Music Cognition: MUSC 495.02, NSCI 466, NSCI 710.03
Spring 2009: MW 1:00 - 2:15, Nwcb 115

Prof. Barbara Jazwinski
jazwinski at tulane dot edu
x-5251 (voice mail 24 hours a day)
Dixon Annex, room 256
Office hours: M W 10 - 11 AM, or by appointment

Prof. Harry Howard

(504) 862-3417 (voice mail 24 hours a day)
Office hours: MW 2:15 - 3:00 pm, F 1:30-3 pm & by appointment @ Newcomb Hall 322-D
(the link goes to my home page, which displays my Google calendar)
Facebook: friend me!

Objectives:

• The objective of the music part of this course is to understand how humans listen to and experience music and why it plays a unique role in our lives.
• The objective of the neuroscience part of this course is to understand how humans listen to and experience music and why it plays a unique role in our lives.
• The objective of the linguistic part of this course is to compare and contrast music to language.

Outcomes: For you to demonstrate your attainment of of the objectives, you will perform the following tasks:

• attend class,
• take several short quizzes ~6. They will be announced a week in advance,
• present a final project on the final exam day, explained on a separate sheet. Graduate students are expected to put more effort into the final project.
• There is no final exam, but you CANNOT leave town before the final exam day.
• Tell your parents NOW!
• You are hereby warned.
• Do not tell us at the end of the semester that your parents bought you a ticket home without knowing

The final grade for the class will reflect the quality and the creativity of your assignments.

Prerequisites

• There aren't any.
• We do not take anything for granted and so will explain all background information, or at least suggest sources where you can find it on your own.

Code of Academic Integrity

“The integrity of Newcomb-Tulane College is based on the absolute honesty of the entire community in all academic endeavors. As part of the Tulane University community, students have certain responsibilities regarding work that forms the basis for the evaluation of their academic achievement. Students are expected to be familiar with these responsibilities at all times. No member of the university community should tolerate any form of academic dishonesty, because the scholarly community of the university depends on the willingness of both instructors and students to uphold the Code of Academic Conduct. When a violation of the Code of Academic Conduct is observed it is the duty of every member of the academic community who has evidence of the violation to take action. Students should take steps to uphold the code by reporting any suspected offense to the instructor or the associate dean of the college. Students should under no circumstances tolerate any form of academic dishonesty.” For further information, point your browser at http://college.tulane.edu/code.htm.

Violations of the Code of Academic Integrity will not be tolerated in this class. I will rigorously investigate and pursue any such transgression.

Students with disabilities who need academic accommodation should:

• Contact and register with the Office of Disability Services (ODS). For more information, visit the ODS website at http://www.erc.tulane.edu/studentindex.html.
• Bring official notice to me from the ODS indicating that you need academic accommodation. This should be done before the first project is due.

Schedule of readings and assignments, Spring 2009

Main text:
Levitin, 2007, This Is Your Brain on Music: The science of a human obsession [BoM][$17 Amazon]

Other readings
There may be supplementary readings, distributed as pdf files on Blackboard.
{Sacks, 2008, Musicophilia: Tales of music and the brain, Revised and Expanded Edition}
{Mithen, 2006, The Singing Neanderthals: The origins of music, language, mind and body}
{Benzon, 2001, Beethoven's Anvil: Music in mind and culture}

Date	Day	Topic	Readings, exercises, etc	Projects	Slides	Recordings
Jan. 12	1	Introduction to the class, What is music?	BoM Intro, §1
14	2	Pitch, timbre	BoM §1
19		MLK'S BIRTHDAY
21	3
26	4	A theory of music cognition
28	5
Feb. 2	6	Introduction to perception
4	7
9	8	Introduction to the brain's macrostructure and audition
11	9
16	10	Model of musical processing 1
18	11
23		LUNDI GRAS
25	12
Mar. 2	13	The mismatch negativity and the innateness of beat induction
4	14
9	15	Auditory scene analysis
11	16
16	17	Expectancy in music I
18	18
23-7		SPRING BREAK
30	19	Expectancy in music II
April 1	20	Behind the curtain: cognitive neuroscience, perception, illusions; Anticipation: what we expect from Liszt (and Ludacris); Schema, neurotransmitter, EEG, laterality, synasthesia, MRI, Music categorization, constructivist vs. record-keeping memory, prototype, exemplar, PDP, Music & emotion, Musical expertiseFoot tapping: Rhythm, meter, tempo, loudness, harmony	BoM §3, §4, §5, 6, §7 §2
6	21	Rhythm
8	22	Musical taste	BoM §8
10-13		EASTER BREAK
15	23
20	24	Rhythm & language
22	25
27	26	Music instinct, Party	BoM §9
May 7	27	(Thurs) Presentation of final projects, 1 - 5	(finals from May 1 - 8)

Other readings

{Levitin, 2008, The World in Six Songs: How the musical brain created human nature}

Stewart, L., von Kriegstein, K., Warren, J. D., & Griffiths, T. D. (2006). Music and the brain: disorders of musical listening. Brain, 129(10), 2533-2553.
Patel, Aniruddh D., and Joseph R. Daniele. “An Empirical Comparison of Rhythm in Language and Music,” Cognition 87.1 (2003): B35-B45.

Go back to Harry Howard's home page