MUSIC & MEMORY

Ever get a song stuck in your head? These earworms could be helping you. New research from the University of California suggests that remembering a song in your head is more than a passing nuisance – it plays an important role in helping memories form, not only for the song, but also related life events. “Scientists have known for some time that music evokes autobiographical memories, and that those are among the emotional experiences with music that people cherish most,” said Petr Janata, UC Davis professor of psychology and co-author of the study. “What hasn’t been understood to date is how those memories form in the first place and how they become so durable, such that just hearing a bit of a song can trigger vivid remembering,” said Janata. The new research found that the songs that get stuck in your head help the process of strengthening memories as they first form. Thus, this is the first research to link two of the most common phenomena people experience with music – earworms (having a song stuck in your head) and music-evoked remembering. “Our paper shows that even if you are playing that song in your mind and not pulling up details of memories explicitly, that is still going to help solidify those memories,” Janata said. “We typically think of earworms as random nuisance beyond our control, but our results show that earworms are a naturally occurring memory process that helps preserve recent experiences in long-term memory.”