The main goal of this course is to illustrate the main scientific research and debates that animated the psychology of music from the middle of the XX century to nowadays. The course will delineate the main theories and experimental approaches related to the study of music from a cognitive perspective. This will lead to consider music implications in cognitive functioning as well as its main role our society. The course aims therefore at offering a general knowledge about the music cognition domain, while promoting students’ scientific and critical perspectives thorough active theoretical and methodological debates.
Prerequisiti
Basics of cognitive psychology
Metodi didattici
The course includes hours of lectures and interactive teaching through debates and group work, in-person. For each credit (25 hours), the following are planned: -5 hours of delivery-based teaching (DE) (content presentation through slides, scientific papers, and videos); -1 hour of interactive teaching (DI) (guided exercises, small group critiques on topics provided by the instructor); - 19 hours of self-study on the course bibliography and provided slides.
Verifica Apprendimento
Oral examinations based on criteria of thoroughness, relevance, and clarity of presentation. During the course, students will have the opportunity to give a group oral presentation based on a scientific article. In this case, the final grade will be calculated as a weighted average of the oral presentation, which will account for 1/4 of the overall grade, and the individual final oral examination on the course content, which will account for 3/4 of the overall grade. Otherwise, the final grade will be based entirely on the individual final oral examination on the course content. (Grade: 0/30)
Testi
Materials (e.g., slides, papers, book chapters) will be made available during the course.
Contenuti
This course is conceived as an introduction to the Psychology of Music. After a general introduction on the relationship between music and cognition, the course will illustrate the main theoretical approaches and experimental behavioral studies about the origins of music, music acquisition, music perception, music-related movement, and musical emotions. Furthermore, the strong relationship between music and other cognitive functions (such as language and memory) will be highlighted.
