Inducing involuntary musical imagery: An experimental study

Abstract

It is still a mystery why we sometimes experience the repetition of memories in our minds. This phenomenon seems to be particularly prominent in music. We believe that present lack of knowledge relates to the lack of methods available for the study of this topic. To improve the understanding of involuntary musical imagery (INMI), this paper proposes a novel method to induce it in experimental settings. We report three experiments that were conducted to evaluate two research questions related to INMI: Can it be experimentally induced, and if so, which factors influence its emergence? Investigation particularly focused on how recent activation of musical memory might predict INMI. The questions were tested in single-trial experiments conducted over the internet. The experiments utilized a cued-recall method to induce INMI and delayed self-reports. Among a large sample of people, the prevalence of the phenomenon was considerable. When the familiarity with the stimuli was controlled for, inducing INMI experimentally succeeded in over 50% of participants. It was found that music rehearsal in the near past was a more important predictor for INMI than very recent activation of musical memories. This suggests that recent activation is a facilitating but not a necessary condition for INMI. Overall, induction of INMI is possible, and several ways to improve the method are proposed.