Report about the Conference


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November 12, 2008


Brief Report on ICMPC 10

Mayumi Adachi, Chair
ICMPC10 Organizing Committee
Associate Professor, Hokkaido University
E-mail: m.adachi@let.hokudai.ac.jp

I. Overview

The 10th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC 10) was held successfully in Sapporo, Japan, August 25-29, 2008, with pre-conference events on August 24. This multidisciplinary conference attracted 384 participants from 32 countries : Argentine (1),1 Australia (26), Austria (5), Belgium (2), Brazil (2), Canada (17), China (6), Columbia (1), Czech Republic (1), Denmark (1), Finland (16), Germany (18), Hong Kong (2), Israel (1), Italy (5), Japan (165), Korea (10), Cyprus (1), Lithuania (1), The Netherlands (9), Nigeria (1), Norway (2), Poland (2), Singapore (1), Spain (2), South Africa (1), Sweden (4), Switzerland (1), Taiwan (1), Turkey (1), UK (32), and USA (46). Their fields of research included music acoustics, music psychology, musicology, music education, music therapy, neuroscience, medicine, and information science. The conference program was packed with interesting ideas and fruitful discussions that were truly stimulating.

The academic achievement of IMPC 10 is demonstrated in the conference publications: Abstract Booklet and Proceedings (CD-ROM). All of the papers presented at ICMPC 10 were peer reviewed under the leadership of Ken-ichi Miyazaki (the Chair of the Program Committee), who set a high standard for this conference (see Post-conference Note from the Program Committee Chair for details). As a result, 22% of 511 submissions did not pass the submission criteria. Of the approximately 400 papers accepted for the presentation, 339 of them were actually included in the final program along with three keynote speeches.

The ICMPC 10 Abstract Booklet contains total of 355 abstracts (250 words): 339 peer-reviewed papers (172 oral presentations, 99 poster presentations, 5 demonstrations), 12 symposium summaries, 3 keynote speeches, and 1 special contribution from Diana Deutsch (one of the founders of ICMPC). Proceedings include all the abstracts and 146 full-papers. Titles and speakers of keynote speeches and invited symposia were as follows:

Keynote.

Jun-ichi Abe (Hokkaido University, Japan)
Organization Processes in Music Perception

Ichiro Nakayama (Osaka University of the Arts, Japan)
Japanese Voices: A Video Archive of Singing Styles and Techniques in the Japanese Language

Laurel J. Trainor (McMaster University, Canada)
The Origins of Rhythm in Movement

Invited symposia.

Kenfichi Miyazaki, Andrzej Rakowski, Elizabeth Marvin, and David Huron
Absolute Pitch and Its Implications for Music Perception and Cognition

Kazuo Okanoya, Aniruddh D. Patel, Yoichi Inoue, and Thomas Geissman
Animal Calls, Music, and Language: Search for Common Themes in Evolution

According to the guidelines for ICMPC, the maximum number of parallel sessions is five. To include as many papers as possible during the 5-day conference, we used poster sessions effectively. Two-hour-long timeslots were dedicated to each poster session, during which no oral sessions were conducted. All the posters were displayed throughout the conference, so that participants can visit research posters of their interests at their convenience.

ICMPC10 also functioned as APSCOM3 (The 3rd Conference of Asia-Pacific Society for Cognitive Sciences of Music). The session entitled "General Meeting and Symposium: The Latest Research Trends in Asia-Pacific Regionsh was organized by Sun-Hee Chang, in which representatives of Japan (Shin-ichiro Iwamiya), Korea (Kyungil Kim), Australia (Catherine Stevens and Emery Schubert), China (Qian Zhang and Shibin Zhou) and Singapore (Eddy Chong) shared recent research activities in their societies. At this meeting, The Chinese Society was officially approved as a new regional member of APSCOM, and they will host APSCOM 4 in 2011.

During the conference, various concerts were organized for delegates: Traditional music and dance ofAinu (native of Hokkaido), lunch time concerts by amateur performers on campus (blue grass, Japanese traditional music, and mandolin orchestra),Heikyoku (orHeike Biwa, i.e., recitation of "Tale of Heikeh while playing a Japanese string instrument calledbiwa, performed by Takatsune Suzuki), and farewell concert by jazz fusion of ashakuhachi and a guitar (by John Kaizan Neptune and Takao Naoi). In addition, a special concert was held on August 28 (the fourth day of the conference), in which four delegates from the conference (Laurel J. Trainor, David W. Gerry, Dirk Moelants, and Kazuo Okanoya) performed with a harpsichord made of fallen poplar trees from the Hokkaido University campus. This concert was held on the ground floor of Kinokuniya Bookstore near Sapporo Station in the early evening of that day; over 100 people (both conference participants and the general audience) enjoyed the free Early Music concert.

In an effort towards greening the conference, no disposable cups or chopsticks were used for coffee breaks or lunch meals. Each delegate was provided with an original coffee mug and a pair of lacquered chopsticks with a matching case in a registration package, and was asked to use them while receiving a drink service and/or while eating lunch.


II. Four Special Programs (sponsored by NAMM, SEMPRE, and JSPS)

As special programs for the 10th anniversary of ICMPC,Pre-conference Workshop for Developing Researchers,Young Researcher Award, Travel Award, andTouching the World of Musical Science were organized with financial support from NAMM, SEMPRE, and JSPS. The detail of each program is described below.

1.Pre-conference Workshop for Developing Researchers

The following three workshops were held on August 24, 2008, as a pre-conference event.

The number of participants in each workshop was 11 (WS1), 11 (WS2), and 12 (WS3), a comfortable size for the instructor to communicate with individual audiences. Participants enjoyed this special opportunity to learn from distinguished researchers in the field of music psychology.


2.Young Researcher Award

Thirty-five original papers were submitted for consideration for this award. Five established scholars formed its selection committee (James C. Carlsen, Sandra Trehub, Lola Cuddy, Raymond MacDonald, and Graham Welch), who read and evaluated all the papers. Seven papers were acknowledged as "Honorable Mentionh; two were identified as "Outstanding Young Researcher Award Winners.h The two winners presented their papers at the auditorium along with the award ceremony on August 27. The two winners and the titles of their papers were as follows:

Bruno Gingras (McGill University, Canada), et al.
Effect of Expressive Intent, Performer Expertise, and Listener Expertise on the Perception of Artistic Individuality in Organ Performance

Bradley W. Vines (University of British Columbia, Canada), et al. Stimulating Music: Combining Singing with Brain Stimulation to Help Stroke Victims Recover Speech

At the beginning of the Young Researcher Award Session, the Selection Committee Chair (J. C. Carlsen)--who could not come to the conference for various reasons--gave the following voice message.

Good evening. I'm James Carlsen, the Chair of the Selection Committee for the Young Researcher Award. It is a great disappointment for me that I could not be with you tonight; circumstances beyond my control have prevented it.

Over 40 years ago when I began my own research in music perception and cognition, in the United States there were only a few individuals who were actively engaged in such research; now there are many. At that time, we had only one music journal that published reports of such research; now there are several. Those facts and the number of people registered for this conference reveal that psychomusicological research is alive, well, and flourishing.

Further evidence, and the reason for this gathering tonight, is the fact that 35 individuals submitted research papers to be judged for the first Young Researcher Award. Working with me on the Award Selection Committee were Sandra Trehub, Lola Cuddy, Raymond MacDonald, and Graham Welch; we have had the privilege of reading these reports. We agreed that nine of those 35 papers are of special quality and that their authors should be given special recognition. Two of those nine papers we have judged outstanding and worthy of the Young Researcher Award. The remaining seven are deserving of the award of Honorable Mention. Because I can not be with you at this ceremony,

I have asked Graham Welch to announce these awards in my stead.

In closing, let me take this opportunity to wish you, the recipients of these awards, success in your continuing research. Your efforts, and the efforts of others like you, will be the new core of inquiry that will sustain and foster the International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition for the future. I congratulate you and your mentors as well. May all our efforts contribute to a better understanding of music and to its vital importance in the lives of people everywhere. Have a splendid conference!

3.Travel Award

Sponsored by SEMPRE (Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research), ICMPC10 offered 28 travel awards, primarily for students and developing researchers from Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Czech Republic, Germany, Israel, Nigeria, Korea, USA, and UK. In addition, two winners of Young Researcher Award were granted with travel awards.

4.Touching the World of Musical Science

This program functioned as liaison between the conference and the general public by offering presentations open to the public on the final day of the conference, August 29, 2008, at Glass Pyramid in Moerenuma Park. Two sub-programs were offered to outreach to people of Sapporo: (a)Public Forum and (b)Guided Tour of Poster Presentations. A local newspaper (Hokkaido Shinbun) wrote about these public programs in the morning edition on August 23. Despite a rainy Friday, approximately 50 people from the general public attended these events.

(a)Public Forum & Mini Concert "What do we know about music and child development?h

This forum was primarily for the public, and the session was held in Japanese. For non-Japanese speakers, the organizer interpreted between English and Japanese. Each speaker talked about their research for 15 minutes or so. After the third speaker and discussion, the audience enjoyed a short break by listening to a performance by Jura Marguils.

Organizer: Mayumi Adachi (Chair, ICMPC 10, Hokkaido University, Japan)

Moderator: Shing-Jen Chen (Hokkaido University, Japan)

Speaker 1: Kazuo Okanoya (RIKEN, Japan), "Bird Song and Human Speech: Parallel Learning Mechanismsh

Speaker 2: Laurel J. Trainor (McMaster University, Canada), "Feeling the Beat in Music through Movementh

Speaker 3: Glenn Schellenberg (University of Torongo, Canada), "Effects of Music on Child Developmenth

Speaker 4: Takayuki Nakata (Future University-Hakodate, Japan), "The Role of Songs and Music for the Development of Children with Cochlear Implanth

Discussant: Sandra E. Trehub (University of Toronto, Canada)

Mini-concert: Jura Marguils (University of Arkansas, USA)


(b)Guided Tour of Poster Presentations

It is not so unusual to have a public forum during an academic conference, but it is unique to open an academic portion of the conference to the general audience. There were 25 poster presentations on the last day of the conference. Several students of Hokkaido University served as tour guides who could interpret questions and answers communicated between the presenter and the general audience. To help the audience know the topics of posters, we made a special program booklet for the general audience describing briefly the content of each presentation. Those who stopped by for this event appreciated rare opportunities to explore the latest research findings in music.



III. Acknowledgement

Many people dedicated their time and energy for the successful operation of ICMPC10. I express sincere thanks to all involved in preparation and/or in steering of the conference (see "ICMPC10 Conference Team" and "ICMPC10 Committees" in the Program).



1The number of delegate(s) from each country