Music Cognition and Creativity Lab at GSU
Over the past semester, I’ve been able to work as a lab member in Georgia State University’s Music Cognition and Creativity Lab. As a musician, cognitive impacts of audio are a deep interest of mine. As I sought ways to further that interest, exposure to collegiate research was one that fascinated me the most. At school, I am enrolled in AP Research, which allows me to write a fully-developed research paper over the course of the entire school year.
As it is a College Board class and the AP score is entirely dependent on the student’s research project they work on throughout the year, teachers are only allowed to give limited feedback on student’s work. Because of the restricted guidance we can take from our teachers, I decided to seek an expert advisor–somebody who is not only incredibly knowledgeable about the research process, but also about music psychology, the primary subject of my research. I came to know about Dr. Martin Norgaard, an Associate Professor of Music Education at GSU. After I reached out, he was more than happy to let me join his lab as a research member.
My own research paper analyzes the impact of different audios on a student’s academic performance, and as Dr. Norgaard’s lab is centered around music education, I've been able to constantly get feedback from the other lab members–all undergraduate and graduate students–and contribute to conversations surrounding their research. Being constantly updated with their research is incredibly fascinating because it makes me aware of new literature and shows me how people approach academic research at a much higher level. My lab members are investigating how the way vocal music is taught impacts inhibitory control and executive function, music therapy applications in reducing performance anxiety, and other methods of music notation to apply to education.
As part of the lab, I’ve been able to attend research presentations from Stanford psychologists, as well as meet with the Computational and Cognitive Musicology Research Lab at Georgia Tech, an audio engineer at SuperSound Studios–a high profile recording studio in Atlanta–and people pursuing PhDs in Music Psychology, Music Technology, Music Education. Recently, I’ve begun working with digital transcription software to transcribe jazz improvisation as well as part of a different research paper as well. Being a part of the Music and Cognition Lab at GSU this year has been such a rewarding experience, and I’m beyond excited to continue my pursuit of academic research in the group.
