Here are 100 books that Perception and Cognition of Music fans have personally recommended if you like Perception and Cognition of Music. Book DNA is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution

Hardy Hanappi Author Of Three Unknown Men

From my list on escapes and returns to an uncertain future.

Why am I passionate about this?

My passion for ‘Escapes and Returns to an Uncertain Future’ started in the summer when I left my parents to go for a holiday to Spain, along with three boyfriends of my age, 18 years old. And this passion continued until I returned 3 months later, it even continued back at home. Because now I knew how good it is to escape, I knew that escapes would pop up again, and in unforeseen directions. And so will happy returns! The two moods are only the two sides of the same pulsation called life. In reading good books, in experiencing adventures, I rediscover the details of specific escapes and particular returns.

Hardy's book list on escapes and returns to an uncertain future

Hardy Hanappi Why Hardy loves this book

I love this book because it shows me the intensity with which the intellectual challenges that the revolution in theoretical physics after Einstein brought about were forcing Erwin Schrödinger to escape to Helgoland. Carlo Rovelli’s description of this unique historical episode, which changed the path of natural sciences, which gave birth to quantum theory, made me trust in the possibility of singular theoretical breakthroughs.

Rovelli has been called the poet in the current gallery of leading scientists in quantum theory. With this book, he showed me that he really is. When Schrödinger escapes from the stagnating attempts of formalisation of observed phenomena to go to Helgoland, when he then returns with a stupifying solution that overthrows the intellectual world into a delightful turmoilthat is poetry and knowledge packed in the same book.

By Carlo Rovelli , Erica Segre (translator) , Simon Carnell (translator)

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Helgoland as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Named a Best Book of 2021 by the Financial Times and a Best Science Book of 2021 by The Guardian

“Rovelli is a genius and an amazing communicator… This is the place where science comes to life.” ―Neil Gaiman

“One of the warmest, most elegant and most lucid interpreters to the laity of the dazzling enigmas of his discipline...[a] momentous book” ―John Banville, The Wall Street Journal

A startling new look at quantum theory, from the New York Times bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, The Order of Time, and  Anaximander.

One of the world's most renowned theoretical…


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Book cover of Aggressor

Aggressor by FX Holden,

It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.

The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…

Book cover of The Difference

Roger Reynolds Author Of Mind Models

From my list on understand why musical innovation matters.

Why am I passionate about this?

Music came to me as a bolt of lightning when I experienced, at 14 years old, the playing of pianist Vladimir Horowitz. My training in engineering, physics, and music propelled me into a career that continues to evolve. I am fascinated by what creative musicians in all cultures have accomplished through the ages, by how they worked, and by the ways in which new technologies and cross-cultural awareness enlarge music's potential futures. The Pulitzer Prize in Music and numerous other “authentifications” underlie my willingness and ability to make these claims. Music is the most malleable of the arts in terms of the contexts in which it can be useful. 

Roger's book list on understand why musical innovation matters

Roger Reynolds Why Roger loves this book

Page explains one of the powers of diversity in complex problem solving–how, if one assembles two groups of advisors in separate rooms, the group containing a diversity of perspectives will produce more useful results than the one containing experts in the same field.

It is a compelling argument that “diversity” is not simply a catch word.

By Scott E. Page ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Difference as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this landmark book, Scott Page redefines the way we understand ourselves in relation to one another. The Difference is about how we think in groups--and how our collective wisdom exceeds the sum of its parts. Why can teams of people find better solutions than brilliant individuals working alone? And why are the best group decisions and predictions those that draw upon the very qualities that make each of us unique? The answers lie in diversity--not what we look like outside, but what we look like within, our distinct tools and abilities. The Difference reveals that progress and innovation may…


Book cover of The Marvelous Illusion

Roger Reynolds Author Of Mind Models

From my list on understand why musical innovation matters.

Why am I passionate about this?

Music came to me as a bolt of lightning when I experienced, at 14 years old, the playing of pianist Vladimir Horowitz. My training in engineering, physics, and music propelled me into a career that continues to evolve. I am fascinated by what creative musicians in all cultures have accomplished through the ages, by how they worked, and by the ways in which new technologies and cross-cultural awareness enlarge music's potential futures. The Pulitzer Prize in Music and numerous other “authentifications” underlie my willingness and ability to make these claims. Music is the most malleable of the arts in terms of the contexts in which it can be useful. 

Roger's book list on understand why musical innovation matters

Roger Reynolds Why Roger loves this book

An experienced composer and author looks closely at the works and ways of one of the most original 20th-century composers. Morton Feldman’s music, over his career, evolved along a trajectory with the steepest angle of any recgnized composer: from the rudimentary and simplistic to a deeply challenging and provocative complexity.

Rarely does a reader get the chance to see a variety of analytic tools brought into focus on a triad of visionary musical works.

By Thomas DeLio ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Marvelous Illusion as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Marvelous Illusion: The Viola in My Life I-IV is a detailed analytical study of four of Morton Feldman's most important works. Morton Feldman was one of the most original composers of the 20th century, and throughout his career he attempted to locate sound at the moment the listener becomes conscious of its presence. Focusing on the listener's attention on the sounds themselves, Feldman created the "marvelous illusion" of sounds shaping into coherent music through the act of perceiving them, rather than through the act of composing. Each work appears to assemble itself for the listener as they experience it.…


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Book cover of Trusting Her Duke

Trusting Her Duke by Arietta Richmond,

A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.

Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…

Book cover of How the Mind Works

Roger Reynolds Author Of Mind Models

From my list on understand why musical innovation matters.

Why am I passionate about this?

Music came to me as a bolt of lightning when I experienced, at 14 years old, the playing of pianist Vladimir Horowitz. My training in engineering, physics, and music propelled me into a career that continues to evolve. I am fascinated by what creative musicians in all cultures have accomplished through the ages, by how they worked, and by the ways in which new technologies and cross-cultural awareness enlarge music's potential futures. The Pulitzer Prize in Music and numerous other “authentifications” underlie my willingness and ability to make these claims. Music is the most malleable of the arts in terms of the contexts in which it can be useful. 

Roger's book list on understand why musical innovation matters

Roger Reynolds Why Roger loves this book

Pinker is a radical thinker (in this dictionary sense: “of or proceeding from the root”). His concerns embrace the nature of human behavior and firmly establish its upward trajectory over the last century and a half.

He argues that human life is continuously improved by the discovery and implementation of new ideas and solutions to fundamental problems.

By Steven Pinker ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked How the Mind Works as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Why do we laugh?
What makes memories fade?
Why do people believe in ghosts?

How the Mind Works explores every aspect of mental life, showing that our minds are not a mystery, but a system of organs of computation designed by natural selection.


Book cover of The Musical Mind: The Cognitive Psychology of Music

Adam Ockelford Author Of Comparing Notes: How We Make Sense of Music

From my list on explaining how music works.

Why am I passionate about this?

My interest in how music makes sense was first piqued when, as a music student at the Royal Academy of Music in London, I met a blind child who, despite having learning difficulties, could reproduce the most complex music on the piano just by listening. Put simply, he had a better musical ear than I did, as a prize-winning student at a top conservatoire. Since that early experience, I have devoted my life to exploring just how music works (without the need for conceptual understanding) and how teachers can use the universality of music to promote social inclusion.

Adam's book list on explaining how music works

Adam Ockelford Why Adam loves this book

Although this, John Sloboda’s first book, dates from 1985, its insights into music perception, performance, and appreciation remain relevant, and I would highly recommend those with an interest in music psychology devote some time to getting to grips with the ideas that are introduced—some of them for the first time.

Among the important topics that are covered are memory and learning, with clear implications for educators. It's definitely a book to have on your shelves!

By John A. Sloboda ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Musical Mind as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

What are the mental processes involved in listening to, performing, and composing music? What is involved in 'understanding' a piece of music? How are such skills acquired?

Questions such as these form the basis of the cognitive psychology of music. The author addresses these questions by surveying the growing experimental literature on the subject. The topics covered will be of interest to psychologists, as windows onto a human cognitive skill of some complexity that is only now beginning to receive the attention devoted to such skills as language. They are also relevant to musicians who are seeking to understand the…


Book cover of On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction

Joseph Carroll Author Of Reading Human Nature: Literary Darwinism in Theory and Practice

From my list on literary Darwinism.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve spent the past thirty years leading the movement to integrate the humanities, and especially literary study, with evolutionary psychology and cognitive neuroscience. I got my PhD in comparative literature right about the time the academic literary world was being convulsed by the poststructuralist revolution (Derrida, Foucault, et co). I felt a profound antipathy to the sterile paradoxes and attenuated abstractions of that theory. I wanted a theory that could get close to the power literature had over my own imagination. The evolutionary human sciences have provided me with a basis for building a theory that answers my own need to make sense of literature.

Joseph's book list on literary Darwinism

Joseph Carroll Why Joseph loves this book

Boyd combines research on human evolution with cognitive psychology. He offers crisp and lucid summaries of the relevant research. His writing is like that of the best popular science. His marshaling of ideas from evolutionary and cognitive psychology offers an alternative to critical theories that have lost touch with science, and with much of reality.

By Brian Boyd ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked On the Origin of Stories as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A century and a half after the publication of Origin of Species, evolutionary thinking has expanded beyond the field of biology to include virtually all human-related subjects-anthropology, archeology, psychology, economics, religion, morality, politics, culture, and art. Now a distinguished scholar offers the first comprehensive account of the evolutionary origins of art and storytelling. Brian Boyd explains why we tell stories, how our minds are shaped to understand them, and what difference an evolutionary understanding of human nature makes to stories we love.

Art is a specifically human adaptation, Boyd argues. It offers tangible advantages for human survival, and it derives…


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Book cover of The Duke's Christmas Redemption

The Duke's Christmas Redemption by Arietta Richmond,

A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.

Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…

Book cover of Belief: What It Means to Believe and Why Our Convictions Are So Compelling

John V. Petrocelli Author Of The Life-Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit

From my list on detecting bullshit, misinformation, and fake news.

Why am I passionate about this?

As an experimental social psychologist, who has conducted years of empirical research on bullshitting behavior and bullshit detection, I’ve found compelling evidence that the worst outcomes of bullshit communications are false beliefs and bad decisions. I’m convinced that all of our problems, whether they be personal, interpersonal, professional, or societal are either directly or indirectly linked to mindless bullshit reasoning and communication. I’m just sick and tired of incompetent, bullshit artists who capitalize by repackaging and selling what I and other experimental psychologists do for free. It’s time the masses learn that some of us who actually do the research on the things we write about can actually do it better.    

John's book list on detecting bullshit, misinformation, and fake news

John V. Petrocelli Why John loves this book

James Alcock is the only social psychologist I know who could write a clear, accessible, and comprehensive volume on the psychology of belief—particularly how our thoughts and feelings, actions and reactions, respond not to the world as it actually is but to the world as we believe it to be. No matter how much you think you know about beliefs, and no matter what you actually believe, any reader will find surprises in Alcock’s treatise, such as why so many people cling to beliefs that are foolish, self-destructive, and wrong, believing them to be wise, self-protective, and right. Belief convinced me that faulty beliefs, arising from misapprehension about the cause of a disease, misperceptions of an enemy’s actions, misreading a lover’s motive, misconceptions about which, if any, gods are real, can lead to irrational, maladaptive, and sometimes deadly actions.

By James E. Alcock ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Belief as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An expert on the psychology of belief examines how our thoughts and feelings, actions and reactions, respond not to the world as it actually is but to the world as we believe it to be.

This book explores the psychology of belief - how beliefs are formed, how they are influenced both by internal factors, such as perception, memory, reason, emotion, and prior beliefs, as well as external factors, such as experience, identification with a group, social pressure, and manipulation. It also reveals how vulnerable beliefs are to error, and how they can be held with great confidence even when…


Book cover of The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous

Jay Belsky Author Of The Origins of You: How Childhood Shapes Later Life

From my list on development from childhood to middle age.

Why am I passionate about this?

It was almost by accident that I became who I turned out to be as a professional, a developmental scientist interested in how early-life experiences shape who we become. Had someone asked me when I graduated from high school what were the chances of me becoming a scientist and teacher, I would have answered “zero, zero”! During my now 40+ year academic career I've come to appreciate how complex the many forces are that shape who we become. There's no nature without nurture and no nurture without nature. This emergent realization led me to learn about and study many aspects of developmental experience, like parenting and peer relations, and the role of genetics and evolution.

Jay's book list on development from childhood to middle age

Jay Belsky Why Jay loves this book

This one does not follow children from childhood to adulthood, but rather reveals how 100s of years ago events occurred that radically changed who people interacted with, married and spent their lives relating to.

It is a bold, strikingly original, and epic account of how the co-evolution of psychology and culture created the peculiar Western mind that profoundly shaped the modern world. While Nature matters, what this volume made clear to me is how “big Nurture”, meaning cultural practices, have changed over the past 1,000 years and the dramatic implications of such change for the world we live in today.

By Joseph Henrich ,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The WEIRDest People in the World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'A landmark in social thought. Henrich may go down as the most influential social scientist of the first half of the twenty-first century' MATTHEW SYED

Do you identify yourself by your profession or achievements, rather than your family network? Do you cultivate your unique attributes and goals? If so, perhaps you are WEIRD: raised in a society that is Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic.

Unlike most who have ever lived, WEIRD people are highly individualistic, nonconformist, analytical and control-oriented. How did WEIRD populations become so psychologically peculiar? What part did these differences play in our history, and what do…


Book cover of The Origin of Concepts

William Byers Author Of How Mathematicians Think: Using Ambiguity, Contradiction, and Paradox to Create Mathematics

From my list on thinking, creativity, and mathematics.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm a mathematician but an unusual one because I am interested in how mathematics is created and how it is learned. From an early age, I loved mathematics because of the beauty of its concepts and the precision of its organization and reasoning. When I started to do research I realized that things were not so simple. To create something new you had to suspend or go beyond your rational mind for a while. I realized that the learning and creating of math have non-logical features. This was my eureka moment. It turned the conventional wisdom (about what math is and how it is done) on its head.

William's book list on thinking, creativity, and mathematics

William Byers Why William loves this book

I’m interested in how mathematicians create mathematics but this book made me realize that learning mathematics is also a form of creativity. Each of us has created our understanding of mathematics as we were growing up. We are all creative!  

What is amazing about this book is that even children as young as six months possess rudimentary mathematical concepts, in particular, the concept of number. (Actually, Carey shows children have two distinct ways of thinking about numbers). The concept of number is built-in. That’s amazing to me! The mastery of counting numbers, 1,2,3,… is a great creative leap in the development of the child. This leap is followed by a series of further amazing accomplishments, for example, the insight that a fraction like 2/3, is a completely new kind of number (and not just a problem in division). How do kids manage to accomplish such radical changes in their concept…

By Susan Carey ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Origin of Concepts as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Only human beings have a rich conceptual repertoire with concepts like tort, entropy, Abelian group, mannerism, icon and deconstruction. How have humans constructed these concepts? And once they have been constructed by adults, how do children acquire them? While primarily focusing on the second question, in The Origin of Concepts , Susan Carey shows that the answers to both overlap substantially.

Carey begins by characterizing the innate starting point for conceptual development, namely systems of core cognition. Representations of core cognition are the output of dedicated input analyzers, as with perceptual representations, but these core representations differ from perceptual representations…


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Book cover of Old Man Country

Old Man Country by Thomas R. Cole,

This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world’s most famous heart surgeon.

In these and other intimate conversations, the book…

Book cover of Perception and Misperception in International Politics

Christopher J. Fettweis Author Of The Pursuit of Dominance: 2000 Years of Superpower Grand Strategy

From my list on unconventional stories on US national security.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a political scientist who specializes in US foreign policy. I’ve been interested in war and peace – and avoiding the former – for as long as I can remember. More than anything else, I wish I could convince Americans of how safe they are, relatively speaking, and how safe they can remain if only we make wise decisions moving forward. The future is brighter than we think.

Christopher's book list on unconventional stories on US national security

Christopher J. Fettweis Why Christopher loves this book

The current war in Ukraine cannot be understood without reference to the rampant misunderstandings and misperceptions that animate both sides. 

This book is the bible of misperception, and for my money, the greatest book ever written about international politics. In it, Jervis explains how countries rarely understand one another; misperception is the rule in national security, not the exception. And those misperceptions all point in one direction: They make other actors appear more belligerent than they are.

Because of predictable psychological processes, we tend to think that they can’t be trusted....and as a result, cycles of hostility and misperception follow. And finally, war.

If I could get presidents to read one book of political science, this would be it.

By Robert Jervis ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Perception and Misperception in International Politics as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Since its original publication in 1976, Perception and Misperception in International Politics has become a landmark book in its field, hailed by the New York Times as "the seminal statement of principles underlying political psychology." This new edition includes an extensive preface by the author reflecting on the book's lasting impact and legacy, particularly in the application of cognitive psychology to political decision making, and brings that analysis up to date by discussing the relevant psychological research over the past forty years. Jervis describes the process of perception (for example, how decision makers learn from history) and then explores common…


Book cover of Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution
Book cover of The Difference
Book cover of The Marvelous Illusion

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