Songs heard between the ages of 15 and 24 should be remembered better and have a stronger relationship to autobiographical memories when compared with music from other phases of life ("reminiscence bump effect"). Additionally, the proportion of music-evoked autobiographical memories (MEAMs) is at a maximum in these years of early adolescence and then declines up to the age of 60. In our study we tried both to replicate these important findings based on a German sample and to further investigate the influence of the affective characteristics of the songs on the frequency of participants' autobiographical memories. In Experiment 1 a group of adults (N = 48, M age = 67.1 years) listened to excerpts from 80, number-one, popular music hits from 1930 to 2010 and gave written self-reports on MEAMs. In Experiment 2 the affective characteristics were rated by another group of adults (N = 22, M age = 66 years) and were used to predict the frequency of MEAMs. As a main result of Experiment 1, we confirmed the reminiscence bump and decline effect with a small effect size for the ratings of feelings evoked by the song and with a medium effect size for the song recognition performance of those songs released during the participants' age range of 15 to 24 years. The total number of MEAMs was only marginally influenced by a memory bump and decline effect, and participants showed a significant proportion of MEAMs up to the fifth decade. Experiment 2 revealed that the affective ratings of the songs were unequally distributed over the two-dimensional emotion space unlike the average rate of MEAMs which was nearly equally distributed. In contrast to previous research, we therefore conclude that

Recent meta-analyses have confirmed the significance of three personality traits of the Five-Factor Model (FFM) in predicting academic achievement, namely, conscientiousness, emotional stability (neuroticism), and openness. However, there is little agreement on which FFM traits are relevant in predicting academic achievement in music. The underlying mechanisms for the observed correlations between personality traits and academic achievement are also unclear. Thus, by including self-theories as mediator variables, we examine the relationships between personality traits, academic achievement in music and their underlying mechanisms. We analyzed longitudinal data collected from secondary school students ( N = 564, Mage = 11.98) in Germany and the United Kingdom in 2017 and 2018. A series of path models were used to examine the effect of personality traits and self-theories on academic achievement in music and overall achievement, while controlling for previous achievement. Conscientiousness and agreeableness emerged as best predictors of the development of overall performance and achievement in music, respectively. Subjective theories about one’s own musicality (e.g., musical self-theories) affect academic achievement in music even when personality traits and previous achievements are accounted for. This study demonstrates that personality traits contribute to the development of musical self-theories that in turn affect the growth of academic achievement in music.

ZusammenfassungDie vorliegende Studie untersucht das Selbstkonzept im Schulfach Musik im Kontext der aktuellen Forschung zum bereichsspezifischen akademischen Selbstkonzept. Dazu werden die Zusammenhänge zwischen dem Selbstkonzept im Schulfach Musik und (1) Selbstkonzepten in weiteren Schulfächern und bezogen auf Schule allgemein, (2) Noten und (3) intrinsischen Werten in verschiedenen Schulfächern geprüft. Weiter werden Unterschiede in der Struktur und in den Mittelwerten verschiedener akademischer Selbstkonzepte mitsamt dem Selbstkonzept für das Schulfach Musik zwischen Jungen und Mädchen sowie zwischen musikalisch aktiven und nicht-aktiven Schülerinnen und Schülern untersucht. Die Stichprobe umfasste N = 442 Schülerinnen und Schülern der Klassenstufen 7 bis 9. Das Selbstkonzept im Schulfach Musik zeigte einen höheren Zusammenhang zu Selbstkonzepten verbaler Schulfächer als zu Selbstkonzepten mathematisch-naturwissenschaftlicher Schulfächer. Weiter zeigte das Selbstkonzept im Schulfach Musik höhere Zusammenhänge zur Note und zum intrinsischen Wert im selben Fach als zur Note und zu intrinsischen Werten anderer Schulfächer. Musikalisch aktive und nicht-aktive Schüler unterschieden sich nicht in der Struktur, aber in den Mittelwerten der akademischen Selbstkonzepte. Das gleiche galt für Jungen und Mädchen, wobei der Geschlechtseffekt im Mittelwert für das Selbstkonzept im Schulfach Musik zugunsten der Mädchen auf die ungleiche Geschlechtsverteilung in der musikalischen Aktivität zurückging. Die Ergebnisse lassen den Schluss zu, dass sich bekannte Phänomene des akademischen Selbstkonzepts auf das Selbstkonzept im Schulfach Musik übertragen lassen.

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