Andrea Halpern

Professor Halpern teaches in the Department of Psychology as well as the Neuroscience Program.

Educational Background

• Ph.D., Stanford (Psychology)
• B.A. Brandeis Unviersity (Psychology)

Research Interests

Dr. Halpern studies cognitive processes such as memory and thinking, especially for nonverbal materials. Of particular interest to her is how musicians and nonmusicians understand, remember, and react to music. One special interest is auditory imagery, or what is happening when you "hear a tune inside your head." She has studied this using the traditional tools of experimental psychology, as well as with cognitive neuroscience techniques. She is also interested in how both normal aging and Alzheimer's disease affect how people learn and remember music, as well as why some people can sing more accurately than others.

Selected Publications

Halpern, A. R. (2015). Differences in auditory imagery self report predict behavioral and neural outcomes. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain, 25, 37-47. doi: 10.1037/pmu0000081

Halpern, A.R., Zioga, I., Shankleman, M. , Lindsen, J. , Pearce, M. T. &  Bhattacharya, J. (2017). “That note sounds wrong!” Age-related effects in processing of musical expectation. Brain & Cognition, 113, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2016.12.006

Halpern, A.R., Chan, C. H. K., Müllensiefen, D., & Sloboda, J. (2017).  Audience reaction to repeating a piece on a concert programme.  Participations, 14, 135-152. https://www.participations.org/volume-14-issue-2/

Nichols, B. E., Wöllner, C., & Halpern, A. R. (2018). Score one for jazz: Working memory in jazz and classical musicians. Psychomusicology, 28, 101-107. https://doi.org/10.1037/pmu0000211

Colley, I. D., Keller, P. E., & Halpern, A. R. (2018). Working memory and auditory imagery predict sensorimotor synchronization with expressively timed music. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 71, 1781-1796. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2017.1366531

Schubert, E., Halpern, A.R., Kreutz, G., & Garrido, S. (2018). Attraction to sad music: The role of imagery, absorption, and rumination. Psychology of Aesthetics and Creative Arts, 12,  251-258. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/aca0000160

Centanni, T.M, , Halpern, A.R., Seisler, A.R., & Wenger, M.J. (2020). Context-dependent neural responses to minor notes in frontal and temporal regions distinguish musicians from nonmusicians. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-020-00785-6

Regev, M. Halpern, A.R., Owen, A. M., Patel, A. D., & Zatorre, R. J. (2021). Mapping specific mental content during musical imagery.  Cerebral Cortex, 31, 3622-3640. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhab036

Halpern, A.R., Mungan, E., & Peynircioglu, Z. (2021).  Mood judgments and memory for tunes: A special case of levels of processing? Auditory Perception and Cognition, 4, 97-120. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/25742442.2021.1987117

Halpern, A.R. &  Pfordresher, P. Q. (2022).  What do less accurate singers remember? Pitch matching ability and long-term memory for music. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 84, 260-269. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-021-02391-1

May, L., Halpern, A.R., Paulsen, S. D. & Casey, M. A. (2022). Imagined musical scale relationships decoded from auditory cortex. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01858

Greenspon, E. B., Gentile, A. M.,  Pruitt, T. A., Halpern, A. R, & Pfordresher, P. Q. (2023).  Subvocalization during preparatory and non-preparatory auditory imagery. Auditory Perception and Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1080/25742442.2022.2163582

Van Hedger, S. C., Halpern, A. R, , Vollweiler, D. J., Smith, E. E. , & Pfordresher, P.Q. (2024). Is Hey Jude in the right key? Cognitive components of absolute pitch memory. Memory & Cognition 52(5), 1142-1151. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-024-01530-x

Wise, K.J. & Halpern, A.R. (2024). The Activated Singer: Components of an emerging singing identity in adults learning to sing. Music Perception. 41(4), 288-306. https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2024.41.4.288

Armitage, J., Eerola, T. & Halpern, A. R. (2025). Play it again but more sadly: Influence of timbre, mode, and musical experience in melody processing. Memory & Cognition, 53, 869-880. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-024-01614-8

Greenspon, E. B., Pruitt, T. A., Halpern, A. R, & Pfordresher, P. Q. (2025). Effects of vocal-motor interference on vocal pitch imitation. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-025-03073-y