Manuela was born in Graz (Austria). She has a multidisciplinary academic background and holds a Master’s degree in English studies and Physics (2005, distinction) as well as a Master's degree in Systematic Musicology (2011, distinction) from the University of Graz (Austria). She also completed an MSc in Research Methods in Psychology (2009, distinction) at Goldsmiths, University of London (UK). In 2003, Manuela studied one semester at the University of New England (Australia) funded by the Joint Study Program. Manuela worked as teaching assistant for Prof. Annemarie Peltzer-Karpf (Graz, 2006-2008), as student assistant for Prof. Richard Parncutt (Graz, 2006-2008), and as graduate research assistant for Prof. Stephen McAdams (Montreal, 2008) as well as for Prof. Lauren Stewart (London, 2010). She is currently pursuing a PhD in Experimental Psychology with Prof. Helmut Leder at the University of Vienna (Austria) and working with Prof. Tobias Greitemeyer at the University of Innsbruck (Austria). Manuela is a co-founder of the conference series "International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology (SysMus)"
More than a century ago, Darwin proposed a putative role for music in sexual attraction (i.e., se... more More than a century ago, Darwin proposed a putative role for music in sexual attraction (i.e., sex appeal), a hypothesis that has recently gained traction in the field of music psychology. In his writings, Darwin particularly emphasized the charming aspects of music. Across a broad range of cultures, music has a profound impact on humans' feelings, thoughts and behavior. Human mate choice is determined by the interplay of several factors. A number of studies have shown that music and musicality (i.e., the ability to produce and enjoy music) exert a positive influence on the evaluation of potential sexual partners. Here, we critically review the latest empirical literature on how and why music and musicality affect sexual attraction by considering the role of music-induced emotion and arousal in listeners as well as other socio-biological mechanisms. Following a short overview of current theories about the origins of musicality, we present studies that examine the impact of music and musicality on sexual attraction in different social settings. We differentiate between emotion-based influences related to the subjective experience of music as sound and effects associated with perceived musical ability or creativity in a potential partner. By integrating studies using various behavioral methods, we link current research strands that investigate how music influences sexual attraction and suggest promising avenues for future research.
A number of theories about the origins of musicality have incorporated biological and social pers... more A number of theories about the origins of musicality have incorporated biological and social perspectives. Darwin argued that musicality evolved by sexual selection, functioning as a courtship display in reproductive partner choice. Darwin did not regard musicality as a sexually dimorphic trait, paralleling evidence that both sexes produce and enjoy music. A novel research strand examines the effect of musicality on sexual attraction by acknowledging the importance of facial attractiveness. We previously demonstrated that music varying in emotional content increases the perceived attractiveness and dating desirability of opposite-sex faces only in females, compared to a silent control condition. Here, we built upon this approach by presenting the person depicted (target) as the performer of the music (prime), thus establishing a direct link. We hypothesized that musical priming would increase sexual attraction, with high-arousing music inducing the largest effect. Musical primes (25 s, piano solo music) varied in arousal and pleasantness, and targets were photos of other-sex faces of average attractiveness and with neutral expressions (2 s). Participants were 35 females and 23 males (heterosexual psychology students, single, and no hormonal contraception use) matched for musical background, mood, and liking for the music used in the experiment. After musical priming, females' ratings of attractiveness and dating desirability increased significantly. In males, only dating desirability was significantly increased by musical priming. No specific effects of music-induced pleasantness and arousal were observed. Our results, together with other recent empirical evidence, corroborate the sexual selection hypothesis for the evolution of human musicality.
For centuries, Western philosophers have argued that aesthetic experiences differ from common, ev... more For centuries, Western philosophers have argued that aesthetic experiences differ from common, everyday pleasing sensations, and further, that mental states, such as disinterested contemplation and aesthetic distance, underlie these complex experiences. We empirically tested whether basic perceptual processes of information intake reveal evidence for aesthetic distance, specifically toward visual art. We conducted two eye tracking experiments using appropriately matched visual stimuli (environmental scenes and representational paintings) with 59 participants using two different presentation durations (25 and 6 s). Linear mixed-effects models considering individual differences showed that affective content (pleasantness and arousal), but not stimulus composition (complexity), leads to differential effects when viewing representational paintings in comparison to environmental scenes. We demonstrate that an increase in aesthetic pleasantness induced by representational paintings during a free-viewing task leads to a slower and deeper processing mode than when viewing environmental scenes of motivational relevance, for which we observed the opposite effect. In addition, long presentation durations led to an increase in scanning behavior during visual art perception. These empirical findings inform the debate about how aesthetic experiences differ from everyday perceptual processes by showing that the notion of aesthetic distance may be better understood by examining different modes of viewing.
Effects of Emotional Expressions, Gaze, and Head Orientation on Person Perception in Social Situations, 2020
When an observer perceives and judges two persons next to each other, different types of social c... more When an observer perceives and judges two persons next to each other, different types of social cues simultaneously arise from both perceived faces. Using a controlled stimulus set depicting this scenario (with two persons identified respectively as “target face” and “looking face”), we explored how emotional expressions, gaze, and head direction of the looking face affect the observers’ eye movements and judgments of the target face. The target face always displayed a neutral expression, gazing directly at the observer (“direct gaze”). The looking face showed either a direct gaze, looked toward the target face, or averted it. A total of 52 undergraduate students (25 males) freely viewed these scenes for 5 s while their eye movements were recorded, which was followed by collecting ratings of attractiveness and trustworthiness. Dwell times on target faces were longer when accompanied by a looking face with direct gaze, regardless of its emotional expression. However, participants looked longer on faces looking toward the target in the approach condition and fixated more often on target faces that were either next to an angry-looking face directly looking at them or to a happy-looking averted face. We found no gaze effect on faces that were looked at by another face and no significant correlation between observers’ dwell time and attractiveness or trustworthiness ratings of the target and looking face, indicating dissociated perception and judgment processes. Irrespective of the gaze direction, as expected, happy faces were judged as more attractive and trustworthy than angry faces. Future studies will need to examine this dynamic interplay of social cues in triadic scenes.
Empirical studies testing Berlyne's (1971) psychobiological model have led to conflicting results... more Empirical studies testing Berlyne's (1971) psychobiological model have led to conflicting results, and individual differences have been proposed as a possible explanation. We explored whether top-down influences related to personality may play a role and studied how affect-related personality traits are related to complexity and arousal responses. Two hundred and six females rated either affective environmental scenes, environmental scenes converted into cartoons, or representational paintings (Study 1). Another group of 77 females rated excerpts of piano music (Study 2). We assessed trait emotional intelligence (EI), stress reactivity (SR), empathy (Study 1), emotional self-efficacy (Study 2) as well as engagement with art and music. Linear mixed-effects modelling revealed that affect-related traits emerged as significant predictors in all visual complexity and arousal models, except for the complexity model of environmental scenes. SR predicted arousal induced by environmental scenes, but not by cartoons and paintings, for which an interaction between trait EI and empathy was found. Musical sophistication predicted musical complexity, and the complexity and arousal models comprised interactions between trait EI, SR and emotional self-efficacy. Affect-related traits should be integrated into arousal-based theories of aesthetic experiences, and their impact on perceived complexity and felt arousal varies across stimulus categories.
Several theories about the origins of music have emphasized its biological and social functions ,... more Several theories about the origins of music have emphasized its biological and social functions , including in courtship. Music may act as a courtship display due to its capacity to vary in complexity and emotional content. Support for music's reproductive function comes from the recent finding that only women in the fertile phase of the reproductive cycle prefer composers of complex melodies to composers of simple ones as short-term sexual partners, which is also in line with the ovulatory shift hypothesis. However, the precise mechanisms by which music may influence sexual attraction are unknown, specifically how music may interact with visual attractiveness cues and affect perception and behaviour in both genders. Using a crossmodal priming paradigm, we examined whether listening to music influences ratings of facial attractiveness and dating desirability of opposite-sex faces. We also tested whether misattribution of arousal or pleasantness underlies these effects, and explored whether sex differences and menstrual cycle phase may be moderators. Our sample comprised 64 women in the fertile or infertile phase (no hormonal contraception use) and 32 men, carefully matched for mood, relationship status, and musical preferences. Musical primes (25 s) varied in arousal and pleasantness, and targets were photos of faces with neutral expressions (2 s). Group-wise analyses indicated that women, but not men, gave significantly higher ratings of facial attractiveness and dating desirability after having listened to music than in the silent control condition. High-arousing, complex music yielded the largest effects, suggesting that music may affect human courtship behaviour through induced arousal, which calls for further studies on the mechanisms by which music affects sexual attraction in real-life social contexts.
In his seminal book on esthetics, Berlyne (1971) posited an inverted-U relationship between compl... more In his seminal book on esthetics, Berlyne (1971) posited an inverted-U relationship between complexity and hedonic tone in arts appreciation, however, converging evidence for his theory is still missing. The disregard of the multidimensionality of complexity may explain some of the divergent results. Here, we argue that definitions of hedonic tone are manifold and systematically examined whether the nature of the relationship between complexity and hedonic tone is determined by the specific measure of hedonic tone. In Experiment 1, we studied three picture categories with similar affective and semantic contents: 96 affective environmental scenes, which were also converted into 96 cartoons, and 96 representational paintings. Complexity varied along the dimension of elements. In a between-subjects design, each stimulus was presented for 5 s to 206 female participants. Subjective ratings of hedonic tone (either beauty, pleasantness or liking), arousal, complexity and familiarity were collected in three conditions per stimulus set. Complexity and arousal were positively associated in all conditions, with the strongest association observed for paintings. For environmental scenes and cartoons, there was no significant association between complexity and hedonic tone, and the three measures of hedonic tone were highly correlated (all r s > 0.85). As predicted, in paintings the measures of hedonic tone were less strongly correlated (all r s > 0.73), and when controlling for familiarity, the association with complexity was significantly positive for beauty (r s = 0.26), weakly negative for pleasantness (r s = −0.16) and not present for liking. Experiment 2 followed a similar approach and 77 female participants, all non-musicians, rated 92 musical excerpts (15 s) in three conditions of hedonic tone (either beauty, pleasantness or liking). Results indicated a strong relationship between complexity and arousal (all r s > 0.85). When controlling for familiarity effects, the relationship between complexity and beauty followed an inverted-U curve, whereas the relationship between complexity and pleasantness was negative (r s = −0.26) and the one between complexity and liking positive (r s = 0.29). We relate our results to Berlyne's theory and the latest findings in neuroaesthetics, proposing that future studies need to acknowledge the multifaceted nature of hedonic tone in esthetic experiences of artforms.
Emotions in music are conveyed by a variety of acoustic cues. Notably, the positive association b... more Emotions in music are conveyed by a variety of acoustic cues. Notably, the positive association between sound intensity and arousal has particular biological relevance. However, although amplitude normalization is a common procedure used to control for intensity in music psychology research, direct comparisons between emotional ratings of original and amplitude-normalized musical excerpts are lacking.In this study, 30 nonmusicians retrospectively rated the subjective arousal and pleasantness induced by 84 six-second classical music excerpts, and an additional 30 nonmusicians rated the same excerpts normalized for amplitude. Following the cue-redundancy and Brunswik lens models of acoustic communication, we hypothesized that arousal and pleasantness ratings would be similar for both versions of the excerpts, and that arousal could be predicted effectively by other acoustic cues besides intensity.Although the difference in mean arousal and pleasantness ratings between original and amplitude-normalized excerpts correlated significantly with the amplitude adjustment, ratings for both sets of excerpts were highly correlated and shared a similar range of values, thus validating the use of amplitude normalization in music emotion research. Two acoustic parameters, spectral flux and spectral entropy, accounted for 65% of the variance in arousal ratings for both sets, indicating that spectral features can effectively predict arousal. Additionally, we confirmed that amplitude-normalized excerpts were adequately matched for loudness. Overall, the results corroborate our hypotheses and support the cue-redundancy and Brunswik lens models.
More than a century ago, Darwin proposed a putative role for music in sexual attraction (i.e., se... more More than a century ago, Darwin proposed a putative role for music in sexual attraction (i.e., sex appeal), a hypothesis that has recently gained traction in the field of music psychology. In his writings, Darwin particularly emphasized the charming aspects of music. Across a broad range of cultures, music has a profound impact on humans' feelings, thoughts and behavior. Human mate choice is determined by the interplay of several factors. A number of studies have shown that music and musicality (i.e., the ability to produce and enjoy music) exert a positive influence on the evaluation of potential sexual partners. Here, we critically review the latest empirical literature on how and why music and musicality affect sexual attraction by considering the role of music-induced emotion and arousal in listeners as well as other socio-biological mechanisms. Following a short overview of current theories about the origins of musicality, we present studies that examine the impact of music and musicality on sexual attraction in different social settings. We differentiate between emotion-based influences related to the subjective experience of music as sound and effects associated with perceived musical ability or creativity in a potential partner. By integrating studies using various behavioral methods, we link current research strands that investigate how music influences sexual attraction and suggest promising avenues for future research.
A number of theories about the origins of musicality have incorporated biological and social pers... more A number of theories about the origins of musicality have incorporated biological and social perspectives. Darwin argued that musicality evolved by sexual selection, functioning as a courtship display in reproductive partner choice. Darwin did not regard musicality as a sexually dimorphic trait, paralleling evidence that both sexes produce and enjoy music. A novel research strand examines the effect of musicality on sexual attraction by acknowledging the importance of facial attractiveness. We previously demonstrated that music varying in emotional content increases the perceived attractiveness and dating desirability of opposite-sex faces only in females, compared to a silent control condition. Here, we built upon this approach by presenting the person depicted (target) as the performer of the music (prime), thus establishing a direct link. We hypothesized that musical priming would increase sexual attraction, with high-arousing music inducing the largest effect. Musical primes (25 s, piano solo music) varied in arousal and pleasantness, and targets were photos of other-sex faces of average attractiveness and with neutral expressions (2 s). Participants were 35 females and 23 males (heterosexual psychology students, single, and no hormonal contraception use) matched for musical background, mood, and liking for the music used in the experiment. After musical priming, females' ratings of attractiveness and dating desirability increased significantly. In males, only dating desirability was significantly increased by musical priming. No specific effects of music-induced pleasantness and arousal were observed. Our results, together with other recent empirical evidence, corroborate the sexual selection hypothesis for the evolution of human musicality.
For centuries, Western philosophers have argued that aesthetic experiences differ from common, ev... more For centuries, Western philosophers have argued that aesthetic experiences differ from common, everyday pleasing sensations, and further, that mental states, such as disinterested contemplation and aesthetic distance, underlie these complex experiences. We empirically tested whether basic perceptual processes of information intake reveal evidence for aesthetic distance, specifically toward visual art. We conducted two eye tracking experiments using appropriately matched visual stimuli (environmental scenes and representational paintings) with 59 participants using two different presentation durations (25 and 6 s). Linear mixed-effects models considering individual differences showed that affective content (pleasantness and arousal), but not stimulus composition (complexity), leads to differential effects when viewing representational paintings in comparison to environmental scenes. We demonstrate that an increase in aesthetic pleasantness induced by representational paintings during a free-viewing task leads to a slower and deeper processing mode than when viewing environmental scenes of motivational relevance, for which we observed the opposite effect. In addition, long presentation durations led to an increase in scanning behavior during visual art perception. These empirical findings inform the debate about how aesthetic experiences differ from everyday perceptual processes by showing that the notion of aesthetic distance may be better understood by examining different modes of viewing.
Effects of Emotional Expressions, Gaze, and Head Orientation on Person Perception in Social Situations, 2020
When an observer perceives and judges two persons next to each other, different types of social c... more When an observer perceives and judges two persons next to each other, different types of social cues simultaneously arise from both perceived faces. Using a controlled stimulus set depicting this scenario (with two persons identified respectively as “target face” and “looking face”), we explored how emotional expressions, gaze, and head direction of the looking face affect the observers’ eye movements and judgments of the target face. The target face always displayed a neutral expression, gazing directly at the observer (“direct gaze”). The looking face showed either a direct gaze, looked toward the target face, or averted it. A total of 52 undergraduate students (25 males) freely viewed these scenes for 5 s while their eye movements were recorded, which was followed by collecting ratings of attractiveness and trustworthiness. Dwell times on target faces were longer when accompanied by a looking face with direct gaze, regardless of its emotional expression. However, participants looked longer on faces looking toward the target in the approach condition and fixated more often on target faces that were either next to an angry-looking face directly looking at them or to a happy-looking averted face. We found no gaze effect on faces that were looked at by another face and no significant correlation between observers’ dwell time and attractiveness or trustworthiness ratings of the target and looking face, indicating dissociated perception and judgment processes. Irrespective of the gaze direction, as expected, happy faces were judged as more attractive and trustworthy than angry faces. Future studies will need to examine this dynamic interplay of social cues in triadic scenes.
Empirical studies testing Berlyne's (1971) psychobiological model have led to conflicting results... more Empirical studies testing Berlyne's (1971) psychobiological model have led to conflicting results, and individual differences have been proposed as a possible explanation. We explored whether top-down influences related to personality may play a role and studied how affect-related personality traits are related to complexity and arousal responses. Two hundred and six females rated either affective environmental scenes, environmental scenes converted into cartoons, or representational paintings (Study 1). Another group of 77 females rated excerpts of piano music (Study 2). We assessed trait emotional intelligence (EI), stress reactivity (SR), empathy (Study 1), emotional self-efficacy (Study 2) as well as engagement with art and music. Linear mixed-effects modelling revealed that affect-related traits emerged as significant predictors in all visual complexity and arousal models, except for the complexity model of environmental scenes. SR predicted arousal induced by environmental scenes, but not by cartoons and paintings, for which an interaction between trait EI and empathy was found. Musical sophistication predicted musical complexity, and the complexity and arousal models comprised interactions between trait EI, SR and emotional self-efficacy. Affect-related traits should be integrated into arousal-based theories of aesthetic experiences, and their impact on perceived complexity and felt arousal varies across stimulus categories.
Several theories about the origins of music have emphasized its biological and social functions ,... more Several theories about the origins of music have emphasized its biological and social functions , including in courtship. Music may act as a courtship display due to its capacity to vary in complexity and emotional content. Support for music's reproductive function comes from the recent finding that only women in the fertile phase of the reproductive cycle prefer composers of complex melodies to composers of simple ones as short-term sexual partners, which is also in line with the ovulatory shift hypothesis. However, the precise mechanisms by which music may influence sexual attraction are unknown, specifically how music may interact with visual attractiveness cues and affect perception and behaviour in both genders. Using a crossmodal priming paradigm, we examined whether listening to music influences ratings of facial attractiveness and dating desirability of opposite-sex faces. We also tested whether misattribution of arousal or pleasantness underlies these effects, and explored whether sex differences and menstrual cycle phase may be moderators. Our sample comprised 64 women in the fertile or infertile phase (no hormonal contraception use) and 32 men, carefully matched for mood, relationship status, and musical preferences. Musical primes (25 s) varied in arousal and pleasantness, and targets were photos of faces with neutral expressions (2 s). Group-wise analyses indicated that women, but not men, gave significantly higher ratings of facial attractiveness and dating desirability after having listened to music than in the silent control condition. High-arousing, complex music yielded the largest effects, suggesting that music may affect human courtship behaviour through induced arousal, which calls for further studies on the mechanisms by which music affects sexual attraction in real-life social contexts.
In his seminal book on esthetics, Berlyne (1971) posited an inverted-U relationship between compl... more In his seminal book on esthetics, Berlyne (1971) posited an inverted-U relationship between complexity and hedonic tone in arts appreciation, however, converging evidence for his theory is still missing. The disregard of the multidimensionality of complexity may explain some of the divergent results. Here, we argue that definitions of hedonic tone are manifold and systematically examined whether the nature of the relationship between complexity and hedonic tone is determined by the specific measure of hedonic tone. In Experiment 1, we studied three picture categories with similar affective and semantic contents: 96 affective environmental scenes, which were also converted into 96 cartoons, and 96 representational paintings. Complexity varied along the dimension of elements. In a between-subjects design, each stimulus was presented for 5 s to 206 female participants. Subjective ratings of hedonic tone (either beauty, pleasantness or liking), arousal, complexity and familiarity were collected in three conditions per stimulus set. Complexity and arousal were positively associated in all conditions, with the strongest association observed for paintings. For environmental scenes and cartoons, there was no significant association between complexity and hedonic tone, and the three measures of hedonic tone were highly correlated (all r s > 0.85). As predicted, in paintings the measures of hedonic tone were less strongly correlated (all r s > 0.73), and when controlling for familiarity, the association with complexity was significantly positive for beauty (r s = 0.26), weakly negative for pleasantness (r s = −0.16) and not present for liking. Experiment 2 followed a similar approach and 77 female participants, all non-musicians, rated 92 musical excerpts (15 s) in three conditions of hedonic tone (either beauty, pleasantness or liking). Results indicated a strong relationship between complexity and arousal (all r s > 0.85). When controlling for familiarity effects, the relationship between complexity and beauty followed an inverted-U curve, whereas the relationship between complexity and pleasantness was negative (r s = −0.26) and the one between complexity and liking positive (r s = 0.29). We relate our results to Berlyne's theory and the latest findings in neuroaesthetics, proposing that future studies need to acknowledge the multifaceted nature of hedonic tone in esthetic experiences of artforms.
Emotions in music are conveyed by a variety of acoustic cues. Notably, the positive association b... more Emotions in music are conveyed by a variety of acoustic cues. Notably, the positive association between sound intensity and arousal has particular biological relevance. However, although amplitude normalization is a common procedure used to control for intensity in music psychology research, direct comparisons between emotional ratings of original and amplitude-normalized musical excerpts are lacking.In this study, 30 nonmusicians retrospectively rated the subjective arousal and pleasantness induced by 84 six-second classical music excerpts, and an additional 30 nonmusicians rated the same excerpts normalized for amplitude. Following the cue-redundancy and Brunswik lens models of acoustic communication, we hypothesized that arousal and pleasantness ratings would be similar for both versions of the excerpts, and that arousal could be predicted effectively by other acoustic cues besides intensity.Although the difference in mean arousal and pleasantness ratings between original and amplitude-normalized excerpts correlated significantly with the amplitude adjustment, ratings for both sets of excerpts were highly correlated and shared a similar range of values, thus validating the use of amplitude normalization in music emotion research. Two acoustic parameters, spectral flux and spectral entropy, accounted for 65% of the variance in arousal ratings for both sets, indicating that spectral features can effectively predict arousal. Additionally, we confirmed that amplitude-normalized excerpts were adequately matched for loudness. Overall, the results corroborate our hypotheses and support the cue-redundancy and Brunswik lens models.
Daniel Berlyne and his New Experimental Aesthetics have largely shaped the field since the 1970s ... more Daniel Berlyne and his New Experimental Aesthetics have largely shaped the field since the 1970s by putting the study of collative variables related to stimulus features in the foreground, embedded in the context of motivation, arousal, and reward. Researchers from various fields have extensively studied the role of novelty, surprise, complexity, and ambiguity in aesthetic responses since then, employing a wide range of behavioral, computational, and neuroscientific methods. These studies have been conducted in different sensory and artistic domains, such as in music, literature, and the visual arts. The insights gained from these efforts are very promising from a broader theoretical perspective, and have opened up new avenues of research going beyond Berlyne’s psychobiological model of aesthetic response, leading to manifold applications in several practical fields.
Human music, like language, is a cultural universal whose origins remain elusive. Some individual... more Human music, like language, is a cultural universal whose origins remain elusive. Some individuals have a congenital impairment in music processing and singing, which might be biologically rooted. Congenital amusia, a neurode-velopmental disorder, has been studied for around 15 years by only a few research groups worldwide. Although amusia was originally thought of as a music-specific disorder, it was demonstrated relatively quickly that it also affects the perception of speech intonation in laboratory conditions. This finding has spurred a fruitful research program, which has not only contributed to the ongoing debate about modularity by investigating pitch processing in music and speech, but which has also targeted various other aspects of linguistic processing. After a comprehensive introduction into the currently known characteristics of amusia, empirical stud
Humans are uniquely characterized by having a complex language and the ability to speak. Studying... more Humans are uniquely characterized by having a complex language and the ability to speak. Studying the cognitive foundations of language is one of the most challenging endeavors in linguistics and related fields as it spans a wide range of research disciplines which all contribute to our understanding of language. The goal of this volume is to present current reviews and research reports which examine the phenomenon of language from different perspectives. To be specific, the biological, neuronal and social pillars of linguistic cognition are discussed within their different theoretical and methodological frameworks, offering a diversity of perspectives that will contribute to meaningful cross-fertilization across several disciplines.
Divided into five sections, this volume provides the reader with insights into the evolutionary dynamics underlying the phylogenetic emergence of language, the psychological and physiological factors influencing language acquisition and development during ontogeny, the cognitive constraints on second language learning imposed by neurobiology, and the interactive relationship between cultural predisposition and language use. Given the multi-disciplinary nature of the 18 contributions, this liber amicorum will interest researchers and students in the fields of cognitive linguistics, psychology and evolutionary biology alike.
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Divided into five sections, this volume provides the reader with insights into the evolutionary dynamics underlying the phylogenetic emergence of language, the psychological and physiological factors influencing language acquisition and development during ontogeny, the cognitive constraints on second language learning imposed by neurobiology, and the interactive relationship between cultural predisposition and language use. Given the multi-disciplinary nature of the 18 contributions, this liber amicorum will interest researchers and students in the fields of cognitive linguistics, psychology and evolutionary biology alike.