Understanding inner music: A dimensional approach to musical imagery.

Abstract

Inner music-hearing music inside your head that isn't playing in the environment-is a common experience that takes many forms. Research on inner music, however, has primarily emphasized instances of involuntary, aversive musical imagery, such as "earworms." The present research develops a new conceptual framework, consisting of five fundamental dimensions, that can advance our understanding of inner music. In an experience-sampling study, a sample of musicians and people from the general university community (N = 132) was recruited to examine inner music as it occurs in-the-moment in everyday life. Over the course of a week, participants were contacted throughout the day and asked about their experiences with inner music, with an emphasis on the five dimensions: Affective Valence, Repetitiveness, Vividness, MentalControl, and Length. The results showed that there is variability at both the within-person and between-person levels on each of the proposed dimensions-people have a variety of musical imagery experiences, not just a few different types. Additionally, these dimensions were related to three different individual difference factors: personality, musical expertise, and auditory imagery ability. Openness to experience and extraversion, musical training, and the ability to form vivid auditory images were the primary predictors of the qualities of inner music. Additionally, the present research has implications for how musical imagery is measured-retrospective and in-the-moment reports differed considerably, suggesting people cannot accurately recall their inner music experiences. Overall, the findings show considerable variability in musical imagery and that focusing on specific types of inner music (e.g., earworms) ignores many other experiences. Looking at the qualities of inner music will be fruitful for future work and broaden the scope of research.

Mental control of musical imagery: Comparing tonal and song stimuli.

“…Some studies have asked questions that allude to people's ability to exert control over their musical imagery experiences. In their everyday lives, people don't often initiate musical imagery (Bailes, 2015;Beaty et al, 2013;Cotter et al, 2019). Cotter et al (2019) asked a sample of undergraduate students, via experience sampling, whether they had initiated their musical imagery-people reported doing so approximately 25% of the time, suggesting that involuntarily-initiated imagery is the norm.…”

Tuning the inner radio: The mental control of musical imagery in everyday environments

“…Musical imagery-hearing music in your mind that isn't simultaneously playing in the environment-is ubiquitous. Most people report experiencing musical imagery sometimes (Bailes, 2007(Bailes, , 2015Cotter, Christensen, & Silvia, 2018), yet little is known about the inner radio in people's natural environments. Recent research has emphasized earworms-involuntary, repetitive episodes of musical imagery that is a type of involuntary musical imagery (Williams, 2015)-but this emphasis raises an interesting question: How well can people exert control over their musical imagery?…”

“…Past experience-sampling method (ESM) studies show that people don't often start their imagery deliberately (Cotter et al, 2018), and survey work suggests that involuntary musical imagery is common (Liikkanen, 2008(Liikkanen, , 2011. It is thus important to distinguish between the control people typically exert and the control they can exert when motivated to do so.…”

NetworkToolbox: Methods and Measures for Brain, Cognitive, and Psychometric Network Analysis in R

“…Other than centrality, node impact could be interpreted in terms of the community (i.e., clustered sets of connected nodes) structure of the network. A positive impact value means that when the node is removed, the distinctiveness (or "orthogonalness") of the communities in the network increases (Cotter et al, 2018). Conversely, a negative impact value means that when the node is removed, the distinctiveness of the communities in the network decreases.…”