Cameron J. Anderson

I’m a music cognition researcher in the Music, Acoustics, Perception and LEarning (MAPLE) Lab at McMaster University. My research examines the perceptual implications of music’s historic changes by blending approaches from empirical musicology and cognitive psychology.

M.Sc. in Psychology

2019 - 2021 · McMaster University, Hamilton ON

Thesis: Elements of musically conveyed emotion: Insights from musical and perceptual analyses of historic preludes.

B.Mus. in Music (Music Cognition Specialization)

2015 - 2019 · McMaster University, Hamilton ON

Thesis: Making musical medical alarms: Examining melodic alarm recognition accuracy across contrasting timbres

Journal Articles

Delle Grazie, M., Anderson, C. J., De Souza, J., & Schutz, M. (2025). Analysis from multiple perspectives (AMP): Applying decision hygiene to analysis of musical structure. Musicae Scientiae.

Anderson, C. J., Ling, J., & Schutz, M. (2025). Beyond the notes: Clarifying the role of expressivity in conveying musical emotion. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Anderson, C. J., & Schutz, M. (2023). Understanding feature importance in musical works: Unpacking predictive contributions to cluster analyses. Music & Science.

Anderson, C. J., Sreetharan, S., Elizondo López, A. E., Schlesinger, J. J., & Schutz, M. (2023). Improving auditory alarms: Reducing perceived annoyance with musical timbre (a randomized trial). Perioperative Care and Operating Room Management.

Anderson, C. J., & Schutz, M. (2022). Exploring historic changes in musical communication: Deconstructing emotional cues in preludes by Bach and Chopin. Psychology of Music.

Preprints

Eerola, T., & Anderson, C. J. (2025). A meta-analysis of music emotion recognition studies. (preprint).

Emotional Piano Project

Cam’s research at the MAPLE Lab examines the relationship between composers’ expressive choices and music’s perceived emotion using a combination of formal music analysis, perceptual experiments and machine learning approaches.

Auditory Alarms Project

Cam has also worked on a project examining how musical considerations in the design of medical auditory alarms can reduce their perceived annoyance.

• Cognitive psychology, empirical musicology, emotion, timbre, tone synthesis, machine learning.

• [email protected]