What are memories? How are they stored? How are they recalled? The scuba divers are helping to answer these questions. And, perhaps surprisingly, the answers ultimately involve music.

But for now the divers continue their activities for another 20 minutes; then all of the ocean divers pop up to the surface and finally wade onto the beach. The instructors perform a quick tally of the results, to be later checked in the laboratory. They seem pleased. Another dimension of memory has been identified. The scuba divers are indeed scuba divers but the instructors are psychology professors, and an experiment has just been completed. During the first 30 minutes, both groups were shown the same list of words, on slates. After half of each group exchanged places, all divers were tested to recall as many as possible (writing on their own slates).

This was an experiment to determine how memories are recalled. Specifically, it studied "context-dependent-memory" (CDM). The question is, "To what extent is recall affected by the 'context' (in this case underwater vs. on the beach) of remembrance?" Is recall better or worse when recall occurs in a different place than the original context of learning?

In fact, it seems to be worse. Scuba divers who both learned and recalled in the same context (ocean-ocean and beach-beach) recalled more words than scuba divers who learned and recalled in different places (ocean-beach and beach-ocean), The results show that memory systems in our brains don't act like tape recorders. Rather, the original learning seems to include (or "encode") the contextual background as well as the "main events".

Context-dependent-memory has been studied in many situations. Music turns out to be an important contextual element. For example, Steven M. Smith of Texas A & M University examined the role of background instrumental music. First, subjects viewed a list of words, one at a time. Two days later, they were given a test in which they simply had to recall as many of the learned words as possible. Like the scuba divers, learning and recall took place in the same or different context, but in this case the contexts were musical. There were three conditions during learning for different groups; a Mozart piano concerto (K49 in c), a jazz piece ("People Make the World Go Around" by Milt Jackson), or a quiet background. During the recall test, groups were subdivided so that they received either the same music (or quiet) that was present during learning or different music (or quiet).

Recall was best when the music was the same during learning and recall than when the pieces were changed; quiet during both times did not aid memory. The worse recall when musical context was changed was found to be due to a memory process, rather than to possible distraction. These findings show that background music can enter into memory and aid recall, when it is simply present and not necessarily consciously attended. So a memory is somewhat like a complex weaving, composed of major patterns and also background strands. Hence, the title of this essay: music is a "thread" in the "tapestry" of memory.

Regular readers of MRN may themselves recall a previous essay "Elevator Music, More Than It Seems" (Fall, 1995). There, we pointed out the ubiquity of background music and its ability to alter consumer behavior, social perceptions and mood. And the effect of music on mood was a special subject in a later issue (MRN), Spring 1996). Is it possible that music enters into memory through its effects on mood?

Eric Eich and Janet Metcalfe at the University of British Columbia addressed this issue. They played different compositions to induce different moods, the latter being self-rated by the subjects. A happy mood was induced by playing excerpts from Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik or Divertimento #136 (K number not given). Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor or Barber's pour Cordes were used to produce a sad mood. Subjects rated their moods every few minutes on a mood scale. When they had reached at extreme (very happy or very sad, in different groups), they learned word associations. Recall 48 hours later was done with the music that was concordant or discordant with the mood during learning. The main finding was that recall was worse when the moods were different. So music-induced mood is a thread in the tapestry.

While moods induced by music can enter into the storage and assist the recall of memories, there are also specific aspects of the music itself that can constitute other "threads". William Balch, Kelly Bowman and Lauri Mohler of The Pennsylvania State University investigated the effects of music genre and musical tempo in a series of experiments. First, different groups learned words during one of four instrumental pieces: slow jazz (from "How Long Has This Been Going On?" by Fox, Worth and Cowan); fast jazz (from "Sing, Sing, Sing" by Benny Goodman); slow classical (from Mozart's clarinet concerto in A,); and fast classical (Tartini's "Devil's Trill"). The four groups were subdivided into many groups for the recall test, which received the same or different music compared to the learning condition. The different music was made as different as possible, e.g., a change form slow jazz to fast classical. When tested for word recall, there was a music-dependent result. As might be expected, recall was aided when the music was the same, worse when it was different.

However, reduced recall with different music could be due to different features of the music. For example, learning under fast jazz but recalling under slow classical involves simultaneously changing two features, tempo and genre. Are these equally important? In a second experiment the authors restricted changes to either tempo (e.g., slow jazz to fast jazz) or genre (e.g., slow jazz to slow classical). The results were surprising. Changing tempo impaired recall but changing genre did not.

Balch and Lewis followed this up by a more direct test of the effects of tempo. they played exactly the same pieces in the same or different tempo during recall. Again, they found recall was better with the same tempo, worse with a change in tempo. The authors also checked the effects of changing only timbre by presenting the same selection at the same tempo, with synthesized piano or brass performance. Changing the timbre had no effect. They also found that tempo, but not timbre, could affect mood.

The importance of tempo might be due to the very surprising finding that the general public, not only musicians, appear to have an absolute memory for tempo. Levitin and Cook of Stanford University found that when adult subjects sang popular songs from memory and their tempos were compared with recordings of the same songs, most "performances" had essentially identical tempos.

Overall the research literature shows that background music, itself not a part of a conscious learning task, enters into memory for the material learned. Moreover, recall is better when the music present during learning is also present during recall. Furthermore, tempo appears to be an important component of music's intrusion into memory. Finally, music's effect in altering mood plays a key role.

Of course, extensive research is required to achieve a more complete understanding of the role of music in daily memory and its implications. For example, studying with music may actually impair recall without similar music. In any event, the studies to date reveal that memories are complex constructions consisting of many strands. Learning obviously doesn't guarantee recall but music correctly integrated into the learning experience may well assist it.

1. Godden, D.R. and Baddeley, A.D. (1995). Context-dependent memory in two natural environments: On land and underwater. British J. Psychol. 66. 325-331. The description of the experiment is accurate in essentials but slight liberties have been taken with some details of the scene.
2. Eich E. and Metcalfe, J. (1989). Mood dependent memory for internal versus external events. J. Exper. Psychol. Learn. Memory & Cognition, 15, 443-455.
3. Balch, W.R., Bowman, K., and Mohler, L. (1992). Music-dependent memory in immediate and delayed word recall. Memory & Cognition, 20, 21-28.
4. Balch, W.R. and Lewis, B.S. (1996). Music-dependent memory: the roles of tempo change an mood mediation. J. Exper.Psychol.,Learn. Memory & Cognition, 22, 1354- 1363.
5. Levitin, D.J. and Cook, P.R. (1996). Memory for musical tempo: additional evidence that auditory memory is absolute. Perception & psychophysics, 58, 927-935.

©  2004 Alamo Music Center  04/13/04