David John Baker
Biographic Data
| ID | 3866136 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David John Baker |
| GIVEN NAMES | David John |
| FAMILY NAME | Baker |
| SIGNATURE | BAKER D J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Louisiana State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3921-7517 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 55 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The recall and recognition of sonic logos.
Free will in the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics
David Wallace has argued that there is no special problem for free will in the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, beyond the well-known problem of reconciling free will with physical determinism. I argue to the contrary that, on the plausible and popular “deep self” approach to compatibilism, the many-worlds interpretation does face a special problem. It is not clear on the many-worlds picture how our actions can issue from our most…
Musical Manipulation of Visual Scenes In Video, Film, and TV Advertisements: A Large-Scale Investigation into The Implicit Effects of Sonic Branding
Advertisements frequently pair music with visual imagery to convey information about brand identity. In the context of sonic branding, the authors believe the current study offers the first rigorous tests of the potential of music and audio to manipulate the perception of simultaneously presented visuals and the psychological processes enabling this potential. Their work shows how audio-visual combinations can be explored systematically across bo…
Lyrics and melodies: Do both affect emotions equally? A replication and extension of Ali and Peynircioğlu (2006)
What factors affect listeners’ perception of the emotions conveyed by music? Ali and Peynircioğlu conducted a series of experiments in which listeners rated emotional judgments of the melodies and lyrics of songs. Here, we present a pre-registered replication and extension of their study with newly adapted stimuli, including several covariates using the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI). Using a within-subjects design, we asked p…
What Are Symmetries
I advance a stipulational account of symmetry-to-reality inference, according to which symmetries are part of the content of theories. For a theory to have a certain symmetry is for the theory to stipulate that models related by the symmetry represent the same possibility. I show that the stipulational account compares positively with alternatives, including Dasgupta’s epistemic account of symmetry, Møller-Nielsen’s motivational account, and so-c…
Interpreting Supersymmetry
MeloSol Corpus
This data report introduces the MeloSol corpus, a collection of 783 Western, tonal monophonic melodies. I first begin by describing the overall structure of the corpus, then proceed to detail its contents as they would be helpful for researchers working in the field of computational musicology or music psychology. In order to contextualize the MeloSol corpus in relation to other corpora in the literature, I present descriptive statistics of the M…
The Perceptual Attraction of Pre-Dominant Chords
Among the three primary tonal functions described in modern theory textbooks, the pre-dominant has the highest number of representative chords. We posit that one unifying feature of the pre-dominant function is its attraction to V, and the experiment reported here investigates factors that may contribute to this perception. Participants were junior/senior music majors, freshman music majors, and people from the general population recruited on Pro…
Knox’s inertial spacetime functionalism (and a better alternative)
Embracing Anti-Racist Practices in the Music Perception and Cognition Community
This past summer, the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery in the United States led to public outcry and international protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, and broader awareness of the effects of systemic racism. Following these events, many organizations have reflected critically on how they participate in practices that marginalize underrepresented members of their community. The Society for Musi…
Examining musical sophistication: A replication and theoretical commentary on the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index
The difficulties associated with measuring the complex construct of musicianship have received considerable attention in the music psychology literature. Multiple measures exist for various constructs, yet the need for the careful replication and documentation of the use of these measures remains an area of critical importance. Here, we describe the replication of the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI) in a sample of 346 universit…
The Conventionality of Parastatistics
Nature seems to be such that we can describe it accurately with quantum theories of bosons and fermions alone, without resort to parastatistics. This has been seen as a deep mystery: paraparticles make perfect physical sense, so why don’t we see them in nature? We consider one potential answer: every paraparticle theory is physically equivalent to some theory of bosons or fermions, making the absence of paraparticles in our theories a matter of c…
How is spontaneous symmetry breaking possible? Understanding Wigner's theorem in light of unitary inequivalence
Feedforward strategies in the first-year experience of online and distributed learning environments
Feedforward is an educational strategy focusing on providing students with prior exposure to, and prior practise with assessment in order to clarify expectations and standards. Current research into feedforward has yet to fully consider the specificity of online and distributed learning environments. We have developed a feedforward-based approach to teaching a large first year prerequisite course in screen history involving the modified and criti…
Identity, Superselection Theory, and the Statistical Properties of Quantum Fields
The permutation symmetry of quantum mechanics is widely thought to imply a sort of metaphysical underdetermination about the identity of particles. Despite claims to the contrary, this implication does not hold in the more fundamental quantum field theory, where an ontology of particles is not generally available. Although permutations are often defined as acting on particles, a more general account of permutation symmetry can be formulated using…
Broken Symmetry and Spacetime
The phenomenon of broken spacetime symmetry in the quantum theory of infinite systems seems to point toward an unorthodox ontology. The standard conception of the physical meaning of these symmetries, as changes in coordinates, conflicts with the apparent physical inequivalence of symmetry-related states. I argue that this apparent conflict is an artifact of a subtle error in the extant account of physical equivalence due to Halvorson and Clifton
Antimatter
The nature of antimatter is examined in the context of algebraic quantum field theory. It is shown that the notion of antimatter is more general than that of antiparticles. Properly speaking, then, antimatter is not matter made up of antiparticles—rather, antiparticles are particles made up of antimatter. We go on to discuss whether the notion of antimatter is itself completely general in quantum field theory. Does the matter–antimatter distincti…
Symmetry and the Metaphysics of Physics: Symmetry and Metaphysics
The widely held picture of dynamical symmetry as surplus structure in a physical theory has many metaphysical applications. Here, I focus on its relevance to the question of which quantities in a theory represent fundamental natural properties
Against Field Interpretations of Quantum Field Theory
I examine some problems standing in the way of a successful `field interpretation' of quantum field theory. The most popular extant proposal depends on the Hilbert space of `wavefunctionals.' But since wavefunctional space is unitarily equivalent to many-particle Fock space, two of the most powerful arguments against particle interpretations also undermine this form of field interpretation. 1. Introduction 2. Field Interpretations and Field Opera…
Symmetry and the Metaphysics of Physics: Symmetry and Metaphysics
The widely held picture of dynamical symmetry as surplus structure in a physical theory has many metaphysical applications. Here, I focus on its relevance to the question of which quantities in a theory represent fundamental natural properties
Against Field Interpretations of Quantum Field Theory
I examine some problems standing in the way of a successful `field interpretation' of quantum field theory. The most popular extant proposal depends on the Hilbert space of `wavefunctionals.' But since wavefunctional space is unitarily equivalent to many-particle Fock space, two of the most powerful arguments against particle interpretations also undermine this form of field interpretation. 1. Introduction 2. Field Interpretations and Field Opera…
Antimatter
The nature of antimatter is examined in the context of algebraic quantum field theory. It is shown that the notion of antimatter is more general than that of antiparticles. Properly speaking, then, antimatter is not matter made up of antiparticles—rather, antiparticles are particles made up of antimatter. We go on to discuss whether the notion of antimatter is itself completely general in quantum field theory. Does the matter–antimatter distincti…
Broken Symmetry and Spacetime
The phenomenon of broken spacetime symmetry in the quantum theory of infinite systems seems to point toward an unorthodox ontology. The standard conception of the physical meaning of these symmetries, as changes in coordinates, conflicts with the apparent physical inequivalence of symmetry-related states. I argue that this apparent conflict is an artifact of a subtle error in the extant account of physical equivalence due to Halvorson and Clifton
Knox’s inertial spacetime functionalism (and a better alternative)
Identity, Superselection Theory, and the Statistical Properties of Quantum Fields
The permutation symmetry of quantum mechanics is widely thought to imply a sort of metaphysical underdetermination about the identity of particles. Despite claims to the contrary, this implication does not hold in the more fundamental quantum field theory, where an ontology of particles is not generally available. Although permutations are often defined as acting on particles, a more general account of permutation symmetry can be formulated using…
The Conventionality of Parastatistics
Nature seems to be such that we can describe it accurately with quantum theories of bosons and fermions alone, without resort to parastatistics. This has been seen as a deep mystery: paraparticles make perfect physical sense, so why don’t we see them in nature? We consider one potential answer: every paraparticle theory is physically equivalent to some theory of bosons or fermions, making the absence of paraparticles in our theories a matter of c…
Against Field Interpretations of Quantum Field Theory
I examine some problems standing in the way of a successful `field interpretation' of quantum field theory. The most popular extant proposal depends on the Hilbert space of `wavefunctionals.' But since wavefunctional space is unitarily equivalent to many-particle Fock space, two of the most powerful arguments against particle interpretations also undermine this form of field interpretation. 1. Introduction 2. Field Interpretations and Field Opera…
Antimatter
The nature of antimatter is examined in the context of algebraic quantum field theory. It is shown that the notion of antimatter is more general than that of antiparticles. Properly speaking, then, antimatter is not matter made up of antiparticles—rather, antiparticles are particles made up of antimatter. We go on to discuss whether the notion of antimatter is itself completely general in quantum field theory. Does the matter–antimatter distincti…
Symmetry and the Metaphysics of Physics: Symmetry and Metaphysics
The widely held picture of dynamical symmetry as surplus structure in a physical theory has many metaphysical applications. Here, I focus on its relevance to the question of which quantities in a theory represent fundamental natural properties
Broken Symmetry and Spacetime
The phenomenon of broken spacetime symmetry in the quantum theory of infinite systems seems to point toward an unorthodox ontology. The standard conception of the physical meaning of these symmetries, as changes in coordinates, conflicts with the apparent physical inequivalence of symmetry-related states. I argue that this apparent conflict is an artifact of a subtle error in the extant account of physical equivalence due to Halvorson and Clifton
How is spontaneous symmetry breaking possible? Understanding Wigner's theorem in light of unitary inequivalence
Feedforward strategies in the first-year experience of online and distributed learning environments
Feedforward is an educational strategy focusing on providing students with prior exposure to, and prior practise with assessment in order to clarify expectations and standards. Current research into feedforward has yet to fully consider the specificity of online and distributed learning environments. We have developed a feedforward-based approach to teaching a large first year prerequisite course in screen history involving the modified and criti…
Identity, Superselection Theory, and the Statistical Properties of Quantum Fields
The permutation symmetry of quantum mechanics is widely thought to imply a sort of metaphysical underdetermination about the identity of particles. Despite claims to the contrary, this implication does not hold in the more fundamental quantum field theory, where an ontology of particles is not generally available. Although permutations are often defined as acting on particles, a more general account of permutation symmetry can be formulated using…
The Conventionality of Parastatistics
Nature seems to be such that we can describe it accurately with quantum theories of bosons and fermions alone, without resort to parastatistics. This has been seen as a deep mystery: paraparticles make perfect physical sense, so why don’t we see them in nature? We consider one potential answer: every paraparticle theory is physically equivalent to some theory of bosons or fermions, making the absence of paraparticles in our theories a matter of c…
Embracing Anti-Racist Practices in the Music Perception and Cognition Community
This past summer, the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery in the United States led to public outcry and international protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, and broader awareness of the effects of systemic racism. Following these events, many organizations have reflected critically on how they participate in practices that marginalize underrepresented members of their community. The Society for Musi…
Examining musical sophistication: A replication and theoretical commentary on the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index
The difficulties associated with measuring the complex construct of musicianship have received considerable attention in the music psychology literature. Multiple measures exist for various constructs, yet the need for the careful replication and documentation of the use of these measures remains an area of critical importance. Here, we describe the replication of the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI) in a sample of 346 universit…
MeloSol Corpus
This data report introduces the MeloSol corpus, a collection of 783 Western, tonal monophonic melodies. I first begin by describing the overall structure of the corpus, then proceed to detail its contents as they would be helpful for researchers working in the field of computational musicology or music psychology. In order to contextualize the MeloSol corpus in relation to other corpora in the literature, I present descriptive statistics of the M…
The Perceptual Attraction of Pre-Dominant Chords
Among the three primary tonal functions described in modern theory textbooks, the pre-dominant has the highest number of representative chords. We posit that one unifying feature of the pre-dominant function is its attraction to V, and the experiment reported here investigates factors that may contribute to this perception. Participants were junior/senior music majors, freshman music majors, and people from the general population recruited on Pro…
Knox’s inertial spacetime functionalism (and a better alternative)
Interpreting Supersymmetry
What Are Symmetries
I advance a stipulational account of symmetry-to-reality inference, according to which symmetries are part of the content of theories. For a theory to have a certain symmetry is for the theory to stipulate that models related by the symmetry represent the same possibility. I show that the stipulational account compares positively with alternatives, including Dasgupta’s epistemic account of symmetry, Møller-Nielsen’s motivational account, and so-c…
Musical Manipulation of Visual Scenes In Video, Film, and TV Advertisements: A Large-Scale Investigation into The Implicit Effects of Sonic Branding
Advertisements frequently pair music with visual imagery to convey information about brand identity. In the context of sonic branding, the authors believe the current study offers the first rigorous tests of the potential of music and audio to manipulate the perception of simultaneously presented visuals and the psychological processes enabling this potential. Their work shows how audio-visual combinations can be explored systematically across bo…
Lyrics and melodies: Do both affect emotions equally? A replication and extension of Ali and Peynircioğlu (2006)
What factors affect listeners’ perception of the emotions conveyed by music? Ali and Peynircioğlu conducted a series of experiments in which listeners rated emotional judgments of the melodies and lyrics of songs. Here, we present a pre-registered replication and extension of their study with newly adapted stimuli, including several covariates using the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI). Using a within-subjects design, we asked p…
Free will in the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics
David Wallace has argued that there is no special problem for free will in the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, beyond the well-known problem of reconciling free will with physical determinism. I argue to the contrary that, on the plausible and popular “deep self” approach to compatibilism, the many-worlds interpretation does face a special problem. It is not clear on the many-worlds picture how our actions can issue from our most…
The recall and recognition of sonic logos.
Physics (11 works) · Quantum Mechanics and Applications (11 works) · Theoretical physics (11 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Epistemology (9 works) · Mathematics (9 works) · Quantum mechanics (9 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Relativity and Gravitational Theory (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works)