Sunday 29 July 2012

Thoughts on ICMPC-ESCOM

Hello Well I'm still here in Thessaloniki, enjoying an iced coffee overlooking the gulf and reflecting on my time at ICMPC-ESCOM. This has been my first international conference and I have relished the time spent discussing music psychology research with fellow researchers. My presentation on Thursday went extremely well and the questions from the audience focused on the stimuli which I had employed as I had expected. I will be leaving Greece tomorrow with many ideas for extending my research which have been triggered by viewing posters and listening to papers. My ideas include: investigating the soundscape of a gambling environment Using Mediation Analysis to analyse my quantitative data Using different strategies to group my data for analysis Another blog that you may be interested in - have a look at http://www.researchaboutlistening.com. Amanda the author is currently en route to Australia to continue her doctorate with Adrian North. There is some really interesting research being conducted in Scotland by a team including Gianna Cassidy about the use of music-based computer games in education. Okay, time for dinner and to pack ahead of my return to the UK. Steph

Wednesday 25 July 2012

Update from ICMPC12 - ESCOM

Hi Everyone It's day three of the ICMPC12 - ESCOM conference and I thought that I should share with you some interesting presentations and discussions from the last couple of days. Yesterday I had the pleasure of sharing research ideas and findings with Warren Brodsky who investigates music and driving behaviour. We discussed the challenges of researching the effects of music on risky behaviour in the real-world (ethics, experimental design) and the potential applications of our research. I also watched many presentations including from T. Schaefer who discussed research investigating how intense experiences with music influences people's way of life. From A. Lamont who applied the positive psychology concept to understand the positive and negative aspects of student music-making. I have also noticed researchers using the priming paradigm to indirectly test the processing of music (Tillman) and experience of musical tension (Hjortkjaer). The definition of terms used in experiments also differ to how I would define them; for example van Noorden used the term "motivational music" not as a technique to inspire but to invoke movement in the listener. Therefore highlighting the differences between how words/ideas are operationally defined and the need for clarity. Today I am looking forward to touching base with my supervisor Dr. Nicola Dibben and listening to research about health and well-being; rhythm and synchronization; popular music and music in the media. Finally, I present my own research tomorrow so I will be rehearsing and getting prepared for that! Will be blogging again soon. Steph

About Me

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West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
I have recently completed my PhD titled 'Exploring the presence, experience and influence of background music in gambling situations' at The University of Sheffield. My PhD research was supervised by Prof. Nicola Dibben and Dr. Richard Rowe. Prior to that I gained an MA in Psychology of Music at The University of Sheffield (2009) and completed my first degree in Music at the University of Leeds (2005). I conduct research within the fields of psychology of music and gambling studies.