A common misconception among music administrators is that a music cognition laboratory must cost a lot of money. Some costs are involved, but they are more modest than is generally thought. Here are the facts about the Ohio State University Cognitive and Systematic Musicology Laboratory (CSML).
| SPACE | CSML has a 450 sq ft area with two IAC sound attenuated rooms to run experiments. | A quiet room big enough for one person and a computer is sufficient to enable an experimental research program. |
| SUBJECT POOL | CSML recruits music students from our 2nd year aural skills courses; students receive a 5% bonus for participating in a music experiment. | A subject pool costs nothing to run. Some organizational responsibility is involved, but experience shows this involves only a few hours per quarter once it has been set up. |
| COMPUTERS | CSML uses PCs, Macs and Unix systems. Most of our computers were donated by the Hewlett-Packard Corporation. | One generic computer is sufficient to run experiments. |
| SOUND-GENERATION | CSML has several sound generating options, but most of our experiments make use of standard MIDI sound cards. | Ninety percent of experiments can be run using an ordinary built-in sound card with a good pair of headphones. |
| SOFTWARE | CSML has developed dozens of special-purpose software tools to help us with our research. | All of the software needed to get started can be obtained from other researchers free of charge. |
| COMPUTER SUPPORT | CSML has a 25% time laboratory technician who is shared with three labs. | Computer support is important, but most academic units provide some support as a matter of course. |
| BUDGET | CSML has a $3,000 annual budget to help cover incidental expenses, including maintenance, repairs, cables, tapes, headphones, etc. | Some discretionary budget is important to "grease" the research. Most music research programs can be bootstrapped with just $500 or $1,000 annually. |
| PEOPLE | CSML has special funding to support a post-doctoral fellow, however all of our graduate students are "self-supported" through normal theory GTAs or from campus-wide scholarship competitions. | People are important. In most music institutions, students can be supported through existing regular GTA and scholarship channels. Providing a pleasant space with coffee machine, microwave, sofa, etc. is important to encourage sustained student involvement. |