The Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC), a scholarly organization dedicated to the study of music cognition, recently honored Dr. Amy Belfi, an associate professor of psychological science at Missouri S&T, with its Mentorship Award and Early Career Award.

The society presents the Mentorship Award to members who excel at mentoring others in achieving their career objectives, providing skill-based and socioemotional support to students, and promoting equity, diversity and inclusion. The Early Career Award is given to society members with demonstrated leadership potential who have made outstanding research contributions to the study of music cognition and perception in the first decade following completion of their advanced degree.

“It is wonderful to be recognized by the society because I am very proud of its work supporting music cognition research,” says Belfi. “I have been a member of SMPC for over a decade and am grateful for the community and resources it has provided me throughout my career.”

The music cognition topics Belfi’s research covers include music and autobiographical memory, musical imagery, aesthetic judgments of music, and musical anhedonia. She uses various techniques to investigate these subjects, including behavioral studies, neuropsychological approaches, functional neuroimaging and psychophysiology.

Belfi earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from St. Olaf College and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Iowa. She joined Missouri S&T in 2017 from New York University, where she served as a postdoctoral associate.

About Missouri S&T

Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,000 students located in Rolla, Missouri. Part of the four-campus University of Missouri System, Missouri S&T offers over 100 degrees in 40 areas of study and is among the nation’s top public universities for salary impact, according to the Wall Street Journal. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit www.mst.edu.