Literature Reviews

Literature Review

What is an Involuntary Musical Imagery?

Involuntary Musical Imagery or Earworm relates to long-term memory which influence our perception of music. It will occur when long-term memory of music enter consciousness, this can appear to be very common. Because our experience of music is moderated in many different ways by these long-term memory processes and it connected with the listener’s past musical experience. Interestingly, Halpern and Bartlett wrote that earworms are not reported as primarily frustrating but are often enjoyable. From what I have read in ‘Bennett, Sean. Musical Imagery Repetition (Master) from Cambridge University Press, Bennett give four reasons why music gets stuck in our heads: 

(1) Repetition inherent in certain musical structures causes stuckness.

(2) Musical simplicity causes stuckness.

(3) Incompatibility between text and music or rhythm and meter causes stuckness (Syncopation).

(4) Personal anxiety and other neuroses can cause stuckness.

What are the difference between ‘recognition’ and recall’

In this discussion I will focus on the statement from The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musician No.20 that write about recognition and recall in music psychology session. Starting with ‘Recognition’, recognition comes from past experiences and it is a  process that operates in perception to match incoming information to previously stored information. Interestingly, elementary recognition process can be demonstrated in early infancy, or even before birth. However, if the cognitive processes are complex it will be hard for us to recognize. There is evidence that even trained musicians find it hard to keep the starting-key of a heard composition in memory if it modulates several times or have a lot of transformations of musical materials. For example, changing in rhythm of a melody can interrupted recognition easily even though the pitch have not changed. 

On the other hand, ‘Recall’ is the reproduction, either in imagination or behaviour of a previously experiences. Most of recall generally requires more mental resources or trigger  than recognition so that means a listener will recognize more than he or she can recall. As a musician, failures in recall certainly brought a stage fright and inappropriate mental contents. However, this can relate to Involuntary Musical Imagery (INMI) because musical recall is the unintended results that come from other mental processes and memorizing effort. Interestingly that short pieces of music that are part of the culture such as rhymes, popular songs and television theme tunes, tend to be remembered without any effort.  

Memory Systems Concept

Schacter and Tulving define that memory systems is a set of brain processes that can store and recall information. Here are 5 memory systems that they categorized, first is ‘Implicit memory’ but most scientists often called it as the perceptual representation system (PRS). The second one is ‘Working memory’ or  ‘Short-Term Memory’. The third one is procedural memory. The fourth is ‘Episodic Memory’ and the last is ‘Semantic Memory’.

Implicit memory (also called the Perceptual Representation System or PRS). 

Implicit memory refers to a memory that shapes and guides how a person reacts to new stimuli.

Working memory (formerly called short-term memory)

Baddeley wrote that it is believed that most memories that are not permanent are working memories.  For example, when we asked to retain a phone number for dialing purposes, absolutely that we cannot remember the number forever, just long enough to dial it. 

Procedural memory

This memory system refers to a memory that is usually motor in nature, more like a muscle memory. Baddeley explained that remembering how to play a musical instrument or ride a bicycle are a good examples of procedural memory.

Semantic memory 

This memory system refers to our general knowledge about the world such as facts, ideas, and concepts which is very individual to personal experiences. Other examples of semantic memory include types of food, capital cities of a geographic region, or the lexicon of a language

Episodic memory

Episodic memory refers to specific memories linked to a time or place. Remembering a specific birthday party from childhood or the time you handed in your Ph.D. dissertation are good examples of episodic memories. This memory can be memories that happened to us directly or just memories of events that happened around.

Involuntary Musical Imagery (Earworn) characteristic

Dr. Kelly Jakubowski was part of a team of researchers in the United Kingdom that set out the team to examine what the catchy songs have in common and what is the characteristic of earworm music. They found that most earworms have three characteristics in common: They’re all have a very syncopated rhythm or the thing we known as “upbeat”. Not only they have predictable melodies which tends to be a simple, but also have and a surprising twist inside that melody. According to Dr. Jakubowski, humans were able to memorize and communicate effectively by using sound or tune as a signs before alphabets were created. 

From what I have read, I strongly agree that earworms are connected to our past experiences, and moderated in many different ways. It is a fact that earworms is an unintended circumstances that come from a mental process. Also, the statement about ‘recall’ that earworms are generally require more mental resources or trigger  than recognition. Failing in recall somehow certainly brought a stage fright and inappropriate mental contents during musical performance. I also agree that short pieces of music which are part of the culture such as rhymes, popular songs and television theme tunes, tend to be remembered without any effort.  

However, I disagree with the statement that INMI will occur when long-term memory of music enter consciousness. In my opinion, INMI can happen few minutes after you listen to a song, so this is why I think that INMI also relate to short-term memory. Additionally, I quite disagree with Bartlett’s writing about earworms experience that earworms are often enjoyable. For me, as a trained musician, earworms are very frustrated and have a huge impact when I am practicing.

Most of the article about earworm often focus on memory and how earworm is individual. So, I am interested in “why earworm music typically is a pop-music? Are there any classical pieces that can be an earworm?”. And if we talk about characteristics of earworms, it is clear that most of the earworm piece tend to have a simple melody and syncopated rhythm. So, the question is “A melody will more likely to be an earworm if it is simple and we hear just a few times or more complex melody but we hear it many times?