Dr.Seb Silas
Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Systematic Musicology, University of Hamburg. My research investigates how musical information is perceived, remembered, learned, and transmitted, combining music psychology, cognitive science, systematic musicology, and computational modelling. Alongside academic research, I work as a data scientist and musicologist for SoundOut and teach Psychology of Music at BIMM University London.
Current roles
Postdoctoral Researcher
Statistical modelling of the development of musical abilities across the teenage years, and development of musical learning tools.
Data Scientist
Sonic branding research and data products using DevOps/MLOps, R, AWS, and machine learning.
Lead Lecturer, Psychology of Music
Designed and maintain a new Psychology of Music course.
Previous roles
Project Manager, Data Scientist, Programmer
Co-managed the research project and built the technical architecture to track users’ learning of musical items over time.
PhD Researcher
Project: Playing by Ear: A Computational Approach.
Research Scientist
Analysed large datasets and authored academic manuscripts.
Company Director, Tutor of Saxophone and Piano
Managed company operations and music tuition.
Freelance programming & data science 2020–present
Programmer
Created a Rhythm Tapping Test and adapted a singing test for children.
Data Scientist, Programmer
Developed gamified test infrastructure for a large-scale brain development study.
Programmer
Built test infrastructure for singing research.
Programmer
Prepared tutorials for psychological test implementation.
Education
PhD, Systematic Musicology
Thesis: Playing by Ear: A Computational Approach (2026).
MSc Computational Cognitive Neuroscience
First class honours. Thesis: Predicting production from dirty data: Psychometric and Big Data approaches to melodic production.
BSc Psychology with Cognitive Neuroscience
First class honours. Thesis: Does musical training improve general working memory? A causal modelling approach.
BA Music (Jazz Saxophone Performance)
Upper second-class honours.
Awards & scholarships
Douglas C. West Advertising Creative Article Award
For the sonic branding paper “Musical Manipulation of Visual Scenes in Video, Film and TV Advertisements: A Large-Scale Investigation into the Implicit Effects of Sonic Branding”.
PhD Scholarship
€71,200 doctoral scholarship for highly qualified researchers.
PhD Scholarship
€14,935 one-year doctoral scholarship for international research exchange.
Publications
- 2026Silas, S., Robinson, M., Baker, D., Harrison, P. M. C., Jacoby, N., & Müllensiefen, D. (2026). The recall and recognition of sonic logos. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. doi ↗
- 2026Silas, S., Baker, D., Sachet, A., & Müllensiefen, D. (2026). An unsupervised feature selection approach for finding diverse emotional-semantic representations in sonic branding music. Journal of New Music Research. doi ↗
- 2026Silas, S. (2026). Playing by ear: A computational approach [Doctoral thesis]. University of Music, Drama and Media Hanover.
- 2024Silas, S., Baker, D., & Müllensiefen, D. (2024). Musical manipulation of visual scenes in video, film and TV advertisements: A large-scale investigation into the implicit effects of sonic branding. Journal of Advertising Research. doi ↗
- 2023Silas, S., Müllensiefen, D., & Kopiez, R. (2023). Singing Ability Assessment: Development and validation of a singing test based on item response theory and a general open-source software environment for singing data. Behavior Research Methods. doi ↗
- 2023Silas, S., & Müllensiefen, D. (2023). Learning and recalling melodies: A computational investigation using the melodic recall paradigm. Music Perception. doi ↗
- 2022Silas, S., Müllensiefen, D., Gelding, R., Frieler, K., & Harrison, P. M. C. (2022). The associations between music training, musical working memory, and visuospatial working memory: An opportunity for causal modeling. Music Perception, 39(4), 401–420. doi ↗
- 2022Tsigeman, E., Silas, S., Frieler, K., et al. (2022). The Jack and Jill adaptive working memory task: Construction, calibration and validation. PLOS ONE, 17(1), e0262200. doi ↗
- 2021Gelding, R. W., Harrison, P. M. C., Silas, S., Johnson, B. W., Thompson, W. F., & Müllensiefen, D. (2021). An efficient and adaptive test of auditory mental imagery. Psychological Research, 85(3), 1201–1220. doi ↗
- —Silas, S., Frieler, K., & Müllensiefen, D. Development of a melodic similarity algorithm for short recalled melodies. Under review
- —Wycisk, Y., Sander, K., Silas, S., et al. Immersed in all senses? Psychophysiological effects of 3D audio music. In preparation
Conference talks
- 2024Silas, S., Robinson, M., Baker, D., Müllensiefen, D., Harrison, P. M. C., & Jacoby, N. The recall-recognition paradox? A multi-paradigm approach to exploring the memorability of sonic logos. 12th Triennial Conference of ESCOM, York, UK. doi ↗
- 2024Silas, S., Müllensiefen, D., & Kopiez, R. Adaptive training in singing and playing by ear: Enhancing long-term retention through computational item selection. 36th ISME World Conference, Helsinki.
- 2024Silas, S., Müllensiefen, D., & Kopiez, R. The Musical DASH Model: A computational approach to learning new melodic material. 41st Annual Conference of the German Society for Music Psychology, Munich.
- 2023Silas, S. Adaptive Training: A system for longitudinal research on music learning. LongGold Workshop, Hanover. watch ↗
- 2023Silas, S. Make it fun! Gamifying music listening tests. LongGold Workshop, Hanover. watch ↗
- 2023Silas, S., & Frieler, K. The musicassessr ecosystem: Record, measure, score and present feedback about musical production behaviour in real-time, supported by psychometric models. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Musikpsychologie, Hanover.
- 2023Silas, S., Müllensiefen, D., & Kopiez, R. Utilising a new generation of musical production tests to understand musical learning: Singing ability assessment, melodic recall and playing by ear. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Musikpsychologie, Hanover.
- 2022Silas, S., Baker, D., & Müllensiefen, D. Changing the emotional-semantic perception of visual scenes with music: A large-scale investigation into the effects of sonic branding. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Musikpsychologie, Würzburg.
- 2021Silas, S. Construction and validation of the Melody Singing Task using explanatory item response theory modelling. ESCOM, online. watch ↗
- 2021Silas, S., Kopiez, R., & Müllensiefen, D. What makes playing by ear difficult? SEMPRE Conference.
- 2019Silas, S., Müllensiefen, D., Gelding, R., Harrison, P. M. C., & Frieler, K. Does musical training improve general working memory? A causal modelling approach to the associations between general working memory, musical working memory and musical training. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Musikpsychologie, Eichstätt.