Music Lab

The Music Psychology Lab at the University of Connecticut investigated the cognitive processes involved in music from 1998 to 2013. The lab is no longer active, due to the retirement of Dr. Roger Chaffin. Publication of completed research continues and can be found under "Lab Publications" (last updated January, 2020). The lab specialized in longitudinal case studies of musicians preparing for performance, entrainment to music and between musicians, and interactions between movement and music.

This excellent 30-minute program hosted by Geoff Watts provides an up-to-date account of the role of the unconscious mind in everything we do. Cellist Tania Lisboa talks about the development of automaticity as cello students first learn to play (at 6:30 - 8:50 in the program) and about the work by this lab on the role of performance cues in memorized performance (at 20:30 - 23:25), illustrating her points on the cello and with a performance by pianist Hao Chen.

BBC World Service

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Frontiers program on Wednesday, 20 November, 2013, and on BBC World Service’s Discovery program on Monday, 2 December, 2013.