Examining the intersection of music, psychology, and neuroscience, Music, Thought, and Feeling surveys the rapidly growing field of music cognition and explores its most interesting questions. Written in clear, engaging language that balances scientific and artistic perspectives, this book provides an excellent introduction to--and critical analysis of--the major issues in music cognition, making it ideal for courses in psychology of music. Assuming minimal background in music or psychology, the book begins with an overview of the major theories on how and when music became a widespread aspect of human behavior. It also covers: * How humans perceive music * Links between music and emotion * Modern neuroimaging techniques and what they tell us about music's effect on the brain * Psychological processes involved in imagining, composing, and performing music * Potential cognitive benefits of musical engagement Music, Thought, and Feeling references numerous "Sound Examples" and is supplemented by a companion website (www.oup.com/us/Thompson) containing an extensive collection of music sample audio files, most created specifically for this book. In addition, the website provides a link to iTunes, where readers can access an iMix created to accompany the book.

Argues that Aristotle provides an account of the interdependence of feeling, desire, and thought that is sui generis.

The psychological theory of expectation that David Huron proposes in Sweet Anticipation grew out of the author's experimental efforts to understand how music evokes emotions. These efforts evolved into a general theory of expectation that will prove informative to readers interested in cognitive science and evolutionary psychology as well as those interested in music. The book describes a set of psychological mechanisms and illustrates how these mechanisms work in the case of music. All examples of notated music can be heard on the Web. Huron proposes that emotions evoked by expectation involve five functionally distinct response systems: reaction responses (which engage defensive reflexes); tension responses (where uncertainty leads to stress); prediction responses (which reward accurate prediction); imagination responses (which facilitate deferred gratification); and appraisal responses (which occur after conscious thought is engaged). For real-world events, these five response systems typically produce a complex mixture of feelings. The book identifies some of the aesthetic possibilities afforded by expectation, and shows how common musical devices (such as syncopation, cadence, meter, tonality, and climax) exploit the psychological opportunities. The theory also provides new insights into the physiological psychology of awe, laughter, and spine-tingling chills. Huron traces the psychology of expectations from the patterns of the physical/cultural world through imperfectly learned heuristics used to predict that world to the phenomenal qualia we experienced as we apprehend the world.

NOTE: This storybook includes a read-aloud option which is accessible on Google and ISO devices. Meet Evan, Ellie, Molly, and Jesse as they learn about thoughts and feelings in storybook 1 of the We Thinkers! Vol. 1 social emotional learning curriculum for ages 4-7. As they play in their classroom, they learn where thoughts and feelings come from, how their thoughts, feelings, and bodies are connected to each other, and how their bodies show their feelings. As they become aware of their own thoughts and feelings, they see their classmates have them too, and discover they can share the same thought to play together! These pivotal social concepts set the stage for learning the fundamental concepts taught in storybooks 2-10 and align with the corresponding teaching units within the related curriculum. Best practice: teach these concepts in order, starting with storybook 1 of 10 while using the corresponding curriculum.

Nino Rota is one of the most important composers in the history of cinema. Both popular and prolific, he wrote some of the most cherished and memorable of all film music – for The Godfather Parts I and II, The Leopard, the Zeffirelli Shakespeares, nearly all of Fellini and for more than 140 popular Italian movies. Yet his music does not quite work in the way that we have come to assume music in film works: it does not seek to draw us in and identify, nor to overwhelm and excite us. In itself, in its pretty but reticent melodies, its at once comic and touching rhythms, and in its relation to what's on screen, Rota's music is close and affectionate towards characters and events but still restrained, not detached but ironically attached. In this major new study of Rota's film career, Richard Dyer gives a detailed account of Rota's aesthetic, suggesting it offers a new approach to how we understand both film music and feeling and film more broadly. He also provides a first full account in English of Rota's life and work, linking it to notions of plagiarism and pastiche, genre and convention, irony and narrative. Rota's practice is related to some of the major ways music is used in film, including the motif, musical reference, underscoring and the difference between diegetic and non-diegetic music, revealing how Rota both conforms to and undermines standard conceptions. In addition, Dyer considers the issue of gay cultural production, Rota's favourte genre, comedy, and his productive collaboration with the director Federico Fellini.

A philosophical examination of the emotions as highly discriminating responses to what is of value.

Which is smarter -- your head or your gut? It's a familiar refrain: you're getting too emotional. Try and think rationally. But is it always good advice? In this surprising book, Eyal Winter asks a simple question: why do we have emotions? If they lead to such bad decisions, why hasn't evolution long since made emotions irrelevant? The answer is that, even though they may not behave in a purely logical manner, our emotions frequently lead us to better, safer, more optimal outcomes. In fact, as Winter discovers, there is often logic in emotion, and emotion in logic. For instance, many mutually beneficial commitments -- such as marriage, or being a member of a team -- are only possible when underscored by emotion rather than deliberate thought. The difference between pleasurable music and bad noise is mathematically precise; yet it is also something we feel at an instinctive level. And even though people are usually overconfident -- how can we all be above average? -- we often benefit from our arrogance. Feeling Smart brings together game theory, evolution, and behavioral science to produce a surprising and very persuasive defense of how we think, even when we don't.