Queen's University Belfast

Post-Doc, Psychology

Thesis Title: Musicians' Body Movements in Musical Skill Acquisition

About

I am a post-doctoral researcher on the TEMPUS-G project at Queen's University Belfast. My primary research interests are: how perception guides motor  performance; coupling between (musical) sound and action;  embodied skill acquisition. Presently, I am exploring how perception of temporal dynamics in sounds can influence timing of movement. This research aims to develop and test auditory guides that contain appropriate temporal information for improving performance in time-constrained movements, and which may be applied in movement therapy, rehabilitation and/or skill acquisition scenarios.

For my PhD (funded through the European Integrated Project, SKILLS), I investigated the relationship between ancillary body movements made by musicians in performance and musical skill acquisition. I compared characteristics of ancillary movement in performances by clarinettists at different stages of musical skill acquisition, and perception of musical skill from ancillary body movements and sound.

I have a MA (Hons) in Philosophy and Psychology from the University of Edinburgh