Skip to content

Dylan Van der Schyff

7 papers in the library · 288 citations · publishing 2015-2026

Papers

Sort Most recent Most cited

Music, Creativity, and Human Experience

August 28, 2026 Dylan Van der Schyff, Adrian Kempf

Abstract Traditionally, research on musical creativity and creativity in general has focused on assessing the products and mental processes of individuals. This chapter provides a novel perspective highlighting the experiential and interactive nature of musical creativity. Its approach is rooted in the 4E (embodied, extended, embedded, enacted) framework of cognition and integrates insights...

9. 4E Music Cognition in Theory and Practice

Psychological Perspectives on Musical Experiences and Skills June 20, 2024 Andrea Schiavio, Dylan Van der Schyff 1 citation

This chapter delves into a recently developed psychological framework known as '4E cognition' (embodied, embedded, extended, enactive) with a dedicated focus on music. Through an exploration of various musical examples, we illuminate each 'E' individually, spanning diverse musical domains such as perception, (remote) learning, performance, and development. To begin, we elucidate the...

4E Music Pedagogy and the Principles of Self-Organization

Behavioral Sciences August 9, 2018 Andrea Schiavio, Dylan Van der Schyff 79 citations

Recent approaches in the cognitive and psychological sciences conceive of mind as an Embodied, Embedded, Extended, and Enactive (or 4E) phenomenon. While this has stimulated important discussions and debates across a vast array of disciplines, its principles, applications, and explanatory power have not yet been properly addressed in the domain of musical development. Accordingly, it remains...

DOI: 10.3390/bs8080072 (opens in new tab) Full text (opens in new tab) 4e cognition Music pedagogy Self-organization Music psychology +1

Musical creativity and the embodied mind

Music & Science 2018 Dylan Van der Schyff, Andrea Schiavio, Ashley E. Walton et al. 121 citations

The phenomenon of creativity has received a growing amount of attention from scholars working across a range of disciplines. While this research has produced many important insights, it has also traditionally tended to explore creativity in terms of the reception of products or outcomes, conceiving of it as a cognitive process that is limited to the individual domain of the creative agent. More...

When the Sound Becomes the Goal. 4E Cognition and Teleomusicality in Early Infancy.

Frontiers in Psychology 2017 Andrea Schiavio, Dylan Van der Schyff, Silke Kruse-Weber et al. 44 citations

In this paper we explore early musical behaviors through the lenses of the recently emerged "4E" approach to mind, which sees cognitive processes as Embodied, Embedded, Enacted, and Extended. In doing so, we draw from a range of interdisciplinary research, engaging in critical and constructive discussions with both new findings and existing positions. In particular, we refer to observational...

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01585 (opens in new tab) Full text (opens in new tab) 4e cognition Embodied cognition Embodied music cognition Exploratory behaviors +2

From Necker Cubes to Polyrhythms: Fostering a Phenomenological Attitude in Music Education

Phenomenology & Practice June 28, 2016 Dylan Van der Schyff 7 citations

Phenomenology is explored as a way of helping students and educators open up to music as a creative and transformative experience. I begin by introducing a simple exercise in experimental phenomenology involving multi-stable visual phenomena that can be explored without the use of complex terminology. Here, I discuss how the “phenomenological attitude” may foster a deeper appreciation of the...

Music as a manifestation of life: exploring enactivism and the 'eastern perspective' for music education.

Frontiers in Psychology 2015 Dylan Van der Schyff 36 citations

The enactive approach to cognition is developed in the context of music and music education. I discuss how this embodied point of view affords a relational and bio-cultural perspective on music that decentres the Western focus on language, symbol and representation as the fundamental arbiters of meaning. I then explore how this 'life-based' approach to cognition and meaning-making offers a...

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00345 (opens in new tab) Full text (opens in new tab) Buddhist psychology Embodied music cognition Enaction Holistic music education +4