Coordinators: Alice Cancer & Alice Chirico

Members: Alessandro Antonietti, Stefania Balzarotti, Federica Biassoni, Alice Cancer, Alice Chirico, Andrea Gaggioli, Osmano Oasi, Caterina Silveri, Daniela Traficante.

Aggregate members: Barbara Colombo, Marta Pizzolante, Chiara Rossi, Eleonora Diletta Sarcinella, Enrico Reggiani, Alfredo Raglio.

Contacts: alice.cancer@unicatt.it  alice.chirico@unicatt.it

Presentation

Psychology of music is a research field that has been growing in recent years. At first it was considered a very specialized field, sometimes understood as a sub-sector of psychology of perception (acoustics) or psychology of art. In recent times it has acquired its own autonomy and gained relevance since the specificity of the processes activated by music was recognized; Furthermore, the connections with general mental functioning, psychological development and education in its various dimensions were highlighted. The broadening of the fields of application of the knowledge developed by music psychology is also to be acknowledged: in addition to the clinical-rehabilitation field (so-called 'music therapy'), knowledge from music psychology is now referred to in musical training, in the selection of candidates who want to be admitted to musical institutions, in the development of musical backgrounds to be disseminated in various environments (e.g., film soundtracks and information-advertising communications), and in the promotion of well-being in multiple contexts, including the discography field.

The research unit aims to foster exchange and collaboration between researchers, practitioners, and lecturers who, from different perspectives, are involved in studying the psychology of music in one or more of its aspects.

Research areas and activities

• Planning and conducting research using various methods and on various aspects of music psychology;
• Organisation of in-house seminars;
• Organisation of seminars and series of meetings;
• Organisation of symposia within conferences organised by others;
• Proposal of monographic cores or special issues in scientific journals;
• Organisation of science dissemination events;
• Building an internal repository of documents;
• Collection of research tools;
• Planning initiatives and training courses, also in the form of MOOCs;
• Organisation of music events accompanied by psychological analysis/commentaries.
• Organisation of networking events between music professionals and members of the research unit.

Training Activities

The Research Unit aims to carry out training activities through ad hoc didactic and seminar modules, mainly aimed at music education, corporate training, social design, music professionalization and rehabilitation.

Third Mission Activities

The Research Unit organizes scientific and informative events to raise awareness of the centrality of psychological processes in various musical fields, as well as to exploit the potential of music for the promotion of well-being and rehabilitation also in non-musical contexts.

Examples of international events organized in the field of Music Psychology

• Workshop “How music enhances well-being: Entrainment, synchronization, self-expression”, II International Scientific Conference “Brain and mind: Promoting individual and community well-being”, Department of Psychology of the Catholic University of Croatia, Zagreb, 13 December 2019.
• Lifelong Learning Program “Music and human potential: Education, empowerment, and rehabilitation”, Catholic University of Croatia, 2019-present.
• Summer school “Music as a support to train language skills. Concepts, methods, and techniques to empower and rehabilitate speech disorders through evidence-based musical activities in children and adults”, Luznica (Croazia), 22-26 July 2019.

PSYCHOLOGY OF MUSIC INTERNATIONAL PUBLICATIONS

Articles and Chapters

• Allevi, M., Colombo, B., & Antonietti, A. (2011). Emotions and cognitive processing in musical communication. An experiment on the role of the gaze. In J. Özyurt, A. Anschütz, S. Bernholt & J. Lenk (Eds.), Interdisciplinary perspectives on cognition, education, and the brain (pp. 153-158). Oldenburg: BIS-Verlag.
• Antonietti, A. (2009). Why is music effective in rehabilitation? In A. Gaggioli, E. Keshner, P. L. Weiss & G. Riva (Eds.), Advanced technologies in neurorehabilitation (pp. 179-194). Amsterdam: IOS Publisher.
• Antonietti, A., & Colombo, B. (2014). Musical thinking as a kind of creative thinking (pp. 233-246). In E. Shiu (Ed.), Creativity research: An interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research handbook. New York: Routledge.
• Antonietti, A., Cocomazzi, D., & Iannello, P. (2009). Looking at the audience improves music appreciation. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 33, 89-106.
• Bonacina, S., Cancer, A., Lanzi, P. L., Lorusso, M. L., & Antonietti, A. (2015). Improving reading skills in students with dyslexia: The efficacy of a sublessical training with rhythmic background. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, article 1510, 1-8 (doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01510).
• Cancer, A., & Antonietti, A. (2017). Remedial interventions for developmental dyslexia: How neuropsychological evidence can inspire and support a rehabilitation training. Neuropsychological Trends, 22, 73-95 (doi:10.7358/neur-2017-022-canc).
• Cancer, A., & Antonietti, A. (2022). Music-based and auditory-based interventions for reading difficulties: A literature review. Heliyon, 8 (4), article e09293, 1-11 (doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e09293).
• Cancer, A., Bonacina, S., Lorusso, M. L., Lanzi, P. L., & Antonietti, A. (2016). Rhythmic Reading Training (RRT): A computer-assisted intervention program for dyslexia. In S. Serino, A. Matic, D. Giakoumis, G. Lopez & P. Cipresso (Eds.), Pervarsive computing paradigms for mental health (Communications in Computer and Information Science, 604) (pp. 249-258). Cham: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-32270-4_25.
• Cancer, A., Bonacina, S., Salandi, A., Antonietti, A., Molteni, M., & Lorusso, M. L. (2020). The effectiveness of interventions for developmental dyslexia: Rhythmic reading training compared with hemisphere-specific stimulation and action video games. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, article 1158, 1-15 (doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01158).
• Cancer, A., Di Salvatore, M., Granocchio, E., Andreoli, L., Antonietti, A., & Sarti, D. (2022). The role of auditory and visual components in reading rehabilitation: No additional effect of synchronized visual cue in a rhythm-based intervention for dyslexia. Applied Sciences, 12, article 3360, 1-12 (doi: 10.3390/app12073360).
• Cancer, A., G., Pace, G., Stievano, A., Colombo, A., & Antonietti, A. (2019). Cognitive processes underlying reading improvement after a rhythm-based intervention. A small-scale investigation on Italian children with dyslexia. Children, 6, article 9, 1-8 (doi: 10.3390/children6080091).
• Cancer, A., Sarti, D., De Salvatore, M., Granocchio, E., Chieffo, D. P. R., & Antonietti, A. (2021). Dyslexia rehabilitation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results of a rhythm-based intervention for reading. Children, 8, article 1011, 1-10 (doi: 10.3390/children8111011).
• Chirico, A., & Gaggioli, A. (2019, April). Virtual-reality music-based elicitation of awe: when silence is better than thousands sounds. In International Symposium on Pervasive Computing Paradigms for Mental Health (pp. 1-11). Springer, Cham.
• Chirico, A., & Gaggioli, A. (2021). The potential role of awe for depression: Reassembling the puzzle. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 1191.
• Chirico, A., Cipresso, P., Riva, G., & Gaggioli, A. (2016). A process for selecting and validating awe-inducing audio-visual stimuli. In Pervasive Computing Paradigms for Mental Health (pp. 19-27). Springer, Cham.
• Chirico, A., Cipresso, P., Yaden, D. B., Biassoni, F., Riva, G., & Gaggioli, A. (2017). Effectiveness of immersive videos in inducing awe: an experimental study. Scientific reports, 7(1), 1-11.
• Chirico, A., Glaveanu, V. P., Cipresso, P., Riva, G., & Gaggioli, A. (2018). Awe enhances creative thinking: an experimental study. Creativity Research Journal, 30(2), 123-131.
• Chirico, A., Serino, S., Cipresso, P., Gaggioli, A., & Riva, G. (2015). When music “flows”. State and trait in musical performance, composition and listening: a systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 906.
• Clewis, R. R., Yaden, D. B., & Chirico, A. (2021). Intersections between awe and the sublime: a preliminary empirical study. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 0276237421994694.
• Colombo, B., & Antonietti, A. (2017). The role of metacognitive strategies in learning music: A multiple case study. British Journal of Music Education, 34, 95-112 (doi: 10.1017/s0265051716000267).
• Colombo, B., Anctil, R., Balzarotti, S., Biassoni, F., & Antonietti, A. (2021). The role of the mirror system in influencing musicians' evaluation of musical creativity. A tDCS study. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 15, article 624653, 1-8 (doi:10.3389/fnins.2021.624653).
• Colombo, B., Di Nuzzo, C., Missaglia, S., Mordente, A., Antonietti, A., Casolo, F., & Tavian, D. (2013). Exploring the positive involvement of primary motor cortex in observing motor sequences with music: A pilot study with tDCS. Sport Sciences for Health, 9, 89-96 (doi: 10.1007/s11332-013-0149-6).
• Di Nuzzo, C., Priori, A., Antonietti, A., Ferrucci, R., Vergari, M., & Parnigoni, M. (2015). A-tDCS and multimodality combined in motor functions of Parkinson Disease: New evidence in neurorehabilitation. Brain Stimulation, 8, 394.
• Forti, S., Colombo, B., Clark, J., Bonfanti, A., Molteni, S., Crippa, A., Antonietti, A., & Molteni, M. (2020). Soundbeam imitation intervention: Training children with autism to imitate meaningless body gestures through music. Advances in Autism, 6, 227-240 (doi: 10.1108/AIA-07-2019-0023).
• Gaggioli, A., Chirico, A., & Gianotti, E. (2020). Psycho-physiological Effects of a Virtual Reality Relaxation Experience after Acute Stressor Exposure: A Randomized Controlled Study. 25th CyberPsychology, CyberTherapy & Social Networking Conference.
• Gaggioli, A., Chirico, A., Mazzoni, E., Milani, L., & Riva, G. (2017). Networked flow in musical bands. Psychology of Music, 45(2), 283-297.
• Gaggioli, A., Morganti, L., & Antonietti, A. (2010). Using music and mental practice to learn a lay-up shot in basketball. Journal of CyberTherapy and Rehabilitation, 3, 201-202.
• Badia, S. B., Quintero, L. V., Cameirao, M. S., Chirico, A., Triberti, S., Cipresso, P., & Gaggioli, A. (2018). Toward emotionally adaptive virtual reality for mental health applications. IEEE journal of biomedical and health informatics, 23(5), 1877-1887.
• Pizzolante, M., Chirico, A., Gaggioli, A., & Riva, G. (2022). Why and How Empathy Matters in Aesthetic Experiences. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. Nov 2022.762-764.
• Raglio, A., Bellelli, G., Traficante, D., Gianotti, M., Ubezio, M.C., Gentile, S., Bellandi, D., Villani, D. & Trabucchi, M. (2012). Addendum to ‘Efficacy of music therapy treatment based on cycles of sessions: A randomised controlled trial’ (Raglio et al., 2010), Aging & Mental Health, 16(2), 265-267. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2011.630376
• Raglio, A., Bellelli, G., Traficante, D., Gianotti, M., Ubezio, M.C., Gentile, S., Villani, D., Bellandi, D., Trabucchi, M. (2010). Efficacy of music therapy treatment based on cycles of sessions: a randomised controlled trial, Aging and Mental Health, 14(8), 900-904. doi: 10.1080/13607861003713158
• Raglio, A., Bellelli, G., Traficante, D., Gianotti, M., Ubezio, M.C., Villani, D.M., Trabucchi, M. (2008). Efficacy of music therapy in the treatment of behavioral and psychiatric symptoms of dementia,  Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders -An International Journal, 22 (2), 158-162. doi:10.1097/WAD.0b013e3181630b6f
• Raglio, A., Gnesi, M., Monti, M.C., Oasi, O., Gianotti, M., Attardo, L., Gontero, G., Morotti, L., Boffelli, S., Imbriani, C., Montomoli, C., Imbriani, M. (2017). The Music Therapy Session Assessment Scale (MT-SAS): Validation of a new tool for music therapy process evaluation. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 24 (6), pp. O1547-O1561, DOI:10.1002/cpp.2115.
• Raglio, A., Oasi, O. (2015). Music and health: What interventions for what results? Frontiers in Psychology, 6 (MAR), art. no. 00230, DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00230
• Raglio, A., Oasi, O., Gianotti, M., Bellandi, D., Manzoni, V., Goulene, K., Imbriani, C., Badiale, M.S. (2012).  Music therapy, emotions and the heart: A pilot study, Giornale Italiano di Medicina del Lavoro ed Ergonomia, 34 (4), pp. 438-443.
• Raglio, A., Oasi, O., Gianotti, M., Manzoni, V., Bolis, S., Ubezio, M.C., Gentile, S., Villani, D., Stramba-Badiale, M. (2010). Effects of music therapy on psychological symptoms and heart rate variability in patients with dementia. A pilot study. Current Aging Science, 3 (3), 242-246, DOI: 10.2174/1874609811003030242.
• Raglio, A., Oasi, O., Gianotti, M., Rossi, A., Goulene, K., Stramba-Badiale, M. (2016). Improvement of spontaneous language in stroke patients with chronic aphasia treated with music therapy: A randomized controlled trial, International Journal of Neuroscience, 126 (3), pp. 235-242. DOI: 10.3109/00207454.2015.1010647.
• Raglio, A., Traficante, D., Oasi, O. (2006).  A coding scheme for the evaluation of the relationship in music therapy sessions, Psychological Reports, 99 (1), pp. 85-90, DOI: 10.2466/PR0.99.1.85-90
• Raglio, A., Traficante, D., Oasi, O. (2007). Comparison of the music therapy coding scheme with the music therapy checklist, Psychological Reports, 101 (3 I), pp. 875-880, DOI: 10.2466/PR0.101.3.875-880
• Raglio, A., Traficante, D., Oasi, O. (2011). Autism and music therapy. Intersubjective approach and music therapy assessment. Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, 20 (2), pp. 123-141, DOI: 10.1080/08098130903377399.
• Riva, G., Bernardelli, L., Browning, M. H., Castelnuovo, G., Cavedoni, S., Chirico, A., ... & Wiederhold, B. K. (2020). COVID feel good—an easy self-help virtual reality protocol to overcome the psychological burden of coronavirus. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 996.
• Trobia, J., Gaggioli, A., & Antonietti, A. (2011). Combined use of music and virtual reality to support mental practice in stroke rehabilitation. Journal of CyberTherapy and Rehabilitation, 4, 57-61.
• Trobia, J., Gaggioli, A., Meneghini, A., Pozzato, I., Pigatto, M., & Antonietti, A. (2009). Music-enhanced mental practice in stroke rehabilitation: A pilot study. CyberPsychology and Behavior, 12, 661-662.

Books

• Antonietti, A., Colombo, B., & DeRocher, B. R. (2018). Music interventions for neurodevelopmental disorders. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.