Research / Scholarship posts
- July 12, 2012
- 06:03 AM
- 465 views
On the Frontlines of Wikipedia’s ‘Editorial Wars’
by James in Open Science
It’s often difficult to appreciate the brilliance of Wikipedia. Only eleven years old, this free, collaboratively edited and multilingual encyclopaedia is so ingrained in our everyday experience that, like so many successful cultural products, we now take it for granted. One particular charge that’s grown up with WP concerns its purported inaccuracy. Indeed, anecdotally, I’ve noticed [...]... Read more »
Yasseri T, Sumi R, Rung A, Kornai A, & Kertész J. (2012) Dynamics of conflicts in wikipedia. PloS one, 7(6). PMID: 22745683
- July 11, 2012
- 01:00 PM
- 401 views
Part Three: Welcome to Open Science (an introduction)
by James in Open Science
If I were to crudely cobble together a book on the dissemination of scientific knowledge, then I would probably organise it into three parts. For the first, it would discuss how we evolved from tinkering apes; blindly and, at times, consciously experimenting with various technologies and methods. Over the next few millennia we would see a gradual shift from communal knowledge of tribal communities to the development of writing and its spawning of cultural institutions, such as libraries and universities. The second part of our book would place us in the year of 1665: here, we see the publication of the first journals, and with that the death of “cryptic anagrams, secret discoveries, and bitter turf wars”. During this period there is also a huge growth in the number of universities as well as an industrial scale dissemination of information thanks to Gutenberg’s printing press. Lastly, following the introduction of Peer Review, we arrive at the precursors for the third part of our book: the mass movement towards the digitisation of knowledge through computers and the internet.
So, in lieu of a formal introduction, here we are at Part Three of our story: welcome to Open Science.... Read more »
Bollen J, Van de Sompel H, Hagberg A, Bettencourt L, Chute R, Rodriguez MA, & Balakireva L. (2009) Clickstream data yields high-resolution maps of science. PloS one, 4(3). PMID: 19277205
- July 11, 2012
- 09:31 AM
- 258 views
Video Tip of the Week: ScienceSeeker for science blogging
Active science outreach is hugely important today, and with many social media outlets it has become much easier for scientists to get the word out about the topics that they know well and find interesting. Blogs provide a particularly convenient format for timely pieces with multiple images and numerous links for explanations and background details. [...]... Read more »
Van Eperen Laura, & Marincola Francesco M. (2011) How scientists use social media to communicate their research. Journal of Translational Medicine, 9(1). DOI: 10.1186/1479-5876-9-199
Mathelus Sharon, Pittman Ginny, & Yablonski-Crepeau Jill. (2012) Promotion of research articles to the lay press: a summary of a three-year project. Learned Publishing, 25(3), 212. DOI: 10.1087/20120307
- July 9, 2012
- 12:30 PM
- 287 views
Teaching Genetics: Bye Bye Mendel?
by gunnardw in The Beast, the Bard and the Bot
Most introductory genetics courses follow a similar structure: base it on Mendel. Students are introduced to the experiments of the Austrian monk and using these as foundation, are taught transmission genetics. Trait inheritance, dominant and recessive alleles, chromosomes, and so … Continue reading →... Read more »
Redfield, R.J. (2012) "Why Do We Have To Learn This Stuff" - A New Genetics For 21st Century Students. PLoS Biology. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001356
- July 9, 2012
- 10:00 AM
- 592 views
Conserving endangered species means weaving together science, policy, education, and public participation
by David Steen in Living Alongside Wildlife
The following article is a guest post by Kyle Barrett. Kyle is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the
University of Georgia. His research addresses how large-scale environmental
stressors such as urbanization and climate change influence the abundance and
distribution of vertebrates. His current projects range from habitat
conservation planning in the northeastern US to an assessment of sea ... Read more »
B. Czech, & P. R. Krausman. (1999) Research Notes Public Opinion on Endangered Species Conservation and Policy. Society , 12(5), 469-479. DOI: 10.1080/089419299279542
C. Langpap, & J. Kerkvliet. (2012) Endangered species conservation on private land: Assessing the effectiveness of habitat conservation plans. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 1-15. DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2012.02.002
M. Schwartz. (2008) The performance of the endangered species act. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 279-299. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.39.110707.173538
- July 7, 2012
- 11:01 AM
- 132 views
If music isn’t a luxury, what is it?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
The title of the newest and fourteenth book by science writer Philip Ball leaves no doubt: this is a counter-attack on claims made by Steven Pinker in his publications The Language Instinct (1994) and How the Mind Works (1997). Pinker characterised music as ‘auditory cheesecake’: a tasty bonus but, from an evolutionary point of view, no more than a by-product of much more important mental functions such as language (‘music could vanish from our species and the rest of our lifestyle would be virtually unchanged’). In his books, Pinker also frequently reduces art to what – biologically speaking – is an irrelevant phenomenon, one that utilises functions that can be called ‘evolutionarily adaptive’, such as the experience of pleasure. The provocation these claims represented some fifteen years ago continues to resonate: countless books referring to Pinker have appeared since (among which The Art Instinct, The Belief Instinct and The Pleasure Instinct). And now, not entirely unexpectedly, here’s The Music Instinct. The aim is clear.And so this book begins with a discussion of the importance of music, the possible role of music in evolution and the claim that music is not a luxury. It’s a topical discussion currently being pursued in numerous scientific journals and at symposia.However, in The Music Instinct, Ball adopts a position that in fact declares the whole discussion a non-issue: music simply is (‘It might be genetically hard-wired, or it might not. Either way, we can’t suppress it, let alone meaningfully talk of taking it away’). This is an unfortunate and – given the book’s title – unusual strategy because there really is something to be said about the other views without dismissing them as irrelevant. Nevertheless, I can only say how wholeheartedly I agree with Ball’s interpretation of the recent literature. I’m impressed by how easily a relative outsider – Ball has written nearly twenty books on topics related mostly to physics – has managed to grasp such a relatively new discipline as music cognition.Ball passionately defends a number of very clear hypotheses, among which those that say music is more than just sound (‘Music does not somehow emerge from acoustic physics’), that it fundamentally differs from language (‘There is no language of music’) and that musicality is much more widespread than is commonly thought (‘Most of us are musical experts without knowing it’). These are insights each in their own right which only recently have been given an empirical basis and which offer alternative visions to the older, largely psycho-physically oriented research into the psychology of music.On the whole, The Music Instinct is a convincing book. Ball clearly has a passion for music, as reflected in his detailed and often highly personal descriptions of his numerous music samples, taken primarily from the classical repertoire. But it remains regrettable that he places so much emphasis on the first half of the sub-title of the book – the architecture and effect of music – and thus focuses mainly on the music-theoretical aspects of music. The result is that much of what there is to be said today about the second half of the sub-title – the biological significance of music and why we can’t do without it – is neglected.(For the complete review, see the reference below]Honing, H. (2012). If music isn’t a luxury, what is it? Journal of Music, Technology and Education,, 5 (1), 114-117 : 10.1386/jmte.5.1.109_5... Read more »
Honing, H. (2012) If music isn’t a luxury, what is it? . Journal of Music, Technology and Education,, 5(1), 114-117. info:/10.1386/jmte.5.1.109_5
- July 6, 2012
- 11:23 AM
- 411 views
If music isn’t a luxury, what is it?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
The title of the newest and fourteenth book by science writer Philip Ball leaves no doubt: this is a counter-attack on claims made by Steven Pinker in his publications The Language Instinct (1994) and How the Mind Works (1997).... Read more »
Honing, H. (2012) If music isn’t a luxury, what is it? . Journal of Music, Technology and Education,, 5(1), 114-117. info:/10.1386/jmte.5.1.109_5
- July 5, 2012
- 09:02 AM
- 360 views
Fewer Water Measuring Stations World Wide
by United Academics in United Academics
Add one more name to the list of institutions negatively impacted by the global financial crisis: water measurement. According to new research regarding the planet’s hydrological cycle, there are a significant amount of uncertainties regarding water estimates, and one of the main reasons is the large scale closing down of measurement stations around the world.... Read more »
Christof Lorenz, & Harald Kunstmann. (2012) The Hydrological Cycle in Three State-of-the-art Reanalyses: Intercomparison and Performance Analysis. Journal of Hydrometeorology. DOI: 10.1175/JHM-D-11-088.1
- July 5, 2012
- 05:22 AM
- 324 views
Just Say No Limit: Trayvon, Dextromethorphan, Marijuana, and MAOA
by nooffensebut in The Unsilenced Science
Here is the case that Trayvon Martin’s drug use and genetics could have influenced him to attack George Zimmerman.... Read more »
Amaladoss A, & O'Brien S. (2011) Cough syrup psychosis. CJEM, 13(1), 53-6. PMID: 21324299
Ivan Berlin, & Robert Anthenelli. (2001) Monoamine oxidases and tobacco smoking. The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 4(01), 33-42. DOI: 10.1017/S1461145701002188
Christopher Chabris, Benjamin Hebert, Daniel Benjamin, Jonathan Beauchamp, David Cesarini, Matthijs van der Loos, Magnus Johannesson, Patrik Magnusson, Paul Lichtenstein, Craig Atwood.... (2012) Most Reported Genetic Associations with General Intelligence are Probably False Positives. Psychological Science. info:/
Duncan LE, & Keller MC. (2011) A critical review of the first 10 years of candidate gene-by-environment interaction research in psychiatry. The American journal of psychiatry, 168(10), 1041-9. PMID: 21890791
Fergusson DM, Boden JM, Horwood LJ, Miller A, & Kennedy MA. (2012) Moderating role of the MAOA genotype in antisocial behaviour. The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science, 200(2), 116-23. PMID: 22297589
Fisar Z. (2010) Inhibition of monoamine oxidase activity by cannabinoids. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology, 381(6), 563-72. PMID: 20401651
Fowler JS, Volkow ND, Wang GJ, Pappas N, Logan J, MacGregor R, Alexoff D, Shea C, Schlyer D, Wolf AP.... (1996) Inhibition of monoamine oxidase B in the brains of smokers. Nature, 379(6567), 733-6. PMID: 8602220
Regina Groshong, Ross Baldessarini, Ann Gibson, Joseph Lipinski, Doris Axelrod, & Alfred Pope. (1978) Activities of Types A and B MAO and Catechol-O-methyltransferase in Blood Cells and Skin Fibroblasts of Normal and Chronic Schizophrenic Subjects. Archives of General Psychiatry, 35(10), 1198-1205. DOI: 10.1001/archpsyc.1978.01770340048004
Huestis MA, Henningfield JE, & Cone EJ. (1992) Blood cannabinoids. I. Absorption of THC and formation of 11-OH-THC and THCCOOH during and after smoking marijuana. Journal of analytical toxicology, 16(5), 276-82. PMID: 1338215
Logan BK, Yeakel JK, Goldfogel G, Frost MP, Sandstrom G, & Wickham DJ. (2012) Dextromethorphan Abuse Leading to Assault, Suicide, or Homicide. Journal of forensic sciences. PMID: 22537430
Perbal L. (2012) THE 'WARRIOR GENE' AND THE MÃORI PEOPLE: THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE GENETICISTS. Bioethics. PMID: 22494506
Sistonen J, Sajantila A, Lao O, Corander J, Barbujani G, & Fuselli S. (2007) CYP2D6 worldwide genetic variation shows high frequency of altered activity variants and no continental structure. Pharmacogenetics and genomics, 17(2), 93-101. PMID: 17301689
Satoshi Yamaori, Yasuka Okamoto, Ikuo Yamamoto, & Kazuhito Watanabe. (2011) Cannabidiol, a Major Phytocannabinoid, As a Potent Atypical Inhibitor for CYP2D6. Drug Metabolism , 39(11), 2049-2056. DOI: 10.1124/dmd.111.041384
Zawertailo LA, Kaplan HL, Busto UE, Tyndale RF, & Sellers EM. (1998) Psychotropic effects of dextromethorphan are altered by the CYP2D6 polymorphism: a pilot study. Journal of clinical psychopharmacology, 18(4), 332-7. PMID: 9690700
- July 4, 2012
- 06:34 PM
- 138 views
Is blogging not completely outdated?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
Today (4th of July) I'm celebrating precisely six years of blogging on music cognition. While I was doubting whether this was a sensible idea at all in July 2006, and even more so last year, I'm currently really enjoying writing little snippits about research papers that I come across, forcing me to read these papers slightly better than I would do otherwise :-)Thanks to all readers for their reactions and criticisms (today exactly 150!), and Psychology Today for supporting the publication of a selection of these blog entries for a more general audience.I guess I should just keep going...My home office :-)Batts, Shelley A., Anthis, Nicholas J., & Smith, Tara C. (2008). Advancing Science through Conversations: Bridging the Gap between Blogs and the Academy. PLoS Biology, 6 (9), 240-245 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060240... Read more »
Batts, Shelley A., Anthis, Nicholas J., & Smith, Tara C. (2008) Advancing Science through Conversations: Bridging the Gap between Blogs and the Academy. . PLoS Biology, 6(9), 240-245. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060240
- July 4, 2012
- 06:31 PM
- 389 views
Is blogging not completely outdated?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
Well, what do you think?... Read more »
Batts, Shelley A., Anthis, Nicholas J., & Smith, Tara C. (2008) Advancing Science through Conversations: Bridging the Gap between Blogs and the Academy. . PLoS Biology, 6(9), 240-245. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060240
- July 4, 2012
- 09:32 AM
- 480 views
Can we know the evolution of human cognition?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
According to Dick Lewontin (evolutionary biologist, geneticist and social commentator) there is no way to know the evolution of cognition. He argued that we should ‘give up the childish notion that everything that is interesting about nature can be understood. [..] It might be interesting to know how cognition (whatever that is) arose and spread and changed, but we cannot know. Tough luck.’ (Lewontin, 1998:130)... Read more »
Heyes, C. (2012) New thinking: the evolution of human cognition. . Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 367(1599), 2091-2096. DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2012.0111
Honing, H., & Ploeger, A. (2012) Cognition and the Evolution of Music: Pitfalls and Prospects. Topics in Cognitive Science. DOI: 10.1111/j.1756-8765.2012.01210.x
- July 3, 2012
- 06:50 PM
- 202 views
Stop hiding!
by eHarmony Labs in eHarmony Labs Blog
Are you hiding something negative about yourself from your partner? If so, it may be ruining your relationship. ... Read more »
Uysal A, Lin HL, Knee CR, & Bush AL. (2012) The association between self-concealment from one's partner and relationship well-being. Personality , 38(1), 39-51. PMID: 22109250
- June 30, 2012
- 05:32 AM
- 236 views
False Positive Neuroscience?
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic
Recently, psychologists Joseph Simmons, Leif Nelson and Uri Simonsohn made waves when they published a provocative article called False-Positive PsychologyThe paper's subtitle was "Undisclosed Flexibility in Data Collection and Analysis Allows Presenting Anything as Significant". It explained how there are so many possible ways to gather and analyze the results of a (very simple) psychology experiment that even if there's nothing interesting really happening, it'll be possible to find some "significant" positive results purely by chance. Then you could publish those 'findings' and not mention all the other things you tried.It's not a new argument, and the problem has been recognized for a long time as the "file drawer problem", "p-value fishing", "outcome reporting bias", and by many other names. But not much has been done to prevent it.The problem's not just seen in psychology however, and I'm concerned that it's especially dangerous in modern neuroimaging research.*Let's assume a very simple fMRI experiment. The task is a facial emotion visual response. Volunteers are shown 30 second blocks of Neutral, Fearful and Happy faces during a standard functional EPI scanning. We also collect a standard structural MRI as required to analyze that data.This is a minimalist study. Most imaging projects include have more than one task, commonly two or three and maybe up to half a dozen, as part of one scan. If one task failed to show positive results, it need never be reported at all, so additional tasks would Our study is comparing two groups: people with depression, and healthy controls.How many different ways could you analyze that data? How much flexibility is there?*First some ground rules. We'll stick to validated, optimal approaches. There are plenty of commonly used less favoured approaches, like using uncorrected thresholds (and then, which ones?) or voodoo stats, but let's assume we want to stick to 'best practice'.As far as I can see, here's all the different things you could try. Please suggest more in the comments if you think I've missed any:First off, general points: What's the sample size? Unless it's fixed in advance, data peeking - checking whether you've got a significant result after each scan, and stopping the study when you get one - gives you multiple bites at the cherry.Do you use parametric, or nonparametric analysis?Now, what do you do with the data?PreprocessingHow much smoothing?Do you reject subjects for "too much head movement"? If so, what's too much?Straightforward whole-brain general linear model (GLM) analysis followed by a group comparison.What's the contrast of interest? You could make a case for Fear vs Neutral, Happy vs Neutral, Happy vs Fear, "Emotional" vs Neutral. Fixed effects or random effects group comparison?Do you reject outliers? If so, what's an 'outlier'?Do you consider all of the Fear, Happy and Neutral blocks to be equivalent, or do you model the first of each kind of block seperately? etc. "Region of Interest" (ROI) GLM analysis. Same options as above, plus:Which ROI(s)?How do you define a given ROI?Functional connectivity analysisWhole-brain analysis, or seed region analysis?If seed region, which region(s)? Functional connectivity in response to which stimuli?Dynamic Causal Modelling?Lots and lots of options here. MVPA?Lots and lots of options here.But remember we also got structural MRIs, and while they may have been intended to help analyze the functional data, you could also examine structural differences between groups. What method?Manual measurement of volume of certain regions.Which region(s)?VBM. Cortical morphometry.What measure? Thickness? Curvature...?That's just the imaging data. You've almost certainly got some other data on these people as well, if only age and gender but maybe depression questionnaire scores, genetics, cognitive test performance...You could try and correlate every variable with every imaging measure discussed above. Plus:Do you only look for correlations in areas where there's a significant group difference (which would increase your chances of finding a correlation in those areas, as there'd be fewer multiple comparisons)? You could define subgroups based on these variables.*So even a very straightforward experiment could give rise to hundreds or thousands of possible analyses. 1 in 20 of these would give a statistically significant result at p=0.05 by chance alone, and even if you throw out half those for being "in the wrong direction" (and that's subjective in most cases) you've got plenty of false positives.This problem is growing. As computation power continues to expand, running multiple analyses is cheaper and faster than ever, and new methods continue to be invented (DCM and MVPA were very rarely used even 5 years ago.) I want to emphasize that I am not saying that all fMRI studies of this kind are in fact junk. My worry is that it's hard to be confident that any given published study is sound, given that papers are written only after all the data has been collected and analyzed.I'll also point out that some imaging research, especially what might be called "pure" neuroscience investigating brain function per se rather than "clinical" studies looking at differences between groups, has many fewer variables to play with, but still quite a lot.As to how to solve this problem, the one solution I believe would work in practice is to require pre-approval of study protocols.Simmons JP, Nelson LD, and Simonsohn U (2011). False-positive psychology: undisclosed flexibility in data collection and analysis allows presenting anything as significant. Psychological science, 22 (11), 1359-66 PMID: 22006061... Read more »
Simmons JP, Nelson LD, & Simonsohn U. (2011) False-positive psychology: undisclosed flexibility in data collection and analysis allows presenting anything as significant. Psychological science, 22(11), 1359-66. PMID: 22006061
- June 29, 2012
- 09:20 AM
- 424 views
Dual-use research of concern
I'm still reading (and very much enjoying) last Friday's Science issue on the flu pandemic. In [1], Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins summarize very well why the flu presents a potential threat: "Influenza viruses have animal reservoirs, especially in birds and pigs. They can undergo extensive genetic changes and even jump species, sometimes resulting in a virus to which humans may be highly vulnerable."Over the last hundred years, this happened four times: in 1918 (the Spanish flu), in 1957 (the Asian flu), in 1968 (Hong Kong flu), and, the last time, in 2009 with the H1N1 pandemic (swine flu). H5N1 has not initiated a pandemic because it is rarely passed between humans and it infects only through direct contact with infected birds. So far there have been about 600 total cases, of which nearly 60% have resulted in deaths (though this last number is likely to be inflated as often not all non-fatal cases are reported to hospitals). Given these statistics, if the virus were to spread more easily (for example through sneezing or coughing), this would entirely change the threat level, hence the concern when two labs independently announced that they had found an H5N1 mutant able to spread through aerosol in ferrets. "One of the goals of pandemic influenza research is to recognize and anticipate how viruses are evolving in the wild toward a phenotype that is dangerous to humans, thereby staying one step ahead of potential pandemics."That's why studies like the ones conducted on ferrets are so important. Yes, the virus was genetically engineered in a lab, but once you have it, you can address the following questions: how likely are those mutations to appear spontaneously? Can we use the virus to produce a vaccine? Are the current antiviral drugs successful in containing the infection or is there a need to develop new drugs? "However, whenever one deliberately manipulates a virus or a microbe, it is always possible, at least theoretically, that the research results could be used by bioterrorists to intentionally cause harm, or that an accidental release of a pathogen from a laboratory could inadvertently cause harm."Any research that presents such dual potential of benefit and risk/threat is referred as DURC, which stands for dual-use research of concern. The controversy around the two H5N1 papers clearly proves that we need better ways to assess and regulate DURC research, as well as mitigating the risks while highlighting the benefits. "There is still no consensus on how to practically define DURC; whether it is feasible to identify and regulate DURC experiments; how to address risks associated with DURC; and how to balance this risk with the necessity of fostering life sciences research for public health and biodefense [2]."It is a necessity for scientists to be open about their research. Research is rarely conducted in isolation. Open discussion is what fuels great ideas. A DURC policy that requires new protocols and manuscript redactions threatens this openness. Furthermore, it isn't feasible to retroactively restrict scientific information since most scientists are required to write reports describing their current research, as well as give talks and presentations at official meetings. When the NSABB made its recommendation not to publish the two H5N1 studies last year, it was probably already too late. Many people in the scientific community had already heard sufficient details, even prior to their publication. What are your thoughts on the matter? [1] Anthony S. Fauci,, & Francis S. Collins (2012). Benefits and Risks of Influenza Research: Lessons Learned Science, 336 (6088), 1522-1523[2] Carrie D. Wolinetz (2012). Implementing the New U.S. Dual-Use Policy Science, 336 (6088), 1525-1527... Read more »
Anthony S. Fauci,, & Francis S. Collins. (2012) Benefits and Risks of Influenza Research: Lessons Learned . Science, 336(6088), 1522-1523. info:/
- June 29, 2012
- 02:35 AM
- 454 views
Impact Factor Boxing 2012
by Duncan Hull in O'Really?
In the world of abused performance metrics, the impact factor is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the (publishing) world.
And it’s been an eventful year in the ring scientific publishing too. A new journal called PeerJ launched with a radical new publish ’til you perish business model [1]. There’s another new journal on the way too in the shape of eLifeSciences - with it’s own significant differences from current publishing models. Then there was the Finch report on Open Access. And if that wasn’t enough fun, there’s been the Altmetrics movement gathering pace [2], alongside a hint that the impact factor may be losing its grip on the supposed “title” [3].
... Read more »
Van Noorden Richard. (2012) Journal offers flat fee for ‘all you can publish’. Nature, 486(7402), 166. DOI: 10.1038/486166a
- June 28, 2012
- 06:03 AM
- 338 views
CFS: Oral Histories of Comics Scholarship
by Ernesto Priego in The Comics Grid. Journal of Comics Scholarship
“Oral Histories of Comics Scholarship” hopes to crowdsource digital surrogates of analogue audio recordings or digital recordings that the comics scholarship community might have in their personal collections.... Read more »
Tim Causer, Justin Torra, & Valerie Wallace. (2012) Transcription maximized; expense minimized? Crowdsourcing and editing The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham. Literary and Linguistic Computing, 27(2). DOI: 10.1093/llc/fqs004
- June 27, 2012
- 07:20 AM
- 132 views
Herkent u deze melodie? [Dutch]
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
Je zit in je auto en draait wat aan de knop van de radio. Je hoort al snel of bepaalde muziek je bevalt of niet. Je herkent een stem, een liedje of zelfs de uitvoering ervan. Iedereen doet het, iedereen kan het. En vaak ook nog eens razendsnel: sneller dan een noot gemiddeld klinkt.Als u gevraagd zou worden om naar een reeks muziekfragmenten van 0,2 seconde te luisteren, zal blijken dat u met gemak aan kan geven welk fragment klassiek, jazz, R&B of pop is (zie luistertest). Een snippertje geluid geeft ons toegang tot de herinnering aan eerder gehoorde muziek, ook al hebben we deze serie noten nog nooit eerder gehoord. Die herinnering kan heel specifiek zijn: aan een liedje van Björk, bijvoorbeeld. Maar ze kan ook heel algemeen zijn: we herkennen een bepaald genre: klassiek, country, jazz. De nuances in klankkleur, karakteristiek voor een liedje of een heel genre, zitten kennelijk op een abstracte manier in ons geheugen opgeslagen. Daarom is de draaiknop (of tiptoets) van de autoradio zo’n succesvolle interface geworden…Vandaag verschenen er verschillende items in de media n.a.v. van een stukje in Volkskrant over de oorwurm en de hype rond Song Pop, een app die gebruik maakt van het hierboven beschreven muzikale talent dat we allemaal delen: het razendsnel herkennen van muziek.Over oorwurm: Volkskrant, NOS op 3 Over Song Pop App: Editie NL Gjerdingen, Robert O., & Perrott, D. (2008). Scanning the Dial: The Rapid Recognition of Music Genres Journal of New Music Research, 37 (2), 93-100 DOI: 10.1080/09298210802479268... Read more »
Gjerdingen, Robert O., & Perrott, D. (2008) Scanning the Dial: The Rapid Recognition of Music Genres. Journal of New Music Research, 37(2), 93-100. DOI: 10.1080/09298210802479268
- June 25, 2012
- 09:11 AM
- 133 views
Why does a well-tuned modern piano not sound out-of tune?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
Karlheinz Stockhausen is listening."Neue Musik ist anstrengend", wrote Die Zeit some time ago: "Der seit Pythagoras’ Zeiten unternommene Versuch, angenehme musikalische Klänge auf ganzzahlige Frequenzverhältnisse der Töne zurückzuführen, ist schon mathematisch zum Scheitern verurteilt. Außereuropäische Kulturen beweisen schließlich, dass unsere westliche Tonskala genauso wenig naturgegeben ist wie eine auf Dur und Moll beruhende Harmonik: Die indonesische Gamelan-Musik und Indiens Raga-Skalen klingen für europäische Ohren schräg."The definition of music as “sound” wrongly suggests that music, like all natural phenomena, adheres to the laws of nature. In this case, the laws would be the acoustical patterns of sound such as the (harmonic) relationships in the structure of the dominant tones, which determine the timbre. This is an idea that has preoccupied primarily the mathematically oriented music scientists, from Pythagoras to Hermann von Helmholtz. The first, and oldest, of these scientists, Pythagoras, observed, for example, that “beautiful” consonant intervals consist of simple frequency relationships (such as 2:3 or 3:4). Several centuries later, Galileo Galilei wrote that complex frequency relationships only “tormented” the eardrum. But, for all their wisdom, Pythagoras, Galilei, and like-minded thinkers got it wrong. In music, the “beautiful,” so-called “whole-number” frequency relationships rarely occur—in fact, only when a composer dictates them. The composer often even has to have special instruments built to achieve them, as American composer Harry Partch did in the twentieth century. Contemporary pianos are tuned in such a way that the sounds produced only approximate all those beautiful “natural” relationships. The tones of the instrument do not have simple whole number ratios, as in 2:3 or 3:4. Instead, they are tuned so that every octave is divided into twelve equal parts (a compromise to facilitate changes of key). The tones exist, therefore, not as whole number ratios of each other, but as multiples of 12√2 (1:1.05946).According to Galilei, each and every one of these frequency relationships are “a torment” to the ear. But modern listeners experience them very differently. They don’t particularly care how an instrument is tuned, otherwise many a concertgoer would walk out of a piano recital because the piano sounded out of tune. It seems that our ears adapt quickly to “dissonant” frequencies. One might even conclude that whether a piano is “in tune” or “out of tune” is entirely irrelevant to our appreciation of music. [fragment from Honing, 2011.]Julia Kursell (2011). Kräftespiel. Zur Dissymmetrie von Schall und Wahrnehmung. Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft, 2 (1), 24-40 DOI: 10.4472_zfmw.2010.0003Honing, H. (2012). Een vertelling. In S. van der Maas, C. Hulshof, & P. Oldenhave (Eds.), Liber Plurum Vocum voor Rokus de Groot (pp. 150-154). Amsterdam: Universiteit van Amsterdam (ISBN 978-90-818488-0-0).Whalley, Ian. (2006). William A. Sethares: Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale (Second Edition). Computer Music Journal, 30 (2) DOI: 10.1162/comj.2006.30.2.92... Read more »
Julia Kursell. (2011) Kräftespiel. Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft, 2(1), 24-40. DOI: 10.4472_zfmw.2010.0003
Whalley, Ian. (2006) William A. Sethares: Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale (Second Edition). Computer Music Journal, 30(2). DOI: 10.1162/comj.2006.30.2.92
- June 24, 2012
- 07:57 PM
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Understanding the Journal Impact Factor – Part Two
by Hadas Shema in Information Culture
Despite its many faults (see part I), the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is considered an influential index to a journal’s quality, and publishing in high-impact journals is essential to a researcher’s academic career. Reminder: to calculate, for example, the 2010 JIF for a journal - JIF= (2010 citations to 2009+2008 articles)/(no. of “citable” articles published in [...]
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Amin, M, & Mabe, M. (2007) Impact factors: use and abuse. Perspectives in Publishing. info:/
Archambault, E., & Lariviere, V. (2009) History of the journal impact factor: Contingencies and consequences . Scientometrics, 635-649. DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-2036-x
Seglen, P. O. (1997) Why the impact factor of journals should not be used for evaluating research. BMJ. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.314.7079.497
Kostoff, R. N. (2007) The difference between highly and poorly cited medical articles in the journal Lancet. Scientometrics, 513-520. DOI: 10.1007/s11192-007-1573-7
Campanario, J. M. (2011) Empirical study of journal impact factors obtained using the classical two-year citation window versus a five-year citation window. Scientometrics. DOI: 10.1007/s11192-010-0334-1
Vanclay, J.K. (2012) Impact factor: outdated artefact or stepping-stone to journal certification?. Scientometrics. DOI: 10.1007/s11192-011-0561-0
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