BIOGRAPHY
B.A., Psychology, Bowling Green State University, 2024RESEARCH
"I do believe with all my heart, intellect and experience that music should be taught for its sheer beauty, for its ability to bring people together in celebration and a community in grief, for its strength in offering comfort, motivation and warmth to all of our days. It should be taught as a conveyance and preservation of our culture from one generation to another. It should be taught for the broad, inclusive net it offers to children of all abilities and all disabilities. The music room is perhaps the only room in a school building that is that inclusive..." - Kathleen M. Howland, Ph.D.
Music is experienced by all people, but not all people have the same experience. Some are producers of music, others consumers, and still others may be collaborators, mixing it with other domains like dance or art. Most people believe, like Kathleen in the quote above, that music has certain special abilities that affect humans in ways that other mediums cannot.
That is the start of research exploring music cognition, a field that has captured my mind and heart.
My work aims to better understand how individuals differ in their responses when experiencing music. My research interests include auditory perception, rhythm and timing, creative cognition, and the experience of musical groove. I also work with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a non-invasive brain stimulation technique.