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