers completed a survey after listening to three different music genres (classical music themes, well-known folk tunes, and paralanguage songs). Study 2 replicated Study 1 but within home settings. Study 3 engaged mothers and babies in a music-movement group. The results indicate that not only are parents open to alternatives, but they can envision purchasing devices and playthings which employ new more adaptive music genres that might be more age appropriate and developmentally sound.

The effects of metronomic pendular adjustment versus tap-tempo input on the stability and accuracy of tempo perception

This study explores tempo stability and accuracy while comparing two subject-response modes: the traditional metronomic pendular adjustment task versus tap-tempo input. Experiment 1 questioned if a single correct tempo measurement consistently emerges from repeated listenings, and if subject-response mode affects tempo stability and accuracy. Experiment 2 assessed incremental improvement between two repeated sessions, and questioned the incidence of self-pacing or congruent effects of potential delays on tempo responses. While single-session studies have shown that listeners find some tempos more enjoyable, can notice discrete differences in pace, and can remember rhythmic speed over prolonged periods of time, the current study employs a multiple-session format focusing on two diametrically opposed subject-response modes. The findings show that tempo responses by listeners without formal music training were consistent across listening sessions, and that responses from tap-tempo input were significantly more stable and accurate than responses from metronomic pendular adjustment tasks.

Developing the Keele Assessment of Auditory Style (KAAS): A Factor-Analytic Study of Cognitive Trait Predisposition for Audition

The current study explored the existence of an auditive-specific orientation among everyday ordinary individuals from the general public and professional orchestra musicians (N = 256). A personality-based cognitive trait grounded on predisposition or sensory preference for audition is referred to as an Auditory Style. The study developed and refined the Keele Assessment of Auditory Style (KAAS), and examined the underlying dimensions through factor analysis. The study found Auditory Style to be normally distributed, and while not rooted on the development of musical ability, professional orchestra musicians clearly demonstrated significantly higher scores than individuals from the general public. The underlying four dimensions of Auditory Style were interpreted as: Awareness, Responsiveness, Sensitivity, and Preference. Post-hoc analysis exhibited distinct factorial solutions for musicians and the general public, pointing to the possibility that characteristic stylistic profiles of each subgroup exist. Finally, the study showed that higher scoring professional orchestra musicians reported a discrete set of characteristic behaviors and attitudes.