Publications, Press, & Presentations
Embedded Files
My work sits at the intersection of music, psychology, and user experience. Below, you’ll find a selection of my peer-reviewed research, public talks, podcast interviews, and media features — all focused on making sound more measurable, accessible, and emotionally impactful.
Talks & Podcast Appearances
Horror film music conveys at least two subtypes of fear
Invited talk at the Third Annual Aarhus Workshop on Recreational Fear, hosted at Aarhus University on 9 August 2023.
You can find the published paper here.
Music and Emotion
Interview on my research on music and fear, released on 24 March 2023, as part of the Arts Matter Research Series by the College of Arts and Law, University of Birmingham. You can view the Twitter release here.
Photo by Sergiu Baica on Unsplash
Horror Film Sound
Podcast Interview on Across Acoustics discussing my work on scary film music, released on 28 October 2021. Listen to the episode here.
More Talks
Does Scary Music Mimic Biological Voice Signals of Threat?
Watch my presentation at the Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC) Conference, held on 5 August 2022.
Fear, Music, and The Brain: What Makes Music Scary with Caitlyn Trevor PhD
Podcast Interview on Music Tectonics discussing my research on horror film music, released on 28 October 2021. Listen to the episode here.
Does Terrifying Film Music Scare us by Mimicking Human Screams?
Click here to watch my public presentation on scary music for Scientifica, held on 5 September 2021.
Scary music mimics alarming acoustic feature of human screams
Presentation at the 2nd International Conference on Timbre (Timbre2020), held on 3 September 2020. Watch here.
Press & Media Features
The Objective, 2023
Popular Science, 2023
El País, 2024
Discover Magazine, 2021
Select Peer-Reviewed Publications
Music as an evolved tool for socio-affective fiction – Emotion Review, 2024
Live music stimulates the affective brain and emotionally entrains listeners in realtime – PNAS, 2024
Acoustic and structural differences between musically portrayed subtypes of fear – Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2023
Musicians can reliably discriminate between string register locations on the violoncello – Music Perception, 2022
Terrifying film music mimics alarming acoustic feature of human screams – JASA Express Letters, 2020
Animated performance: 'Better' music means larger movements – Music Theory Online, 2018
Are humoresques humorous? On the similarity between laughter and staccato – Empirical Musicology Review, 2018
Are stopped strings preferred in sad music? – Empirical Musicology Review, 2016
Want to feature me in your event, podcast, or publication?
I love talking about sound strategy, music cognition, and how we can use research to design better audio.
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