About
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.
Education
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
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Eerola, T., & Anderson, C. (2026). A Meta-Analysis of Music Emotion Recognition Studies. ACM Computing Surveys.
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.
Projects
Dissertation
My dissertation work 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 statistical analyses.
Collaborations
I have also worked on collaboration projects applying my experience in sound synthesis, experiment design, data analysis, software development, and academic writing.