This paper examines the social and musical co-ordination between members of a student string quartet in rehearsal and performance. Devised as an exploratory observation and interview study, a two-tier analysis of the data is undertaken. The first deals with broadly socio-cultural issues, the second with moment-by-moment social and musical co-ordination. The results indicate that there are many factors that influence the functioning of such an ensemble. These include personal concerns about particular social dynamics within the group, performance anxiety worries, as well as immediate musical demands relating to the co-ordination of content and process. The paper concludes with a discussion of ways in which further studies of social and musical co-ordination might be developed. In particular, emphasis is given to the need for the development of a comprehensive theoretical framework reflecting a more adequate conception of music ontology and encapsulating the mutuality of the multi-tier social and musical factors.

This paper examines the engagement of theory with mainstream social psychology in terms of developments in social cognition and perception. The particular focus is the development and reception of the `ecological' or `mutualist' approach to social perception and cognition. The introduction of some terms of central concern is followed by a brief review of some of the ontological and epistemological issues that have perplexed empirical studies of social knowing. This is followed by documentation and appraisal of attempts over the past twenty-five years to `socialize' ecological psychology and to address the role of language and culture in social knowing. The final section considers some of the conceptual and methodological constraints that have impeded the promulgation of an ecological perspective. Although ecological notions have failed to make much impact on the mainstream, it is concluded that the growing interest in embedded and embodied cognition suggests the continuing relevance of the ecological approach with its relational ontology and emphasis on the reciprocity of perception and action.

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The handedness of three groups of accomplished musicians (623 instrumentalists, 331 composers, and 584 choir members) was assessed using a standard questionnaire (Oldfield, 1971). While the three groups of musicians did not differ from one another, there was evidence of a modest, but significant, increase in the proportion of left-handers and mixed-handers among the musicians when compared with a normal population. It was found, for example, that 12-2% of the male and 11-8% of the female musicians were lefthanded as defined by the Laterality Quotient (Oldfield, 1971). These figures compared with 8-5% male and 7 3% female left-handers in their respective age-matched control groups. Further evidence of an increased proportion of left-handed musicians was found for the single item, writing hand. This latter finding suggests that the differences in handedness were not simply a consequence of musical training.