Research methods

and techniques.
Perfecto Herrera
Aims of scientific research

Increasing and improving our understanding

about the world

All scientific disciplines proceed along these

stages
 Describing
 Predicting
 Determining causes
 Explaining
 Research approaches
 Observational studies: we observe and code a given behaviour, then
try to elaborate possible explanations (e.g., amount and duration of
ocular contact between the members of a quartet)
 We can develop hypotheses to be experimentally tested
 We can develop co-influence (correlational) models
 Correlational studies: we compare 2 variables the values of which
have been collected without direct intervention (e.g. weekly hours of
listening music with headphones and hearing acuity measured through
audiometry)
 We can just conclude on the concomitance or association between the
variables. Never a causal relationship will be granted using this approach
 Experimental studies: an “independent” variable is systematically
manipulated and the effects of this on a “dependent” variable are
observed.
 With human listeners (e.g. effect of melody length on the recall of
melodies)
 With computer models (e.g. effect of analysis window length on the
correct assignation of F0 values)
 Only experimental studies grant to conclude on causal relationships.
The scientific method
Hypothesis

Observations Theory Predictions

Hypothesis
confirmation

Hypothesis
rejection
 Steps in research
 Search for an idea. They don’t come out of
the blue! You have to do brain gym,
observe, read, read, observe, think, read
again...
 It is usually the case that your topic, problem
or idea has been previously worked or
developed. Don’t reinvent the wheel! No
inventes la sopa de ajo!
 Talking and asking to other researchers and
students can be crucial. Ask!
 Do a search for relevant literature. Literature
search is a must.
 Once you have set the main ideas, google
around and start building your conceptual map
about the selected problem.
 Take advantage of the resources to be found in
the UPF Library.
 Do not fall in love with your original idea (yet): be
ready to reshape it a lot!
 Talk to other people. If your idea can be understood
by other people not working in the field, then you are
on the right track.
 People is useful to comment, critizize or transform your
original idea.
 If you have experts at hand they can finally assess on
the references, constraints, required materials and
devices, and other technicalities you should take into
account.
 Prepare an action plan. Organize the plan to get
your goals and be able to write a report and do a
public presentation of the work.
 Take Hofstadter’s law very seriously. It states that it
always takes longer than you expect, even if you
take Hofstadter's Law into account.
 Your supervisor will help you to set a realistic plan:
ask him/her!!! Do not wait to be in a rush in order to
ask for her/his help. The plan is a serious compromise
between you both!!!
 Run a pilot test. Don’t wait to get all the required
data, all the code smoothly running and everything
perfected.
 It always happen that when you start your experiments
something unexpected happens.
 Minimize your risks by running some trials with a
small amount of data, subjects or under simplified
conditions.
 Your closest friends and family are good candidates
for you to get feedback from them and from the setup
that you have devised.
 Then, modify your original ideas and setup
accordingly.
 Design the study. You have to identify the independent
and dependent variables, other factors to be controlled in
order them not to confound the results.
 How many subjects? Which “type” of subjects? What will
be the instructions given to them? Which stimuli will be
used? Which task will be asked to perform? Which
devices will be required?
 It is very useful to “copy” most of them from successful
similar experiments to be found in the literature.
 Before starting running the experiment, write down the
questions you would like to answer when the data start to
be arriving to your computer.
 You can even start writing a report at this point, as you
have reviewed literature, advancing hypotheses,
designing the experiment and imagine possible
outcomes.
 Now “DO” the study.
 A Pilot test is advisable before the real “GO!”
 When you use subjects it is important to store
demographical and some personal data that
could be of relevance. But you should grant
them the confidentiality of them (consent
form).
 When hearing is involved, it is also important
to check that their audition is somehow in good
shape.
 Analyse your data.
 Start with simple counts, averages,
deviations, correlations
 Plot, plot, plot. And ask yourself
questions for the data to answer them
 Then ask if more complex modelling
would be feasible (e.g. Time Series,
Discriminant Analysis, ANOVA, PCA…)
 Explain data and possible conclusions to
other people.
 Are them clear or contradictory?
 Do they point towards something you forgot to
control?
 Do them bring you towards more research,
towards a different study?
 Can you elaborate explanations for them?
 Can you plot them in a way that they speak by
themselves? Plot and plot, but also read
Edward Tufte!!!
 Write a report and prepare a public
presentation. They should include the
typical sections you find in articles:
 Introduction
 Method (including stimuli, materials, subjects, and
procedure)
 Results (including tables and graphs)
 Discussion
 Conclusions
 Acknowledgements
 References
 Appendixes (optionally)
How to “measure”
(music) perception and cognition?
 Surveys (not an experimental procedure)
 Behavioural measures
 Physiological measures
 Electro-Encephalography (EEG):
 Event-Related Potentials (ERP)
 Magneto-Electro-Encephalography (MEG):
 Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
 Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
(fMRI)
Physiological measures

 Heart rate
 Skin conductance

 Blood pressure

 Temperature

 Movement, activity
Behavioural measures
 Errors solving a task
 Reaction time (indicator of the availability
and complexity of the processing operations
in the brain (you can quickly estimate if 2
sounds have the same pitch or loudness
(<150ms), but need more time to decide if
they belong to the same instrument, genre
or tonality)
 Relatedness, similarity (5 or 7 point Likert-
type scale)
 Choice (forced, not forced, 2, 3, 4 choices)
 Eye-fixation
 Yes

No
 Event-Related potentials (ERP)

When a sufficiently large number of neurons having a similar anatomical

position and orientation are synchronously activated, their summed fields
may be strong enough to be detectable as ERPs or ER Fields at the surface
of the head.
Event-Related potentials (ERP)
 An ERP is a neural signal that reflects coordinated activity of an
ensemble of neurons
 They often contain or signal combinations of effects
 They have good temporal resolution so they can be observed
“after” certain events or stimuli have been processed
 Pxxx: positive peaks, Nxxx: negative peaks
 MMN: Mismatch negativity occurring between 80 and 200ms
after the event. It reflects the changes in the content of our
auditory short-term memory (when something “new” is
presented, a peak can be observed), even though we are not
aware of that
 N400 (200-500ms after the event) reflects semantic associations
(the higher the association, the higher the potential value)
 P600 (around 600ms) are observed after syntactic violations in
language and also in music
 Event Related Potentials (ERP)
The same N400
A semantic context is Hearing unrelated words
set either by speech generate a negativity peak is observed
(a) or by music (b) in centro-parietal when the
electrodes around 400ms context is set
using music and
the words have
But when there is a no semantic
semantic relationship relationship with
between the prime it
and the word, the
negativity is not
observed

Koelsch et al. (2004). Music, language and meaning: brain signatures of

semantic processing, Nature Neuroscience, 7(3).
 Timings in the musical brain
(according to ERP studies)

Psychoacoustics

Music
Cognition

Koelsch & Siebel (2005). Towards a neural basis of music perception, Trends in Cognitive Sciences Vol.9 No.12.
 fMRI
 fMRI detects changes in blood flow to particular areas of the brain,
when performing a given task (e.g., it provides structural +
“f”unctional information)
 Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is based on the absorption and
emission of energy in the radio frequency range of the
electromagnetic spectrum
 Oxygen nuclei have nuclear magnetic resonance, i.e., their spins
act as small magnetic fields and can be aligned according to a
magnetic field
 Depending on the metabolism, the spins misalign and then this
process can be “plotted”
 Excellent spatial resolution, bad temporal resolution Mental
 It is totally uninvasive and innocuous paper
Is there any brain listening to Beethoven? And to Mozart?
cut &
And to Stockhausen?
Beethoven’s Fur Elise) Mozart Sonata (K.448) fold
puzzles
PET
 It produces an image of the distribution of a
previously administered radioactively
labeled compound in any desired section of
the body
 A wide variety of compounds have been
labeled permitting measurements of local
blood flow, metabolism, neuro-receptor
bindings...
 Good spatial resolution, poor temporal
resolution