Psychology in Action

Tag: music

  • The anti-inflammatory effects of music

    Can music help us heal? The first piece of research evidence that turned me on to my field was a finding presented in a Health Psychology course as an undergraduate.  Researchers found that after surgery, patients healed faster, and were released from the hospital sooner, if they had a window that looked out on to…

  • Celine Dion: “The Power of Love” or the Power of Dopamine?

    Celine Dion: “The Power of Love” or the Power of Dopamine?

    Celine Dion I’m not sure about you, but when I hear Celine Dion belting out the last chorus of “My Heart Will Go On”, I seem to disconnect from reality and become totally immersed in a wave of emotion (one might even say that it’s a wave strong enough to sink a cruise ship). Although…

  • “Mental Notes: Music, Cognition, & the Brain” Symposium – May 23, 5pm

    Mental Notes Flyer Psychology in Action is proud to announce the second annual Psychology Interdisciplinary Events symposium, Thursday, May 23rd, 2013, from 5 to 7pm in UCLA’s CNSI Auditorium.  The discussion will focus on the intersection of music, psychology, and neuroscience.  The event is completely FREE and open to the general public!  We hope to see you there!…

  • The Psychology of Film Music

    Have you ever seen a movie which has a great musical score? Wondered how film composers and music directors write and choose music to enhance the images and make the whole experience more powerful? Dr. Roger Kendall, a UCLA Ethnomusicology professor with degrees in music and psychology, studies what makes a “good” match between motion…

  • Music Cognition

    One of the most fascinating and quickly growing subareas of psychology and the cognitive sciences is music cognition, the interdisciplinary study of how the brain processes and perceives music.  Music cognition is driven primarily by the perception of tempo and pitch, as well as the important concept of expectation.

  • Listen to the Music

    Conducting research with babies invites many unique challenges.  For example, infants don’t speak or respond to instructions very well.  One of the ways researchers work around this limitation is by presenting images on a screen and measuring various aspects of the baby’s behavior.  The UCLA Baby Lab uses this method in studies of infant visual…

  • I got chills, they’re multiplying

    Many of us have experienced chills when listening to music, those weird, almost indescribable sensations sometimes likened to shivers down the spine. If you’re very meta, the line serving as this post’s title might even do it for you (but probably not—chills don’t tend to occur until later on in a song). Despite our inability…