The author thanks Ehtibar Dzhafarov, Tony Marley, and anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier versions of this article. The research for the article was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Louis Narens, Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, 3151 Social Science Plaza, Irvine, CA 92697-5100. Lo...

I first met Bob in 1969. He had just come to New York to join the systems staff at the Courant Institute. We had a CDC6600 back then, but our computing services were in the dark ages. Bob was hired to debug a home-grown time sharing system that didn’t work. He turned out to be a perfect hire; Bob thoughtfully discarded the code and built the system afresh. Our acquaintance was casual for years....

What does it mean to say that one is listening to a piece of music, to a performance, or an artist? Initially, it may seem that there is little or no difference between these three questions. Upon closer reflection, though, there may be significant differences and these may be contingent on a variety of variables pertaining to musical content. This paper examines the case of listening to Bob Dy...