Iris Mencke is a researcher interested in the multifaceted nature of human experiences with music. In the center of her interest are neural, behavioral and affective correlates of New and contemporary classical music, a musical style with a particularly high degree of perceptual uncertainty. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, she investigates which mechanisms underly a positive experience with this music. As a project leader she currently studies in which ways high auditory uncertainty and style-specific musical training moderate neural and behavioral processes related to synchronization, prediction and expectancy. 

With an instrinsic motivation to work inter- and transdisciplinary she has been active as music and science journalist, has communicated her research on the radio and in talks for an audience beyond the scientific community. Currently she is co-organising “The Golden Ear Challenge”, a science communication project funded by the VolkswagenFoundation. 

After studying systematic musicology in Potsdam and Berlin, she obtained her PhD in Psychology from the Goethe University by carrying out her interdisciplinary PhD project at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt/Main. Research visits led her to the Music, Mind & Brain Group at Goldsmiths College in London and to the Center for Music in the Brain at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. Recently she received a Junior Fellowship from the Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg – Institute for Advanced Science in Delmenhorst as well as a grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG) in the Walter-Benjamin Programme.

• Music perception, cognition and aesthetics
• Predictive processes and musical expectancy
• New and contemporary classical music
• Aesthetic experiences in context of Western art from the 20th and 21st centuries
• Interdisciplinary dynamics, communication and competencies

• Doctoral Degree, Psychology (Dr. rer. nat.), Max-Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics / Goethe-University, Frankfurt/Main, Germany (2022)
• Visiting Researcher Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark(2019/2020)
• M.A. Musicology, Humboldt-University, Berlin (2016)
• Visiting Student Music, Mind & Brain Group, Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom (2015-2016)
• B.A. Literature and Musicology, University of Potsdam (2012)

• Postdoctoral Funding by the DFG´s Walter Benjamin Programme
• Junior Research Fellowship research area Brain & Mind at the Hanse Wissenschafts Kolleg – Institute for Advanced Science, Delmenhorst, Germany (2023)
• Travel grant, Volkswagen Foundation, Symposium ‘Interdisciplinarity Revisited’ at Humboldt Forum, Berlin, Germany (2019)
• Six months travel grant, Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University, Denmark (2019)
• Research Training Supplement, Graduate School of Health Science, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark (2016)
• PROMOS stipend, German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD (2015/16)

Mencke, I., Green, O. The epistemological nature of qualitative data. In: Knoop, C. Wald-Fuhrmann, M. Oxford Handbook of Systematic Empirical Research in the Arts, Oxford University Press. (in prep)

Omigie, D. & Mencke, I. (2024). A model of time-varying music engagement. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences, 379(1895). doi:10.1098/rstb.2022.0421.

Keitel, A., Pelofi, C., Guan, X., Watson, E., Wight, L., Allen, S., Mencke, I., Keitel, C., Rimmele, J. (2023). Cortical and behavioural tracking of rhythm in music: Effects of pitch predictability, enjoyment, and expertise. bioRxiv2023.10.15.562351; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.10.15.562351

Floridou, G. Mencke, I., Caprini, F., Müllensiefen, D. (2023). The genesis of a tune in the mind: An interview study about novel involuntary musical imagery repetition. Music & Science, 6. https://doi.org/10.1177/20592043231202331   

M. Bürgel, I. Mencke, A. Benjamin, M. Dechert, D. Derks, K. Gerdes, R. Hake, S. Jacobsen, & K. Siedenburg (2023). Unifying concert research and science outreach. Musicae Scientiae, doi.org/10.1177/10298649231182078 

Mencke, I., Omigie, D., Quiroga-Martinez, D. R., & Brattico, E. (2022). Atonal Music as a Model for Investigating Exploratory Behavior. Frontiers in Neuroscience 16. doi:10.3389/fnins.2022.793163

Mencke I, Seibert C, Brattico E, Wald-Fuhrmann M. (2022). Comparing the aesthetic experience of classic–romantic and contemporary classical music: An interview study. Psychology of Music. June 2022. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/03057356221091312

Mencke, I. Appreciating Musical Uncertainty - Characterizing the Cognitive, Neural and Affective Correlates of New Music (2021). Dissertation. Department of Psychology and Sport Science, Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main.

Mencke, I., Quiroga-Martinez, D. R., Omigie, D., Michalareas, G., Schwarzacher, F., Trusbak Haumann, N., Vuust, P., & Brattico, E. (2021). Prediction under uncertainty: Dissociating sensory from cognitive expectations in highly uncertain musical contexts. Brain Research,1773: 147664. doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2021.147664.

Mencke, I., Omigie, D., Wald-Fuhrmann, M., & Brattico, E. (2018). Atonal music: Can uncertainty lead to pleasure? Frontiers in Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience, doi: 10.3389/fnins.2018.00979.

Mencke, I., Herzfeld-Schild, M.-L. (2022) Erfahrungsdimensionen Neuer Musik. Zur intradisziplinären Verknüpfung von psychologischer und kulturwissenschaftlicher Musikforschung, XVIII International Congress of the German Musicological Society (GFM), Berlin, Germany.

Mencke, I., Quiroga, D., Omigie, D., Haumann, N. T., Schwarzacher, F., Michalareas, G., Vuust, P., Brattico, E. (2022) Prediction Under Uncertainty: Dissociating Sensory from Cognitive Expectations in Highly Uncertain Musical Contexts. Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS), San Francisco, California, USA

Mencke, I., Seibert, C., Brattico, E., Wald-Fuhrmann, M. (2021) Comparing aesthetic experience of classic-romantic and contemporary classical music - An interview study. XVII International Congress of the German Musicological Society (GFM), Bonn, Germany.

Mencke, I., Seibert, C., Brattico, E., Wald-Fuhrmann, M. (2021)Comparing aesthetic experience of classic-romantic and contemporary classical music - An interview study. XXVI Conference of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (IAEA), London, United Kingdom.

Mencke, I. (2021) Exploration Revisited – New Music as a Model for Exploratory Behavior Under High Uncertainty Conditions. Conference ‘Art and Affect in the Predictive Mind‘, University of York, York, United Kingdom.

Mencke, I., Quiroga, D., Omigie, D., Haumann, N. T., Schwarzacher, F., Michalareas, G., Vuust, P., Brattico, E. (2021) Prediction Under Uncertainty: Dissociating Sensory from Cognitive Expectations in Highly Uncertain Musical Contexts. 16th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition / 11th triennial conference of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (ICMPC/ESCOM). Sheffield, United Kingdom.

Mencke, I., Quiroga, D., Omigie, D., Haumann, N. T., Schwarzacher, F., Michalareas, G., Vuust, P., Brattico, E. (2021) Prediction Under Uncertainty: Dissociating Sensory from Cognitive Expectations in Highly Uncertain Musical Contexts. The Neurosciences and Music – VII, Aaarhus, Denmark.

Fischinger, T., Mencke, I. (2019). Some Psychological Constraints and Mechanisms for the Perception and Cognition of Time and Rhythm: A theoretical review. Symposium “Time changes in experiences of music and dance“, Hamburg, Germany.

Mencke, I., Seibert, C., Brattico, E., Wald-Fuhrmann, M. (2019). Can Uncertainty lead to Pleasure? The Case of Contemporary Classical Music. Interdisciplinarity Revisited, International symposium organised by the Volkswagen foundation, Berlin, Germany.

Mencke, I., Seibert, C., Brattico, E., Wald-Fuhrmann, M. (2018). Aesthetic experience and musical pleasure in modern music – an interview study. 15th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition / 10th triennial conference of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music, Graz.

Floridou, G. A., Mencke, I., Caprini, F., Williamson, V., Müllensiefen, D. (2017). Novel involuntary musical imagery: The genesis of a tune in the mind.25th Anniversary Conference of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music, Ghent.