Research Retreat in Memory of David Huron

David Huron leaves a legacy of mentorship, collaboration, creativity, generosity with ideas, and outstanding empirical scholarship in music cognition. In partnership with the Society for Music Perception and Cognition and Northwestern University, we are organizing a research retreat in his memory that combines sessions on empirical research methodology with a project-based hackathon. The methodology sessions are based on the research methods workshops he taught at Ohio State University and elsewhere. The hackathon will put into practice his principles for empirical research and scientific collaboration. The mission, in alignment with David’s belief that the most important thing he and others could do is to recognize and develop the talents of others, is to provide opportunities for participants to develop empirical research skills, offer a productive research experience, and ultimately support empirical research in music cognition.

Goals of the retreat

• Teach principles of empirical research methodology
• Prioritize the pursuit of knowledge
• Foster collaboration and mentorship
• Result in draft research products (e.g., partial draft papers, presentations)

Schedule

• Mornings: presentation and discussion of research methodology principles (cf. Huron, Albrecht, Reymore, and Shanahan, in preparation)
• Afternoons: teams refine research question, draft paper, gather data, perform at least initial data analysis
• Report out: each team gives a presentation on their project, work accomplished so far, and plan for completion of their project

Who should attend

• Persons interested in learning to conduct empirical research in music, with any amount of past experience

How hackathon teams will be formed

• Participants will submit research questions and interests within the hackathon project theme areas (described below)
• Hackathon project leaders and organizers will select participants for teams of 2-5

Requirements

• Interest in music cognition, empirical music theory, or related fields
• Curiosity and intellectual openness
• Eagerness to collaborate, commitment to team science
• Commitment to participating for the full duration

Logistics

• Dates: July 18-21, 2026
• Location: Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, US
• Maximum of 12 participants

Applications to participate due March 31, 2026 (application here)

Cost

• The retreat is free to all participants, including coffee and snacks. However, participants will be responsible for their own travel and accommodation (local accommodation and other information here).
  • Kate Hevner Scholarship available by application (link here) April 10, 2026, for selected participants with financial need

Hackathon project theme areas

Optimizing rhythmic complexity (led by Justin London. Carleton College)

Previous research has shown that there seems to be a “Goldilocks Effect” (i.e., an inverted-U relationship) between levels of rhythmic complexity—often measured in terms of the amount of syncopation—and beat clarity, ease of entrainment, listener enjoyment, and musical preference.  However, most studies have focused on a narrow range of musical/rhythmic material (mainstream pop and classic R&B) and tempos, often using drum-kit based patterns as stimuli.  In this workshop we will explore other factors which might interact with measures of rhythmic complexity, such as tempo/event density, instrumentation, and especially musical genre and cultural practice, to see how different levels of rhythmic complexity may be optimal for particular tempos, instruments, and genres.

Auditory scene analysis and the perception and analysis of orchestration (led by Stephen McAdams, McGill University)

The art of structuring music with timbre (among other things) is traditionally called orchestration. In this workshop, we will explore a developing theoretical ground for orchestration practice starting with the structuring role that timbre can play in music. Many facets of musical structuring are achieved by auditory scene analysis, the perceptual grouping processes that: 1) fuse different acoustic components into events (e.g., instrumental blend), 2) integrate events into one or more auditory streams or other sequential groupings (e.g., surface textures or orchestral layers), and 3) segment groups of events into motifs, phrases, and sections (e.g., timbral contrasts, section boundaries). The roles that timbre plays in the manifestation of these principles in orchestration practice, and the insight it can provide for composers, music theorists, and music psychologists, will be considered as a point of departure for understanding how music analysis can help develop hypotheses to be tested in perceptual experiments, the results of which can then be interpreted through further music analysis. The primary methodological aim, aside from examining the role of perceptual theories in developing music theories, is to explore how music and perceptual analysis can mutually benefit each other.

Music (radio) across the globe (led by David Sears, University of Michigan)

Participants will collaboratively design and conduct a behavioral and/or computational study using music from the Music Informatics for Radio Across the GlobE (MIRAGE) MetaCorpus. The corpus consists of audio and metadata for millions of events broadcast across 10,000 internet radio stations worldwide (Dashboard: https://mirage-project.org/; Repository: https://zenodo.org/records/18112107).The group’s ambitions will shape the rigor, scale, and impact of the resulting project. The team may pursue any of a wide range of topics and research questions related to musical traditions represented in the corpus. If desired, behavioral studies may recruit participant populations from specific geographic sites using online research platforms (e.g., Prolific). The workshop will emphasize rapid collaboration and the development of concrete research artifacts (e.g., pilot analyses, preregistrations, Stage 1 Registered Reports, etc.).