The Effect of Unsettling Music on Recall Memory

Memory recall is the process of retrieving information that has been previously encoded and stored in the brain. This process is essential for everyday activities, such as remembering people's names, directions, and important events in one's life. The main relation between music and memory we can see in memory recall - the topic for this essay. Among teenagers and young adults, there is a commonality of not wanting to unplug from music when studying per the insistence of another. However, when we get older we have bad memory. This is relevant in terms of the perception of music and its benefits on memory recall. The process of memory recall is where retrieval takes place in order to access stored memories of a concept, process, or event. Studying music and memory as memory recall is important because a significant population of individuals who struggle with memory impairment such as dementia, require assistance with recall and the individual performance of tasks. There are an estimated 5.8 million Americans of all ages who are living with Alzheimer’s and approximately 200,000 individuals under the age of 65 who have early onset Alzheimer's.

One way to combat this disease is to use music. Music is characterized by an interweaving of melody, pitch, harmony, tone, and rhythm. According to a study conducted by Haj et al. music that was favored and self-initiated contained a large amount of emotional valence. The link between emotion and musically evoked autobiographical memories prevalent in Alzheimer’s disorder is a prominent one, focusing on the relationship between musical components and the established relationship with memory.

Previous research has delved into the correlation between neural relationships of music listening and recall in the human brain. Generally, there is a specific way in which music affects memory recall, particularly when the music selected responds singularly to the listener, specifically auditory presentation styles and musical elements. Furthermore, research suggests that there is a visible benefit of musical encoding on verbal learning in healthy, young adults, with music being a memory booster in normal aging. The current study seeks to examine how unsettling music, rather than the singular variable of music, affects brain cognition in terms of recall memory.

Unsettling Music

Researchers examined the different brain cortex regions that are involved during the process of music listening and memory recollection. The researchers looked for a defined relationship between music listening and recall production. They found that the listening of music and memory recall triggered overlapping neural activity which suggests a joint neurological substratum for both channels. During the recollection of music Ding et al., were able to mark the “intensity profile” of the music being imagined. The specific hypothesis of the study predicted that listening to music and recall would devise comparable levels of neural activity within regions of the brain, but with a contrasting transitory pattern of neural motion among the various regions. This study, as well as others, applies concurrently to the current study by establishing a viable connection between music and memory recall. The current study aims to incorporate the established relationship between music and memory recall, though with an introduction of unsettling music, which has been defined as an altering in either pitch, tone, harmony, melody, or other elements of the particular set of music. The exclusion of this variable, that was prevalent in the study conducted by Ding et al. is consistent with other research in regards music and memory recall.

The researchers Haj et al. examined the relationship between emotion and musically evoked autobiographical memories prevalent in Alzheimer’s Disorder. The researchers looked for an established connection between music that was favored by the listener and it’s resulting effect on emotional memories and autobiographical recall. They found that there was a significant increase in the production of positive emotional words in the experimental conditions, present for both AD patients and healthy older adults, than that of the musical piece, Four Seasons selected by researchers as the control group. 

Music was found to be essential in the relationship between memory and recall. This was evidenced by the results of the studies previously mentioned. Music had an effect on brain activity as well as the relationship between emotion and memory, as showcased by the two previous studies examined. The first finding was that the listening of music and memory recall triggered overlapping neural activity which suggests a joint neurological substratum for both channels. Researchers from the second study mentioned found that there was a significant increase in the production of positive emotional words in the experimental conditions,present for both participant populations than that of a chosen musical piece.

Other researchers have highlighted on the established relationship between memory and recall, though none have integrated the variable of unsettling music, which this current study seeks to look into, as well as to determine if there is an established relationship with memory recall, as previous research has alluded there is a significant correlation between music and memory recall. Additional studies focus more on the corresponding variable prevalent in the existing field of research, that of recall memory.

Recall With Music

Previous research suggests that music recall is a “self-paced behavior, which may last shorter or longer than the music piece being imagined,” in regards to recall. There is a significant relevance between recall and music in general, as conducted by the aforementioned study and others.

Researchers examined how visual and auditory presentation styles integrated with musical elements might foster memory recall. The researchers examined the effects of auditory and visual styles and musical elements on working memory. They found, in all cases, that the auditory condition had more accurate recall than that of the visual condition. This study helps to further accuentate the neurological link between music and memory, emphasizing the strong correlation between auditory conditions and quality of recall. Further research elaborates more on the relationship as well.

When examining the relationship between music and memory recall, researchers investigated whether-or not utilizing music as a mnemonic strategy in the learning of newer verbal stimuli would be effective among different populations, particularly older adults. The researchers looked for a specific effect of the impact of emotional valence, having participants learn texts in association with music that were either positvely or negatively valanced. They found that in older adults song lyrics that were sung were better recalled than that of lyrics that were spoken, but only if the associated music was positively-valenced. This finding applies to the aforesaid study which found, in all cases, that the auditory condition had more accurate recall than that of the visual condition. Both studies found that the listening of music and memory recall triggered overlapping neural activity which suggests a trenchant connection between music and recall memory.

Overall, based on the information above, which states that music has an effect on recall memory, the present study aims to incorporate the variable of unsettling music on recall memory, which has not been integrated in previous research studies. One finding in particular, that of there being a joint neurological substratum for both channels of music and memory recall, offers a solid basis for the current study’s quarry. The specific hypothesis of the current study is that unsettling music has a significant impact on recall memory, more than that of no music.

References

• Kotsopoulou, A., & Hallam, S. (2010). The perceived impact of playing music while studying: age and cultural differences. Educational Studies, 36(4),431–440. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055690903424774
• Memory and Recall | Center for Teaching & Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved February 14, 2020, from teaching.berkeley.edu website: https://teaching.berkeley.edu/resources/learn/memory-and-recall
• El Haj, M., Fasotti, L., & Allain, P. (2012). The involuntary nature of music-evoked autobiographical memories in Alzheimer’s disease. Consciousness and Cognition, 21(1), 238–246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2011.12.005
• Ding, Y., Zhang, Y., Zhou, W., Ling, Z., Huang, J., Hong, B., & Wang, X. (2019). Neural Correlates of Music Listening and Recall in the Human Brain. The Journal of Neuroscience, 39(41), 8112–8123. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.1468-18.2019‌
• Ratovohery, S., Baudouin, A., Gachet, A., Palisson, J., & Narme, P. (2018). Is music a memory booster in normal aging? The influence of emotion. Memory, 26(10), 1344–1354. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2018.1475571
• Silverman, M. J., & Schwartzberg, E. T. (2018). Effects of Visual and Auditory Presentation Styles and Musical Elements on Working Memory as Measured by Monosyllabic Sequential Digit Recall. Psychological Reports, 122(4), 1297–1312. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033294118781937‌