Music and Consciousness:
Observations and questions
John Sloboda
Keele University
j.a.sloboda@keele.ac.uk
The papers so far
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Apparently chaotic range of different
approaches, data and theories
Disorientation regarding intellectual purpose
Are there as many enterprises as there are
papers, or are there commonalities
What motivates MY interest in
consciousness?
Goals of research
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Increase in human benefit
Role of music in health, well-being,
actualisation, mastery, goal-achievement,
quality of life
Can the study of consciousness in music
lead to clear human benefit?
Definitions vary
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“Portmanteau” term that encompasses a range of
distinct phenomena.
I am interested in “a mental phenomenon occuring in
the individual that is accompanied by joint
awareness of the phenomenon and the self that is
experiencing the phenomenon”
- this is happening
- it is happening to me
- I am experiencing it as happening to me
(and therefore can monitor/report on it)
Relationship to other
key concepts
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Cognition, attention, memory, anticipation,
etc.
Much cognition is not conscious
Is all consciousness cognition?
What is the relationship between
consciousness and attention?
Two aspects of consciousness
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(a) Consciousness as epiphenomenon
–
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The shadow cast on awareness by cognition. We are
helpless spectators of our own uncontrollable internal
processes
(b) Consciousness as agency
- Part of a specific cognitive toolkit designed to enable
appropriate decision-making by the refocusing and
re-allocation of cognitive resources.
Can we understand (b) sufficiently to enhance it?
(accepting that consciousness on its own has no
purpose, it always functions with other elements)
Agency is multifaceted
A map of agency is essentially a map of
functionality which reflects
 1) Lasting human purposes (inter-cultural
and species-defining)
- e.g. survival needs (safety)
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2) Social contexts in which humans subsist
(culturally and historically specific – habitus)
- e.g. using public transport
A specific approach to music
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Person-focused rather than work (opus) focused
(starts from the person engaging with the music rather than the
“music as object”)
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Music on its own has no meaning or purpose
(meaning and functionality arises from how music relates to
other elements in a specific event: the music-context complex)
Vernacular comes before elite
Emphasis on common vernacular contexts as
the root and ground for more specialist
contexts: e.g.
 Carer-infant interactions in child-rearing
 Child’s play (playground songs and dances)
 Religious rituals (e.g.church/mosque)
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What is the most common form of musical
consciousness in our culture?
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The “three minute” recorded commercial track
Recipient is musically untrained
Music is accompaniment or “background” for some
other activity
The music takes place in mundane locations (home,
transport, shops) not places specially “reserved” for
music,
“Mood management” is a key purpose
Key psychological dimensions
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Framing the parameters of the conscious
experience
Degree of choice over what is heard
Degree of attention allocated to the music
(are we implicitly assuming high choice and
high attention – because this is what we seek
from music for our own purposes?)
Varieties of attention
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Analytic
(task-oriented: key attribute concentration)
exemplar activities: memorising, co-ordinating with
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Absorbed
(object-oriented: key attribute fascination)
exemplar activities: contemplation, exploration
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Evaluative
(self-oriented: key attribute self-monitoring)
exemplar activities: mood or arousal management,
reminiscence, identity projection)
Methodological issues
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Concurrent monitorng of contents of
consciousness changes the contents
Retrospective monitoring suffers from
memory loss/distortion
Many contents of consciousness are not
easily verbalisable or reportable
Research tactics
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Use naturally occuring musical situation,
rather than laboratory settings
Obtain data as close to the musical event as
possible
Geographically close - e.g. at home next to
the music storage and delivery devices
Temporally close – e.g. as soon after the
experience as possible
Data extraction
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Experience sampling methodology (e.g. use of cell
phone to enquire “what just happened?”)
Continuous monitoring methodologies (minimal
contemporaneous response – e.g. use of button or
dial – followed by retrospective elaboration)
Verbal reports are best
Other behavioural manifestations are next best (e.g.
facial expressios, movements, precisely because
these are interpretable in a hermeneutic framework)
Recordings of brain events are close to useless,
because they show only correlates, not contents.
Conclusions/questions
Shared intellectual aims/ orientations?
 Shared unanswered questions?
- Personal or transpersonal view of consc.
- Vernacular or elite context
- Chosen versus unchosen music
- Music as foreground or music as background
- Experimental or real-world approach
- Verbal reports versus brain recordings
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