Cognitive Bias

Listen to the work here!
 
Cognitive Bias is my String Quartet no. 2 in E. This work is inspired by examples of cognitive bias, lapses in judgment that cause people to behave in irrational ways. The work is in four movements, each on a different psychological phenomenon:
I. Tachypsychia: The perception of time as passing slower or faster than it actually does. This is a sonata-allegro movement which explores elements of rhythm, and the sonatas two main themes, in addition to having different key centers, use different rhythmic subdivisions of the same total number of eighth notes.
II. The Dunning-Kruger Effect: The tendency of those with lesser competence or knowledge in an area of study to overestimate their experience or knowledge, as they don’t know enough to be aware of their own shortcomings. This movement contains short chromatic bursts, which always seem like they might develop into more virtuosic flourishes, but never do.
III. Maslow’s Hammer: An overreliance on methodology, explained by the adage “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. This movement is a theme and variations which explores various extended techniques for string instruments in canon, with the cellist stubbornly refusing such techniques until the movement’s end.
IV. Serial Position: The duality between primacy and recency when recalling a list of items, i. e. the hardest items in the list to remember are not at the beginning, but in the middle. This movement is inspired by minimalism, phasing, and additive process, with a long and droning, hypnotic middle section.
The piece, with its proliferation of 20th century compositional devices, was originally composed as an honors project for a 20th Century Composition class at UNT.