Memory for music

A music recognition test was used to explore the effect of several musical dimensions and listener‐related factors on memory for music. Twenty short pieces of instrumental music (modern jazz) which had been heard once previously were mixed with 20 similar distractor pieces and subjects asked to indicate which pieces had been heard before. Music which had been independently rated as familiar‐sounding, melodic, pleasing and of low complexity was more likely to be recognized and these four dimensions were roughly equally predictive of recognizability. Independently rated memorability did not predict recognizability and nor did two formal structural measures, ensemble size and tempo. Musically competent subjects were better than non‐competent ones at recognizing very familiar‐sounding music but not less familiar‐sounding music. Recognition ability was not related to amount of prior musical listening experience. Results are discussed in the context of theories linking recognizability to the ease with which pieces can be assimilated into existing frames of reference and recognition ability to the number, quality and relevance of existing referents

Active listening · Cognitive psychology · Context (archaeology) · Melody · Musical · Musicality · Relevance (law) · Visual arts · Communication · Diverse Music Education Insights · Music Therapy and Health · Neuroscience and Music Perception · Psychology

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  Toni A Bechtold, Lorenz Kilchenmann et al.•Music Perception An Interdisciplina…•2023

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