Ana Clemente, Ph.D.
Main Research Areas
- Biological mechanisms of expertise
- Computational and neurobiological mechanisms of behavior
- Biocultural evolution
Specific Research Topics
- Brain plasticity and skill acquisition in musical expertise
- Gene-environment interaction in musical expertise
- Expert (musical) working memory
- Motivation, learning, and reward
- Active inference and hedonic evaluation
- Natural and artificial cognition and creativity
Vita
Academic Education
| 2017–2021 | Ph.D. in human evolution and cognition, Thesis: Aesthetic Sensitivity. Supervisor: Dr. Marcos Nadal. Panel: Prof. Josep Marco-Pallarés, Prof. Dr. Oshin Vartanian, Em. Prof. Dr. Gisèle Marty. Viva: 22/06/2021. Award: Excellent cum laude, International doctorate. University of the Balearic Islands, Spain |
| 2016–2017 | M.Sc. in human evolution and cognition, Thesis: To Touch or not to Touch: Multimodal Experience in the Aesthetic Appreciation of Sculptures in an Art Gallery. Supervisor: Dr. Marcos Nadal. Research in collaboration with the Center of Contemporary Art CCA Andratx. Panel: Prof. Dr. Antoni Gomila, Prof. Dr. Enric Munar, Dr. Marcos Nadal. Viva: 21/09/2017. Award: 10/10. UIB and Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems (IFISC), Associated Unit to the Superior Centre for Scientific Research (CSIC), Spain |
| 2007–2010 | M.Phil.in art history, Ph.D. Program Open stages: The multidisciplinary in art and music, University of La Laguna, Spain |
| 2005–2007 | M.Mus. in solo performance, Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf, Germany |
Academic Appointments
| 2023–2026 | Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Cognitive Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Germany, and Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, McGill University, Canada |
| 2022–2023 | Margarita Salas postdoctoral fellow, Learning from Reward Group, Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, and Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, Spain |
| 2020 | Visiting researcher (research leader and supervisor of M.Sc. students in the course DM2350 Human Perception for Information Technology), Division of Media Technology and Interaction Design, and Division of Speech, Music, and Hearing, Royal Institute of Technology KTH Stockholm, Sweden |
| Since 2020 | Visiting researcher, Music Cognition Lab, School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, UK |
| 2017–2021 | La Caixa INPhINIT doctoral fellow, Human Evolution and Cognition Research Group, University of the Balearic Islands, Spain |
| 2013–2017 | Associate professor, Superior Conservatory of Music of the Balearic Islands, Spain |
| 2011–2012 | Adjunct secretary, Superior Conservatory of Music of the Canary Islands, Spain |
| 2010–2012 | Head of Erasmus program and Bureau of international relations, Superior Conservatory of Music of the Canary Islands, Spain |
| 2010–2011 | Head of the Department of winds and percussion, Superior Conservatory of Music of the Canary Islands, Spain |
| 2007–2013 | Associate professor, Superior Conservatory of Music of the Canary Islands, Spain |
Publications
Articles in peer-reviewed journals
2026
Van Welzen, K., Clemente, A., Ullén, F., & De Manzano, Ö. (2026). Non-linear relationships between creativity ratings of musical improvisations and melodic complexity. Creativity Research Journal
2025
Clemente, A. & Penacchio, O. (2025). Hedonic foraging: From reward to action. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.04.652128
de Fleurian, R., Clemente, A., Benetos, E., & Pearce, M. T. (2025). Expectation elicits music-evoked chills. bioRxiv, 2024-10. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.02.616280
Clemente, A. (2025). Commentary on Friedman et al. (2025): A General preference for complexity?. Empirical Musicology Review, 19(2), 95–101. https://doi.org/10.18061/emr.v19i2.9841
2024
Clemente, A., Board, F., Pearce, M. T., & Orgs, G. (2024a). Dynamic complexity in audiovisual aesthetics. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000685
Clemente, A., Kaplan, T. M., & Pearce, M. T. (2024b). Perceptual representations mediate effects of stimulus properties on liking for music. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.15106
Hamilton, M., Clemente, A., Hall, E., & Pearce, M. (2024). The Billboard Melodic Music Dataset (BiMMuDa). In Transactions of the International Society for Music Information Retrieval,2024, 7(1), 113–128. https://doi.org/10.5334/tismir.168
Penacchio, O., & Clemente, A. (2024). Meta-learning in active inference. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 47, e159. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24000074
2023
Clemente, A., Friberg, A., & Holzapfel, A. (2023a). Relations between perceived affect and liking for melodies and visual designs. Emotion, 23(6), 1584–1605. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001141
Clemente, A., Penacchio, O., Vila-Vidal, M., Pepperell, R., & Ruta, N. (2023b). Explaining the curvature effect: Perceptual and hedonic evaluations of visual contour. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000561
2022
Clemente, A., Pearce, M. T., & Nadal, M. (2022). Musical aesthetic sensitivity. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 16(1), 58–73. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000381
2021
Clemente, A., Pearce, M. T., Skov, M., & Nadal, M. (2021). Evaluative judgment across domains: Liking balance, contour, symmetry, and complexity in melodies and visual designs. Brain and Cognition, 151, 105729. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2021.105729
2020
Clemente, A., Vila-Vidal, M., Pearce, M. T., Aguiló, G., Corradi, G., & Nadal, M. (2020). A set of 200 musical stimuli varying in balance, contour, symmetry, and complexity: Behavioral and computational assessments. Behavior Research Methods, 52(4), 1491–1509. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-019-01329-8
Corradi, G., Chuquichambi, E. G., Barrada, J. R., Clemente, A., & Nadal, M. (2020). A new conception of visual aesthetic sensitivity. British Journal of Psychology, 111(4), 630–658. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12427
Nadal, M., Corradi, G., Barrada, J. R., Clemente, A., & Chuquichambi, E. G. (2020). Reply to Myszkowski et al. (2020): Some matters of fact concerning aesthetic sensitivity. British Journal of Psychology, 111(4), 663–664. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12443
Book chapters
Clemente, A. (FA, CA) (2022). Aesthetic sensitivity: Origin and development. In Skov, M. and Nadal, M., eds., The Routledge International Handbook of Neuroaesthetics (pp. 240–253). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003008675-13 ISBN: 9780367442743
Theses
Clemente, A. (2021). Aesthetic Sensitivity. Doctoral dissertation in human evolution and cognition, University of the Balearic Islands (UIB). https://www.tdx.cat/handle/10803/673506?locale-attribute=en
Clemente, A. (2017). To Touch or not to Touch: Multimodal Experience in the Aesthetic Appreciation of Sculptures in an Art Gallery. Master’s dissertation in human evolution and cognition, University of the Balearic Islands (UIB). https://dspace.uib.es/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11201/146222/tfm_2016-17_MCEV_asc735_1340.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Open sources
Hedonic foraging: https://osf.io/xzag6/
Open resources
Billboard Melodic Music Dataset (BiMMuDa): https://github.com/madelinehamilton/BiMMuDa
Complexity in AudioVisual Aesthetics (CAVA) stimulus set: https://osf.io/e5uh9/
Liking for visual symmetry (LiS) stimulus set and source code: https://osf.io/tu4dk/
Music Chords (MIC) stimulus set: https://osf.io/zvbxu/
MUsical STimulus (MUST) set and toolbox: https://osf.io/bfxz7/
Naturalistic MUsical STimulus (NatMUST) set: https://osf.io/k6gme/
Visual Contour (ViCo) stimulus set and widget: https://osf.io/kv38d/
Invited speaker (keynotes, seminars, and workshops)
2024
Clemente, A. (2024/05/24). Hedonic foraging: An active inference account of behavior. Workshop. Annual Retreat of the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Berlin, Germany
Clemente, A. (2024/04/26). Hedonic foraging: An active inference account. Seminar. Queen Mary University of London, University of Barcelona, University of Cambridge
Clemente, A. (2024/01/26). Aesthetic sensitivity. Seminar. Computational Audition Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2023
Clemente, A. (2023/11/2–4). Aesthetic sensitivity. Keynote. Aesthetic Experience: Philosophical, Psychological and Neuroscientific Perspectives, II International Congress on Beauty and Change, Turin, Italy
Clemente, A. (2023/04/03). Hedonic evaluation of multisensory objects. Seminar. Open Lab Seminar series, Cultural Data Analytics (CUDAN), Tallinn, Estonia
2022
Clemente, A. (2022/11/21). Interdisciplinary cross-fertilization: From cognitive psychology to AI and back. Datasounds, Datasets and Datasense Workshop, KTH Stockholm, Sweden
Clemente, A. & Brielmann, A. (2022/05/04). This is predictable! Predicting aesthetic experience. Art in Conversation, St Andrews University, UK
2021
Clemente, A. (2021/12/07). Aesthetic sensitivity. LOGOS Research Group in Analytic Philosophy, University of Barcelona, Spain
Clemente, A. (2021/11/16). Aesthetic sensitivity. Centre for Music and Science (CMS) Seminar series, University of Cambridge, UK
Clemente, A. (2021/10/15). Aesthetic sensitivity. TMH Seminar, KTH Stockholm, Sweden
Clemente, A. & Ruta, N. (2021/03/02). Contrasting perceptual and hedonic judgments of visual contour. Vision Club, University of St. Andrews, UK
2020
Clemente, A. (2020/11/17). Aesthetic sensitivity and perceived affect. Sound and Music Interaction Seminar, KTH Stockholm, Sweden
Clemente, A. (2020/10/29). Free exploration and free play in music. Higher Seminar, Royal College of Music KMH Stockholm, Sweden
Clemente, A. (2020/03/13). Aesthetic sensitivity. Computational Robotics and Intelligent Systems for the People Lecture (CRISP), Queen Mary University of London, UK
Clemente, A. (2020/03/3–6). Aesthetic sensitivity. Perception, Cognition, Aesthetics (PCA) Group – Centre for Digital Music (C4DM) – Music Cognition Lab (MCL), Queen Mary University of London, UK
Popular science
Clemente, A. (2024/10/16). Aesthetic experience. Knowledge Day, LaCaixa Foundation
Clemente, A. (2022). Why do we like what we like? The neuroscience behind the objects that please us. The Conversation (ISSN 2201-5639). https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-like-what-we-like-the-neuroscience-behind-the-objects-that-please-us-196330
Clemente, A. (2022). Por qué nos gusta lo que nos gusta. RTVE. https://www.rtve.es/play/audios/inquietamente/inquietamente-valor-hedonico-diferentes-gustos/6631416/
Clemente, A. (2022). Por qué nos gusta lo que nos gusta? The Conversation (ISSN 2201-5639). https://theconversation.com/por-que-nos-gusta-lo-que-nos-gusta-181524
Preprints
Clemente, A. (FA, CA) & Penacchio, O. (2025). Hedonic foraging: From reward to action. bioRxiv.
https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.04.652128
de Fleurian, R., Clemente, A., Benetos, E., & Pearce, M. T. (2024). Expectation elicits music-evoked chills. bioRxiv, 2024–10.
https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.02.616280
Awards & Grants
Research Awards & Honors
2025 | Academy Fellowship Award, Johanna Quandt Young Academy (JQYA), Goethe University |
| 2022 | Frank X. Barron Award, American Psychological Association (APA), Division 10: Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts |
Research Fellowships & Grants
| 2025 | Academy Fellowship Award, Johanna Quandt Young Academy (JQYA), Goethe University (€10,000), PI |
| 2022–2024 | Margarita Salas postdoctoral fellowship, NextGeneration EU & Spanish Ministry of Universities (€100,800.00), PI |
| 2021–2023 | Music complexity sensitivity task (MUSICOS; Junior Leader Incoming Grant, PI: Ernest Mas-Herrero, 2021–23), La Caixa Foundation (€305,000.00), collaborator (2022–23) |
2021–2023 | Investigating earworms as a model to understand the neural and psychological mechanisms of auditory cognition (EARWORMS; PID2020-116252GA-I00, PI: Ernest Mas-Herrero), Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (€90,750.00), collaborator (2022–23) |
| 2020 | Short-term Scientific Mission (STSM), NordicSMC (SEK11,422.97), PI |
| 2019–2022 | Information and curiosity as sources of reward in humans: Oscillatory and neural mechanisms (INWARD; PGC2018-098032-B-I00, PI: Josep Marco-Pallarés), Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities (€121,000.00), researcher (2022) |
| 2019–2020 | Music Research Grant, Tobias Norlind Samfundet (SEK5,000.00), PI |
| 2019–2020 | Music Research Grant, Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien (SEK5,000.00), PI |
| 2018–2023 | Pre-natal exposure to urban AIR pollution and pre- and post-Natal Brain development (AIR-NB, PI: Prof. Dr. Jordi Sunyer), European Research Council (€2,499,992.00), collaborator (2022–23) |
| 2017–2020 | La Caixa INPhINIT doctoral fellowship (LCF/BQ/ES17/11600021, 108,000.00 €) plus Final Thesis Award (€7,500.00), PI |
| 2016–2021 | The sensorimotor bases of the preference for curvature. Implications in the perception of art and in autism spectrum disorder (PSI2016-77327-P, PIs: Prof. Dr. Enric Munar and Dr. Jaume Rosselló, 2016–21), Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (€64,735.00), researcher (2020–21) |
| 2016–2017 | Master’s scholarship, Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport (€2,466.43), PI |
Artistic Awards & Grants (selection)
| 2007–2009 | High Specialization in the Arts Grant, Spanish Association of Artists and Performers AIE (€1,700.00) |
| 2006–2007 | Humboldt-Wardwell Stipendium, Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung (€8,000.00) |
| 2006–2007 | Culture Professionals Grant, Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport (€5,450.00) |
| 2004–2006 | Graduate scholarships, JONDE–Fundación Caja Madrid (€9,550.00) |
| 2003 | Young Performer Award, Castilla y León Culture Council |
| 2003–2004 | Culture Professionals Grant, Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport (€5,400.00) |
| 2002 | Ibermúsica Foundation Award (€6,000.00) |
| 2001–2005 | Youth in concert Grants, Castilla y León Culture Council |
| 2000 | Best student Award, Martín Códax International Music Festival |
Projects
- Neuropsychology of Expert Musical Working Memory
Expertise is defined as superior performance within a specific domain (Ullén et al., 2016) and is characterized by specific behavioral skills reliant upon brain plasticity. Music has emerged as a fruitful domain for the ...
- Hedonic foraging: A computational framework for understanding behavior
As a side project, I cultivate a strong interest in understanding the computational and neurobiological mechanisms of behavior (e.g., Penacchio & Clemente, 2024). Integrating hedonic evaluation—the process of assigning hedonic value ...