Mind surfing: Attention in musical absorption

Simon Høffding; Nanette Nielsen; Bruno Laeng

doi:10.1016/j.cogsys.2023.101180

Mind surfing: Attention in musical absorption

Simon Høffding^*, Nanette Nielsen, Bruno Laeng

^*Corresponding author for this work

University of Oslo

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

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Abstract

Literature in the psychology of music and in cognitive psychology claims – paradoxically – that musical absorption includes processes of both focused attention and mind wandering. We examine this paradox and aim to resolve it by integrating accounts from cognitive psychology on attention and mind wandering with qualitative phenomenological research on some of the world's most skilled musicians. We claim that a mode of experience that involves intense attention and what superficially seems like mind wandering is possible. We propose to grasp this different mode of experience with a new concept: “mind surfing”. We suggest that a conjoined consideration of attention's intensive and selective capacities can partially explain how one can be both focused and freely “surfing” on a “musical wave” at the same time. Finally, we couple this novel and foundational work on attention with a 4E cognition account to show how music acts as an affective and cognitive scaffold, thereby enabling the surfing.

Original language	English
Article number	101180
Journal	Cognitive Systems Research
Volume	83
Number of pages	11
ISSN	2214-4366
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsys.2023.101180
Publication status	Published - Jan 2024

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The writing of this article was supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence scheme, project number 262762.

Funding Information:
We are grateful to three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and for pointing out potential ambiguities between the concepts of “mode” and "process", as well as the prior use of the term “surfing” in the cognitive science literature. Several colleagues are also thanked for their informal feedback and discussions: Sarah Bro Trasmundi, Juan Toro, Eric Clarke, Glenda Satne, Joshua Sheppard, Sebastian Watzl, Francesca Secco, and the “Movement, Culture, and Society” research group at the University of Southern Denmark. Funding. The writing of this article was supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence scheme, project number 262762.

Keywords

Cognitive and affective scaffolding
Intensive attention
Mind surfing
Mind wandering
Musical absorption
Musicking
Selective attention

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abstract = "Literature in the psychology of music and in cognitive psychology claims – paradoxically – that musical absorption includes processes of both focused attention and mind wandering. We examine this paradox and aim to resolve it by integrating accounts from cognitive psychology on attention and mind wandering with qualitative phenomenological research on some of the world's most skilled musicians. We claim that a mode of experience that involves intense attention and what superficially seems like mind wandering is possible. We propose to grasp this different mode of experience with a new concept: “mind surfing”. We suggest that a conjoined consideration of attention's intensive and selective capacities can partially explain how one can be both focused and freely “surfing” on a “musical wave” at the same time. Finally, we couple this novel and foundational work on attention with a 4E cognition account to show how music acts as an affective and cognitive scaffold, thereby enabling the surfing.",

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Mind surfing: Attention in musical absorption

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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