About Us

Since the inception of MARCS in 1999, it has developed a dynamic and vibrant research culture that has attracted researchers with common interests in auditory research.

Our members' background is mainly in experimental psychology, but we work with people from a range of disciplines, including music, linguistics, phonetics, computer science, speech science, human performance, and engineering, using our skills in cognitive science, research design, statistical analysis, and computer programming. MARCS has a broad inter-disciplinary base but a particular methodological leaning and subject matter - auditory research - which drives our enterprise and fuels our forward momentum.

Why MARCS Auditory Laboratories?

The auditory system is the first to be fully functional in the human foetus, and audition is the means by which we humans gain our first information about the outside world, through the mother's voice. It is also primarily through audition that we acquire that quintessential quality of our humanness, language. Moreover, audition involves information spread over time and, so, implicitly requires an understanding of, and response to, the temporal dimension. Speech and music are two auditory domains that are especially significant for humans, for both promote communication and interaction, as well as linguistic and social competence.

MARCS specialises in research in these two domains, and their temporal correlates of prosody and rhythm, using the arsenal of skills of behavioural and cognitive science, state-of-the-art equipment, robust experimental design, and phonetic, musical, and statistical analysis.

Where are we?

Please see the links at left for instructions on where we are.