Dissecting an earworm: Melodic features and song popularity predict involuntary musical imagery.

Abstract

Citation for published item:tkuowskiD uF nd pinkelD F nd tewrtD vF nd w¤ ullensiefenD hF @PHITA 9hisseting n erworm X melodi fetures nd song populrity predit involuntry musil imgeryF9D syhology of esthetisD retivityD nd the rtsFD Q F Further information on publisher's website: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. The reason this question is so difficult to answer may reside with the fact that the likelihood of a tune becoming INMI is potentially influenced by a wide array of both intra-musical (e.g., musical features and lyrics of a song) and extra-musical factors (e.g., radio play, context in which it appears as INMI, previous personal associations with a song, and the individual cognitive availability of a song). The present research examines some of these previously unaddressed factors by examining the musical features of and popularity (e.g., chart position, recency of being featured in the charts) of songs frequently reported as INMI. Related Previous Research on INMISeveral researchers have examined extra-musical features that increase the likelihood that a song will become INMI. Lab-based studies have found that the song that has beenInvoluntary musical imagery 4 heard aloud most recently is more likely to become INMI than a song heard less recently (Hyman et al., 2013;Liikkanen, 2012b), and recent exposure to a tune is generally the most frequently reported trigger of INMI experiences in diary and questionnaire studies (Bailes, 2015;Floridou & Müllensiefen, 2015;Hemming, 2009;Jakubowski, Farrugia, Halpern, Sankarpandi, & Stewart, 2015;. Familiarity can also increase the likelihood that a song will become INMI. Byron and Fowles (2013) found that participants who were exposed to a previously unfamiliar song six times were more likely to experience

Involuntary musical imagery as a component of ordinary music cognition: A review of empirical evidence

“…Most INMI research to date has emphasized the idiosyncratic nature of the experience, as evidenced by the fact that in naturalistic approaches, such as diary studies, most participants report an entirely different set of music as INMI in comparison with other participants. However, large-scale survey approaches can reveal commonalities between INMI tunes reported by multiple participants (Jakubowski et al, 2017), which aligns with the longstanding everyday notion-which has more recently appeared in the music psychological discourse (see, e.g., Burgoyne, Bountouridis, van Balen, & Honing, 2013)-that certain pieces of music are inherently "catchier" than others. Although research to date has revealed some melodic features that appear to increase the likelihood that a tune will become INMI, in addition to broader features such as the presence of lyrics and common focus around the chorus, there is still much work to be done in this area.…”

Developing Interactive Educational Songs for Introductory Statistics

“…It is also generally valuable for educational songs to be concise (as seen at https://www.CAUSEweb.org/smiles/songs, half the songs are under 90 sec) and memorable (consistent with the work of Jakubowski et al 2017). For an example of the latter, two of the project songs use a melody ("Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star") specifically described by Senthilingam (2016) as highly memorable because of its rhythmic pattern and simple musical contour.…”

Involuntary and voluntary recall of musical memories: A comparison of temporal accuracy and emotional responses

“…The type of involuntary musical memory that we focused on in this work was involuntary musical imagery (INMI, or “earworms”)—the spontaneous recall and repetition of a piece of music within the mind. Previous research on INMI has focused on such topics as identifying common triggers of INMI episodes and the contexts in which INMI is most likely to occur (Floridou, Williamson, & Stewart, 2017 ; Hyman et al, 2013 ; Williamson et al, 2012 ), individual differences in personality, musical background, and cognitive styles that predict INMI frequency and reactions to INMI (Beaman & Williams, 2013 ; Beaty et al, 2013 ; Liikkanen, 2012 ; Müllensiefen et al, 2014 ), strategies for alleviating unwanted INMI (Beaman & Williams, 2010 ; Williamson, Liikkanen, Jakubowski, & Stewart, 2014 ), and commonalities between musical features of frequently-reported INMI tunes (Jakubowski, Finkel, Stewart, & Müllensiefen, 2017 ). Some parallels to IAMs have also been revealed.…”