Science of the creative and performing arts group

We work to understand these domains per se, as well as to provide a window onto perceptual and motor learning processes, creativity, aesthetic appreciation and therapeutic applications.

Our research group investigates the cognitive and neural bases of music, dance and the visual arts. We work to understand these domains per se, as well as to provide a window onto perceptual and motor learning processes, creativity, aesthetic appreciation and therapeutic applications.

Group members

• Professor Lauren Stewart (group leader)
• Professor Daniel Mullensiefen
• Dr Diana Omigie
• Dr Guido Orgs
• Dr Rebecca Chamberlain
• Professor Jonny Freeman

Research highlights

Articles

• Anglada-Tort, M., Keller, S., Steffens, J., & Müllensiefen, D. (2021) The impact of source effects on the evaluation of music for advertising. Journal of Advertising Research, 61(1), 95-109
• Bianco, R., Ptasczynski, L. E., & Omigie, D. (2020) Pupil responses to pitch deviants reflect predictability of melodic sequences.Brain and Cognition, 138, 103621
• Chamberlain, R., Berio, D., Mayer, V., Chana, K., Leymarie, F. F., & Orgs, G. (2021). A dot that went for a walk: People prefer lines drawn with human‐like kinematics. British Journal of Psychology
• Orlandi, A., Cross, E. S., & Orgs, G. (2020) Timing is everything: dance aesthetics depend on the complexity of movement kinematics. Cognition, 205, 104446
• Park, S., Wiliams, L., & Chamberlain, R. (2021) Global saccadic eye movements characterise artists’ visual attention while drawing. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 02762374211001811
• Politimou, N., Douglass-Kirk, P., Pearce, M., Stewart, L., & Franco, F. (2021) Melodic expectations in 5-and 6-year-old children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 203, 105020
• Rose, D., Müllensiefen, D., Lovatt, P., & Orgs, G. (2020) The Goldsmiths Dance Sophistication Index (Gold-DSI): A psychometric tool to assess individual differences in dance experience. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts
• Sanfilippo, K. R. M., Stewart, L., & Glover, V. (2021) How music may support perinatal mental health: an overview. Archives of Women's Mental Health, 1-9

Grants/fellowships

• Rebecca Chamberlain has received an APA Division 10 Microgrant to study mindfulness in the museum
• Rebecca Chamberlain is a Co-Investigator on FWF (Austria) PEEK Grant to study the impact of art
• Jonathan Freeman has been appointed as the AHRC’s Creativity Industry Policy and Engagement Fellow
• Guido Orgs has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant to understand the contextual, experiential and neurocognitive aspects of liveness
• Lauren Stewart has received ESRC funding to supervise a PhD student (Alice Bowmer) to investigate the role of infant-directed singing in language learning

 Research dissemination

• Guido Orgs and Rebecca Chamberlain co-organized the XXVI Conference of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics.
• Guido Orgs has organized a three-day symposium, LIVENESS
• Diana Omigie was featured in a BBC documentary series about music in television
• Lauren Stewart has contributed to children’s BBC TV show, ‘Operation Ouch’ on music and the brain