Psychometric evaluation of the Involuntary Musical Imagery Scale (IMIS) in a South African sample

Abstract

Involuntary musical imagery (INMI) is a common variety of musical imagery (MI) that has been a key research interest in the psychology of music over the last ten years. The Involuntary Musical Imagery Scale (IMIS), a closed-ended self-report instrument that offers a standardized means of assessing different aspects of earworm experience, has previously been evaluated psychometrically in at least two predominantly Euro-American samples. This report extends the study of INMI, and of the IMIS in particular, into a multicultural and multilingual African context. Responses to the IMIS from a South African student sample were subjected to factor analysis, reliability analysis, and a series of correlational analyses in order to assess its robustness and suitability for cross-cultural research. Results suggest the IMIS has a robust factor structure, reliability characteristics, and internal intercorrelation patterns when compared to previous findings, even outside a Global North setting. Item and subscale scores generally converged with other indicators of MI and INMI frequency, as well as INMI pleasantness and levels of disturbance. In contrast to the findings of much previous research, IMIS Negative Valence correlated negatively with earworm frequency, section length, and episode length, providing support for the claim that earworms are generally a positive rather than aversive experience. Although IMIS earworm frequency was strongly and positively correlated with INMI frequency, they shared only 36.8% variance – a result consistent with concerns that MI/INMI definitions have considerable impact on self-reports of these phenomena, and specifically that the earworm experience should not be equated with or considered prototypical of INMI experience.

Involuntary, Limited, and Contiguously Repeating Musical Imagery (InLaCReMI): Reconciling Theory and Data on the Musical Material Acquired by Earworms

“…Consistent with this theory, Levitin (2006, p. 155) proposed that short-term store capacity would set the boundaries for INMI fragment duration, suggesting a range of 15-30 s. Beaman and Williams (2010) surmised that this duration represents that found in "theme music for television shows [which] seem to get stuck more oftenor to affect more peoplethan complex pieces of music" (p. 639). Using a retrospective, self-report design for gathering data on general INMI experiences, Pitman et al (2021) concurred, finding fragment durations were typically in the range 10-30 s. Liikkanen and Jakubowski (2020) cautioned against retrospective self-report methods because of their limitations in estimating the duration of INMI episodes (see also Beaman, 2018), and such estimates would benefit from diverse methods of investigation. Moeck et al (2018) developed an INMI induction procedure that was not dependent on retrospective selfreport, because the participant was exposed to a piece of music, with the undisclosed intention of implicitly triggering an earworm in a laboratory setting.…”

“…In periods of relaxation and mind-wandering a so-called default mode network of the brain is believed to be activated (Raffaelli et al, 2018). According to Buckner et al (2008), the network is active when individuals are focused on thoughts and matters not directly concerned with the current external environment.…”