
TL;DR
This paper introduces the concept of the exo-brain, an extended cognitive system that processes non-language sounds and their cultural context, shaping our emotional and interpretive responses to music.
Contribution
It proposes the idea of the exo-brain as an external cognitive apparatus that mediates understanding and affective reactions to non-language sounds in music.
Findings
Non-language sounds influence emotional reactions through cultural context.
The cognitive process involves external, extended sense-making mechanisms.
A new model of cognition includes an external 'exo-brain' for interpreting sounds.
Abstract
In this paper I examine the process of getting affected by and the process of making sense of non-language sounds and propose the idea of the contextual cognitive apparatus or exo-brain. We are affected by a singing voice even when we do not fully understand the sounds produced by it. When the listener starts hearing words in the sung song and/or starts interpreting the heard words he recreates the sense and meaning of the song based on a context which either preexists in a culture or gets formed due to his extended engagement with a nebulous auditory stimulus that is perceived as meaningful. This is what I call the work of the creative ear. The affective power of the song comes from an affective reaction between the singing voice, especially the sung non-language sounds, and the linguistic and cultural contexts of the singer and the listener and out this affective reaction something…
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Taxonomy
TopicsCognitive Science and Education Research · Multisensory perception and integration · Embodied and Extended Cognition
