Affordances and the musically extended mind.
Frontiers in Psychology January 6, 2014 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.01003 (opens in new tab) via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractThe mind can extend beyond the brain into music. Acts of musicking—engaging with music—grant access to emotional experiences that are otherwise inaccessible. Musical affordances, or possibilities for action offered by music, invite different forms of entrainment, which enhance the functionality of emotion-regulating processes. This draws out novel emotional experiences with expanded complexity and phenomenal character. Music should therefore be thought of as part of the vehicle needed to realize these emotional experiences, supporting a model of the musically extended mind.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Affordances Emotion regulation Emotions Extended cognition Music |
| Key finding | Argues that music, via musical affordances and entrainment, enhances emotion-regulating processes and should be considered part of the extended mind's vehicle for realizing novel emotional experiences. |
Abstract
I defend a model of the musically extended mind. I consider how acts of "musicking" grant access to novel emotional experiences otherwise inaccessible. First, I discuss the idea of "musical affordances" and specify both what musical affordances are and how they invite different forms of entrainment. Next, I argue that musical affordances - via soliciting different forms of entrainment - enhance the functionality of various endogenous, emotion-granting regulative processes, drawing novel experiences out of us with an expanded complexity and phenomenal character. I argue that music therefore ought to be thought of as part of the vehicle needed to realize these emotional experiences. I appeal to different sources of empirical work to develop this idea.