Williamson, V.J., Jilka, S.R., Fry, J. et al. (3 more authors) (2011) How do "earworms" start? Classifying the everyday circumstances of Involuntary Musical Imagery. Psychology of Music, 40 (3). 259 - 284. ISSN 0305-7356
Abstract
Involuntary Musical Imagery (INMI) or "earworms" describes the experience whereby a tune comes into the mind and repeats without conscious control. The present article uses an inductive, generative, grounded theory-based qualitative analysis to classify reports of everyday INMI circumstances, and creates graphical models that determine their relative frequency within two population samples; listeners to the BBC radio station 6 Music and an online survey. Within the two models, four abstract categories were defined that described the characteristics of the circumstances surrounding the onset of INMI episodes; Music exposure, Memory triggers, Affective states, and Low attention states respectively. We also note the variety of musical media by which exposure to a tune results in an INMI episode and discuss the impact of musical engagement on INMI experiences. The findings of the present study are considered within a framework of involuntary retrieval theory from both the autobiographical and semantic memory literatures. In addition, the results highlight the potential facilitative effects of varying affective and attentional states on INMI episodes.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2011 Author/s. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Psychology of Music. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | affective states; attention states; everyday music listening; involuntary autobiographical/semantic memory (IAM/ISM); involuntary musical imagery (INMI) |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sheffield) > Department of Music (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 12 Nov 2015 15:49 |
Last Modified: | 13 Nov 2015 09:47 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0305735611418553 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/0305735611418553 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:90893 |