"Ear-Worm" Topic Overview

Topic Introduction

Earworm, sometimes we know it as ‘Involuntary musical imagery (INMI)’, ‘Musical Imagery Repetition’ (MIR), and ‘Stuck Tune Syndrome’ these are situation that you keep thinking about in your head, even when you do not want to. The experience of involuntary musical imagery can occur when  long-term memory especially in sound enter our consciousness. Additionally, the long-term memory processes influence our perception of music without conscious and awareness. For example, people can respond and appreciate music in many different ways because its connect with the listener’s past experience, music education, learning, and expectations which are unique and individual. 

In Grove Dictionary, in psychology in music section, writes about ‘recall’ which is the same as Involuntary musical imagery (INMI). It is described as the reproduction in imagination or behaviour of a past experiences in sequence. It requires more mental resources than recognition. Listeners will recognize much more than they can recall because recall requires some thing to trigger it. Recall is an unintended and unexpected situation that happen during other activities. It is  also can be a result which is related to long-term memory, especially when we try to memorize something with an effort. 

I am always interested in music cognitive, which is the interdisciplinary study of music, psychology, neuroscience, music therapy, music theory, and musicology. I once experienced an earworm before, and it was very annoying, I couldn’t even focus on my practice.  Due to this experience, this research came into my mind knowing that the experience of "Earworm" or "Involuntary musical imagery (INMI)" is related to music cognitive.

I want to know what is an earworm and its characteristic? And if it sticks in our head, can we use earworm as a tool that can improve the way we study music, especially in young children who need to learn by using listening-based music education or the one who want to improve their musicianship's skills.