How the Brain Processes Music
These web pages are simple explanations and demonstrations of key aspects of the Emergent Cognition Through Active Perception (EmCAP) project.
Aim
Our aim is to investigate how human cognition emerges and how useful mental representations develop through interactions with an environment. The particular environment we focus on is the world of music.
Why Music?
Music is universal. It contains temporally extended yet predictable patterns. It is governed by stylistic rules or conventions, and perception evolves in time as listeners build up representations of the current context.
Hypothesis
Our hypothesis is that the perception of an environment is an active process, which involves making predictions. The need for continually making better predictions drives the formation of useful representations and the formation of a cognitive hierarchy.
Past Stories
EmCAP goes to the Cheltenham Festivals
