Music Psychology
I'm an interdisciplinary music psychology researcher fascinated by
imagination influenced by music, the relational
nature of listening â experienced in the meeting between the
the person, music, others, and their shared world â and the
beautiful intersection between science & art.
I'm a committed advocate for Open Research: transparent methods,
sharing data and expertise, and publishing work in ways that anyone
can scrutinise, build on, or stumble into with curiosity.
Durham University · Music Department · 2024â2026
My PhD examined music-influenced mental content (MIMC) â the connections,
images, stories, and experiences arising during music listening. I argue that
MIMC should be understood as a relational event (rather than fixed and
retrievable constructs, as much as empirical researchers may wish it to be),
that cannot be fully understood in isolation from the listener, the music,
their contexts and situations.
Four empirical papers build this account using a methodologicalmix of
quantitative, computational NLP, and qualitative methods.
I'm developing this relational lens in further research through a focus on
socially situated, relational listening.
Transdisciplinary & methodologically pluralistic, combining
qualitative, quantitative, and computational NLP analyses including in-situ
fieldwork and a mixed-media co-created public exhibition.
Open data and transparent methods â research is something we do together, not hoard.
Numbers often miss the messy texture of qualitative inquiry. I'm drawn to mixed methods â where reality tends to actually live.
Treating musical imagination as real, but relational â something that comes into being between music, listener, and context, not a fixed property of either.
Centring the listener as an active participant, not a passive vessel to communicate a bounded response evoked by a bounded stimulus.
van der Walle, H. A., Wu, W., Margulis, E. H., Jakubowski, K. · Behavior Research Methods, 57(7), 1â26
A normed stimulus set of 356 instrumental clips across 17 genres, with normative data from 701 participants.
van der Walle, H. A., Wu, W., Margulis, E. H., Jakubowski, K. · Psychology of Music
Mapping the types of thoughts people report during music listening across a 17-genre stimulus set.
View papervan der Walle, H. A., Margulis, E. H., & Jakubowski, K. · PsyArXiv [Preprint]
A computational NLP study testing whether extramusical context shifts the semantic content of imaginative reports.
van der Walle, H. A., Margulis, E. H., & Jakubowski, K. · Imagination, Cognition and Personality
A mixed-method analysis of 14,091 MIMC descriptions across 10 genres, combining qualitative and network analyses.
Rai, L., van der Walle, H. A., Painting, J., & Orgs, G.
Testing whether adding audience reactions to recordings can create a sense of social liveness â can recorded music mimic the effect of live audience presence?
View preprintWolsink, L., Manduch, P., Licata, A. E., van der Walle, H. A., Vornhagen, J. B., Sharma, H., Ngiam, W. XG., Muhoozi, M., Marmyleva, A. & Jaquiery, M.
A practical guide to starting and sustaining a ReproducibiliTea journal club â the grassroots Open Research initiative for discussing reproducibility and open methods.
View preprint
