Mental Representations for Musicians

This post comes from a book I am working on called Research and Writing for Music History Students: A Field Guide. While the book is aimed directly at students in the music history sequence, the concepts in it apply to anyone who is looking to accomplish research. In this excerpt from the “Principles” section of the book, I discuss “mental representations” as a a way to conceptualize the research process and how to improve it. To read other sections of the book, see other posts on this blog.

Picture in your mind the Mona Lisa.

Now take a step back and observe yourself picturing the Mona Lisa. Consider what you are seeing. If you are like most people, you can call up in your mind a general image of the painting by Leonardo da Vinci called the Mona Lisa. We can call this image your "mental representation" of the Mona Lisa.

Your mental representation will have more or less detail depending on how carefully you have considered this painting up to this moment in your life. Someone with casual contact with the painting might be able to visualize her hair or famously enigmatic smile. An art historian, on the other hand, might see additional details such as the landscape in the background, or more abstract concepts such as the painting's composition and brush technique.

The concept of mental representation was developed by performance psychologist K. Anders Ericsson and his co-author Robert Pool. In their book Peak (2016), Ericsson and Pool use the Mona Lisa as an example of mental representations, and how they differ from one person to the next. They define a mental representation as a "mental structure that corresponds to an object, an idea, a collection of information, or anything else, concrete or abstract, that the brain is thinking about." (58) We draw upon our mental representations constantly throughout the day, as we navigate various decisions and actions.

Mental representations can be revised and refined. Consider, for instance, Nocturne in E-Flat Major, a piece for solo piano composed by Frederic Chopin. For a young intermediate pianist just learning this piece, the mental representation might consist chiefly of a series of notes. In this example, the goal of the pianist is to listen to his playing and evaluate if he is playing the correct notes, and to notice when he plays a wrong note. This is an accomplishment for the young pianist, but is, more broadly speaking, a rudimentary mental representation of the concept of Nocturne in E-Flat Major.

Now consider a professional pianist, a Chopin specialist, and her mental representation of Nocturne in E-Flat Major. She has studied the piece for so many years that the notes have been deeply internalized and rarely have to be consciously focused upon. When she does consider the "notes" of the piece, her mental representation includes much more than the "right/wrong" evaluation of the young pianist. For a single note, she has at her disposal a seemingly infinite number of nuances, subtle gradations of pressure, dynamics, and articulations that make the note speak in just the way she intends. The note connects to larger units of phrases, each containing individual notes with the same number of infinite options. She also understands how the phrases build upon each other, connecting into the arching contours that communicate the formal and emotional high points of the piece. The layers available to this professional pianist also include other, more abstract concepts, such as how this piece fits in with other examples of the Nocturne genre, where it falls in Chopin's output, and how it influenced other composers. All of this is nested within an awareness of yet other relevant concepts: the stylistic and cultural history of nineteenth-century piano, the acoustics in the hall where she is playing, and even the mood of the audience on a particular night.

Now picture in your mind the concept called "The Process of Research." What form does this concept take for you? Is it blurry? Can you make out any distinct areas such as choosing a topic, finding sources, taking notes, organizing ideas, communicating findings? Perhaps when you think of doing research, the thoughts are accompanied by emotions of fear and trepidation. Maybe the idea of research seems so giant that you can't see the end of it, and it looms like a monster in a horror film, hovering just outside of the frame. This is common among students, in my experience. But if we understand the concept of mental representation, we understand that it's not that some students can do research and others can't. There is just a difference in their understanding of the process, and execution. Whatever your mental representation of research, your goal in every research project should be to refine it and improve it.

Mental representations operate on multiple levels. You have a mental representation of the research process that is the result of your previous experience with doing research. The goal of this field manual is to add layers so that you not only hit the correct notes, but manage the nuances. There is also a mental representation of your topic that your research will add layers to. These are the two areas that need to be focused on. Let's call the mental representation of the research process the Process Mental Representation, and your mental representation of your topic the Content Mental Representation.

Let's take an extended example to get a better sense of what a mental representation is, how it operates, and how you can improve it. Picture in your mind the White House. Most people in America would be able to bring up an image of this building, which is the home of the President of the United States of America. The image and its associations that come to mind, perhaps with a general layout of the wings on either side of the main column, is your mental representation of the White House.

Let's say you have never been to Washington D. C., and have never visited the White House. In this case, it is likely that your mental representation of this building exists as a two-dimensional image in your mind, a conglomerate of photographs that you have seen of the building in the past. Now look in your mind at the details of the building: what do the columns look like? Are the roofs domed? How are the balconies situated? How many balconies are there? Unless you are an architect or presidential historian, details such as these are perhaps out of reach for your current mental representation of the White House.

Now let's say you travel to Washington D. C. and visit the White House. You stand at the fence and gaze at the building, perhaps taking pictures with your own camera and pictures in your mind. Your mental representation will have been informed by experience. Your understanding of the building will have gained a three-dimensional layer, however fragile that layer might be from one isolated visit.

As time goes on in our thought experiment, you end up moving to Washington D. C., get a job there, and walk by the White House every day on your way to work. Then one day you decide to finally take a guided tour of the building. As your tour guide cuts a path through the publicly accessible rooms, you view the artwork, see the furniture, grip the staircase railing, hear the sounds of staffers rushing to their next meeting, smell the people, learn about the history of the building and the significant people who walked the halls and events that transpired there. Now your mental representation of the White House has acquired spatial, temporal, and historical layers. Later that evening, when someone asks you to tell them about the White House, your description will go beyond that rudimentary two-dimensional picture you had at first.

What does this thought experiment tell us about research? First, it shows that our mental representation of the research process can be improved. If you have had very little experience performing academic research, you should not expect for your understanding of it to be deep and detailed. The depth and detail comes from working through learning the concepts presented in this field guide, and practicing the skills of research. The more you practice, the more expansive and flexible your mental representation will become through the process of academic research.

Second, the concept of mental representation can give you a framework for charting your improvement in the skill of research. With each research project, even with each research task, your goal should be to add a layer of understanding to your mental representation of the process of research. Sometimes, students get discouraged when faced with a research project because they feel underprepared. But the secret is that the research project is the very opportunity that is provided for you to improve this skill set. No matter where you are starting, resolve to acquire an improved set of research skills by the end of each research project.

Lastly, the concept of mental representation can provide some comfort for researchers, because it reminds us that skill in research will be developed over time, not acquired in a single transaction. There needs to be an element of "seasoning" that comes with time. If you put in the time, and upgrade your research machine little by little, you will get better.