Lecture 13 Flashcards
what is an earworm?
inability to dislodge a song and prevent it from repeating itself in one’s head
can earworms be objectively measured?
no sir
- all subjective making it difficult to study
what kind of phenomenon is involved in earworms?
spontaneous
- involuntary
Beaman and Williams
combined survey approach with diary approach
what is the survey approach?
record a single point in time where you write down what you remember about the experience
- cheap, easy and quick
what is the diary approach?
concurrent reports
- prep to log info down
- less potential memory biases
- larger time commitment
what are surveys designed to measure?
- interference experienced: problems with earworms
- emotional responses: overlaps with interference
- what form it takes
- duration and frequency: how often and long
- perceptions of control: theoretical implications
how long did most respondents say earworms last for?
several hours or long
was there a relationship found between musical training and earworms?
no
- those who reported considering music to be important reported experiencing earworms that lasted longer
what was most likely to be the earworm?
chorus or refrain
was there a relationship found between level of interference reported and whether content was lyrical, melody-based or both?
no
t or f: most respondents found earworms to be problematic
f- most were fine with them
10% had a problem
was there a + or - correlation between how unpleasant and worrying earworms could be?
positive
do more or less frequent earworms report greater interference?
less
questionnaire study
- little overlap in earworms
- various mediums
- people have different earworms
people who found problems with earworms reported what?
- music is important
- earworms of long duration
- more difficulty controlling them
involuntary cognitions perceived to be important are more likely to be perceived as __________
problematic
- compared to neutral content
if an earworm was reported as worrying then what was also reported with it?
unpleasantness
diary approach study
- analysis of trends- compare consistencies
- reduce memory biases
- compliment data from survey study
diary study results
- 33% said earworms were solely the chorus
- 28% was the entire song
- avg = 27.25 min
- much shorter than the estimate
- involves the LTM bc it is longer than the capacity of STM
- 33.1% unpleasant, 50.1% pleasant
what was surprising about the diary study?
- very low rates of reoccurrence of specific earworms
attempts to control diary study results
56% no attempt to stop
4% elaborated
21% displacement activities
12% generalized distraction
comparing questionnaire and diary data
- earworms are frequent and idiosyncratic
- length estimated were shorter than survey
- attempts to displace earworm were associated with longer durations
