Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Research Publications
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ItemNo Preview AvailableUsing spatial manipulation to examine interactions between visual and auditory encoding of pitch and time(FRONTIERS MEDIA SA, 2010)Music notations use both symbolic and spatial representation systems. Novice musicians do not have the training to associate symbolic information with musical identities, such as chords or rhythmic and melodic patterns. They provide an opportunity to explore the mechanisms underpinning multimodal learning when spatial encoding strategies of feature dimensions might be expected to dominate. In this study, we applied a range of transformations (such as time reversal) to short melodies and rhythms and asked novice musicians to identify them with or without the aid of notation. Performance using a purely spatial (graphic) notation was contrasted with the more symbolic, traditional western notation over a series of weekly sessions. The results showed learning effects for both notation types, but performance improved more for graphic notation. This points to greater compatibility of auditory and visual neural codes for novice musicians when using spatial notation, suggesting that pitch and time may be spatially encoded in multimodal associative memory. The findings also point to new strategies for training novice musicians.
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ItemSpatial Representations Are Specific to Different Domains of Knowledge(PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE, 2009-05-20)There is evidence that many abstract concepts are represented cognitively in a spatial format. However, it is unknown whether similar spatial processes are employed in different knowledge domains, or whether individuals exhibit similar spatial profiles within and across domains. This research investigated similarities in spatial representation in two knowledge domains--mathematics and music. Sixty-one adults completed analogous number magnitude and pitch discrimination tasks: the Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes and Spatial-Musical Association of Response Codes tasks. Subgroups of individuals with different response patterns were identified through cluster analyses. For both the mathematical and musical tasks, approximately half of the participants showed the expected spatial judgment effect when explicitly cued to focus on the spatial properties of the stimuli. Despite this, performances on the two tasks were largely independent. Consistent with previous research, the study provides evidence for the spatial representation of number and pitch in the majority of individuals. However, there was little evidence to support the claim that the same spatial representation processes underpin mathematical and musical judgments.
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ItemThe Neurocognitive Components of Pitch Processing: Insights from Absolute Pitch(OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC, 2009-03)The natural variability of pitch naming ability in the population (known as absolute pitch or AP) provides an ideal method for investigating individual differences in pitch processing and auditory knowledge formation and representation. We have demonstrated the involvement of different cognitive processes in AP ability that reflects varying skill expertise in the presence of similar early age of onset of music tuition. These processes were related to different regions of brain activity, including those involved in pitch working memory (right prefrontal cortex) and the long-term representation of pitch (superior temporal gyrus). They reflected expertise through the use of context dependent pitch cues and the level of automaticity of pitch naming. They impart functional significance to structural asymmetry differences in the planum temporale of musicians and establish a neurobiological basis for an AP template. More generally, they indicate variability of knowledge representation in the presence of environmental fostering of early cognitive development that translates to differences in cognitive ability.
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ItemNo evidence for the Mozart effect in children(University of California Press, 2006)The Mozart effect refers to claims that listening to Mozart-like music results in a small, short-lived improvement in spatiotemporal performance. Based on predominantly adult research that has shown equivocal findings, there has been speculation that the Mozart effect may have pedagogical benefits for children. The present study aimed to examine the Mozart effect in children and to evaluate two alternative models proposed to account for the effect, namely the trion model and the arousal-mood model. One hundred and thirty-six Grade 5 students (mean age 10.7 years) were exposed to three experimental listening conditions: Mozart piano sonata K. 448, popular music, and silence. Each condition was followed by a spatiotemporal task, and mood and music questionnaires. The results showed no evidence of a Mozart effect. Speculation about applications of the Mozart effect in children needs to be suspended until an effect can be reliably reproduced.
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ItemProfiles of psychosocial outcome after epilepsy surgery: The role of personality(WILEY-BLACKWELL, 2010-07)PURPOSE: We have previously found that the developmental time frame of epilepsy onset influences adult personality traits and subsequent adjustment to intractable seizures. In the same cohort of patients we now investigate the influence of these factors on psychosocial outcome after surgical treatment. METHODS: Fifty-seven adult patients with focal epilepsy were prospectively assessed before and after surgery. Measures of psychosocial outcome included mood, health-related quality of life (HRQOL), and psychosocial adjustment, collected longitudinally at 1-, 3-, and 12-months after surgery. RESULTS: Patients with high neuroticism and low extraversion were predisposed to greater depression after surgery. More than 70% of patients with high neuroticism also reported disrupted family dynamics and difficulties adjusting to seizure freedom. The latter was associated with changes in self-identity that increased over time. Patients with epilepsy onset before or during the self-defining period of adolescence reported the greatest perceived self-change after surgery that had positive effects for HRQOL. DISCUSSION: Psychosocial outcome after epilepsy surgery appears intrinsically linked to a change in self and a transition from chronically sick to well. The development of personality traits and self-identity in the context of habitual seizures can impact psychosocial outcome and the extent of self-change reported after surgery, and paradoxically, can concur more beneficial effects.
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