EMOTION MEMORY AND MUSIC: A CRITICAL REVIEW AND
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEACH.
Annemieke Johanna Maria Van den Tol1, Timothy David Ritchie2
1
University of Kent (United Kingdom), Canterbury (United Kingdom) & De Montfort
University, Leicester (United Kingdom)
2
Department of Psychology, Saint Xavier University, Chicago (USA)
[email protected], [email protected]
Abstract
In this chapter we briefly but critically review current research on musicinduced emotions, and the emotional response to music evoked memories.
Current research struggles with finding appropriate approaches to investigate
music-evoked memories. One new method is the use of self-selected rather
than experimenter-selected music.
As part of an empirical study we tested the validity of using self-selected music
to study music-evoked memories. Moreover, with the use of self-selected
music, we tested and confirmed the hypothesis that music that evokes sad
memories is more like to portray sad than happy emotions. It was additionally
found that familiarity of self-selected music is linked to liking, aesthetic value,
meaningfulness, intensity of emotional response, vividness of mental imagery,
and detail of the memory.
Keywords: music-evoked memories, positive or negative emotions, selfselected music.
1 INTRODUCTION
“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a
charm to sadness, and life to everything.” (Plato, 428 BC –348BC)
“Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without”. (Confucius, 551-479 BC)
Almost everyone loves to listen to music, and music has a strong impact on people’s lives. More
specific, recent findings show that the average western person has about 140 different music groups
on his or her computer’s music library (1) and listens to music for three and half hours per day (2).
Music is the number one topic that University students discuss when they are just getting to know
each other (3). Moreover, humans have been engaged in the making of instrumental music for at least
1000 years (4), but likely way longer (5). This conclusion was based on the findings on uncontested
bone flutes which were made from wing bones of a swan, and were indicated by scientist to date back
to 36,800 ± 1000 years ago (4). It is understood that even our common ancestors the Neanderthals
already engaged in musical activities including singing and playing instruments (5).
The use of advanced research methods in contemporary music psychology research is breathing new
life into music listening research. This includes a growing body of research into the role of emotions in
music, a topic which interested scholars for centuries, such as Confucius (551-479 BC), Plato (428
BC-348 BC) and Aristotle (350 BC) and the use of music for memories.
In this chapter, we will review findings from contemporary research in music and emotion in more
detail and also relate it to the research that has currently been done on the topic of music-evoked
memories. Based on our review we will propose a relatively new and alternative way to research
music-evoked memories and emotions. More specific, we will make an argument for researching selfselected music based on findings of our review and research that indicates that familiarity of music
enhances a variety of different music listening experiences.
1.1 Emotions and music
Contemporary research in the field of emotions and ‘listening’ can be roughly categorized into three
main topics. These are studies that (a) explore how music can be used to self-regulate affect (b)
studies that focus on how music portrays affect (c) and studies that test how music conveys affect.
Whereas the later field of research is centred within the broader field of music and self-regulation.
1.1.1 Music and self-regulation
Music has been implicated to be a versatile and effective tool to regulate emotions, as well as
cognitions (6, 7). For example, a recent study suggests that music listening is most often used as a
tool for regulating affect after talking to friends (8). Participants in this study reported that they
consciously tried to regulate their affect in over 50 percent of music listening episodes and that almost
half of the other episodes influenced how they felt. When people had to rate the most effective ways
through which they regulated affect and cognitions it was found that, among a variety of options
(specific time alone, engage in memories, think about future events, eat, reading a book or magazine,
and watch TV or film), music listening was most effective. Music listening was also rated as most often
used in comparison to all others options when trying to distract, disengage, vent, feel pleasant, reduce
tension, cope, and to engage in suppression or denial. In addition, relaxation, distraction, and active
coping were more often used for affect regulatory goals when listening to music in comparison to the
strategies of introspection and venting (8, 9). In other words, music listening is an effective and often
used tool to regulate a variety of different affective states.
Two researchers from Finland (6) were among the first to provide a broad theoretical framework of
how music can be used to regulate affect. In a qualitative study, they explored the music related
activities that 11 Finish adolescents employed to regulate their affective states. Seven different types
of regulatory strategies were generally used in an attempt to improve and control affect. These
strategies were: Entertainment, using music for creating a nice atmosphere and happy feelings;
Revival, using music for personal renewal and getting new energy when feeling stressed and tired;
Strong sensation, using the music as a means to search for strong emotional experiences; Diversion,
using music as a means to forget unwanted feelings and thoughts; Discharge, using music for
emotional disclosure; Mental Work, using music for contemplation and reappraisal; and Solace, using
music to search for feelings and being accepted. They noted that “one musical activity could serve as
a means for realizing multiple regulatory strategies, even at the same time” (p. 102, 6). In line with
these findings, recent findings have shown that people’s daily music favourites reflected daily events
and do not always reflect long-term music favourites (10).
1.1.2 Music portrays affect
When asked to indicate the emotions portrayed by music, people easily recognised which emotions
are expressed and portrayed (11, 12,13). More specifically, the results of several recent reviews
indicate that even though small differences exist in the accuracy of perception of expressed emotions
in music, the general perception of emotions in music is robust, especially for happy and sad music
(11,12,13). In other words, self-identified happy and sad music is almost as accurately recognized for
sounding happy or sad by a listener, as music selected by a researcher based on musical features.
The musical features that are typical to happy and sad music have also been studied by many
different researchers. In one of the overview studies on this topic (14), it was concluded that emotion
perception in music stems from the features of the music, such as tempo, mode and sequence of tone
use, instrument choice, dynamics, and volume. For example, it has been found that music with a slow
pace, low sound level, and minor chords does often portray and elicit more sadness than music with a
fast tempo, high sound level and major chords, which are believed to be the characteristics of happy
music (11, 14, 15). Performers typically use different techniques to convey emotions while playing.
Happy emotions are typically expressed by staccato articulation and louder intensities, whereas
sadness is expressed by soft, dynamics, legato articulation, and soft tempo (16, 17). Furthermore,
many of these features are thought to show similarities to expressive voice features
(18) and some might be universals (19).
1.1.3 Music conveys affect
Recently, researchers (20) also took on the task of summarizing the many theories resulting from the
rapidly growing field of research on music’s emotional effect on people. Based on these findings the
researchers created a theoretical framework which includes six different pathways trough which music
affects people’s emotions: brain stem reflexes, which refers to when “fundamental acoustical
characteristics of the music are taken by the brain stem to signal a potentially important and urgent
event” (p. 364); evaluative conditioning, which refers to music that “has been paired repeatedly with
other positive or negative stimuli” (p. 364); emotional contagion, which refers to when “the listener
perceives the emotional expression of the music, and then ’mimics’ this expression internally, which by
means of either peripheral feedback from muscles, or a more direct activation of the relevant
emotional representations in the brain” (p. 365); visual imagery, which refers to when a listener
experiences emotions “because he or she conjures up visual images (e.g., of a beautiful landscape)
while listening to the music. The emotions experienced are the result of a close interaction between
the music and the images” (p. 366); episodic memory, which refers to when ”music evokes a memory
of a particular event in the listener” and therefore results in experiencing emotions (p. 367); musical
expectancy, which refers to when ”a specific feature of the music violates, delays, or confirms the
listener’s expectations about the continuation of the music”, and therefore results in experiencing
emotions (p. 368).
Later research by Juslin (21) added Aesthetic judgment to the list of pathways through which music
can induce emotion. Aesthetic judgment , refers to a subjective evaluation of the aesthetic value of the
music based on an individual set of weighted criteria. In line with these findings recent research has
found that this listening to sad music in adverse situations can be an adaptive strategy to enhance a
sad mood if the music is either selected based on its aesthetic value (22), or to help one work through
one’s negative emotions, or distract the self (22).
Another group of researchers (23) conducted a study with a focus on catching emotional experiences
that are not commonly mentioned in relation to (non-music) everyday life emotional experiences. They
concluded that music-evoked emotional experiences can be roughly divided into 10 groups, which are:
Tender-longing, amazement, tranquillity, joy, activation, power, sensuality, transcendence, dysphoria
and sadness. The results of their study also showed that people actively listen to music to self-induce
the following emotions: Joyful activation (happy/ excited), sadness (sad/ depressed), tension
(stressed/ tense), power (energetic), peacefulness (calm/ relaxed) and nostalgia (thoughtful/
melancholic/ nostalgic) (23). Recent research on emotions evoked by episodic memories during music
listening has indicated that these emotions can be of all kind but that nostalgia is experienced most
often (24). It has additionally been found that music evoked episodic memories are particularly
emotionally ‘vivid’ when it regards music from adolescence and young adulthood (24).
1.1.4 Music conveys and portrays affect
Gabrielsson (25) outlined the importance of differentiating between perceived and conveyed
emotions. With regards to this distinction it may be interesting to note that of the list of processes
described above emotional contagion is the only process that links musical emotional expressions with
induced emotions (24). However, research has identified that empathy with a performer or composer
to whom expressions might be attributed (24, 26), can additionally induce emotion in a listener that are
similar to those expressed in the music. More specific, recent research (26) has found that emotional
contagion and trait empathy can predict the strength of the link between recognized and felt emotions
in music listening.
1.1.5 Other research
Other research on ‘music and emotions’ focuses on topics such as the effects of personal and
situational factors that influence the perception of emotions expressed in music (27) and preferred
music (28) among several others. As these topics are less relevant to the current paper we will not
review these studies in detail here.
1.1.6 Music and emotions reviewed
To summarize, contemporary research on music and emotions is extensive and includes a variety of
topics. Music is a powerful and versatile tool for regulating emotions, and contemporary research on
emotion and listening includes a variety of mental health disciplines. Researchers have clearly
established how music can be used in everyday life for psychological purposes such as to change
emotion, intensify and enhance affect (6,7,8,9,10). Whereas, researchers have identified what kind of
musical features play a role emotions perception in music (11, 14, 15, 16, 17). Researchers have
additionally identified the psychological and physiological processes that are active before and during
affective responses to music (18, 19, 20, 21, 22). Researchers have also identified what kind of
emotions people experience as a reaction to music (11, 12, 13, 23, 25, 26) and how these emotions
are different to emotions experienced as a reaction to non-music stimuli (23, 24). Moreover,
researchers have engaged in several other research projects in which these topics mentioned before
were related to personal and situational factors ( 27, 28).
1.2 Music-evoked memories and emotions.
Probably the second most important topic that is studied in relation to music listening is music-evoked
memories, and in specific their link to emotions. This is not surprising as research indicates that
emotional music we have heard at specific periods of our life is strongly linked to our autobiographical
memory and hence closely involved in forming our view about our own self (29). Moreover, Scherer
and Zetner (30), noted that music is one of the most powerful cues in bringing emotional experiences
from memory back into awareness. They explained that this as follows; “first, music is quite a
pervasive element of social life and accompanies many highly significant events in an individual's life religious ceremonies, marriage, burial rites, dancing, and other festivities, etc. Thus, there are many
associations between musical elements and emotionally charged memories. Second, music, like
odours, may be treated at lower levels of the brain that are particularly resistant to modifications by
later input, contrary to cortically based episodic memory (e.g. LeDoux 1992).” (see 31 for LeDoux)
Research on music-evoked memories and emotions is extensive, however many opportunities to
extend this type of research exist as well. Next, we will briefly summarize the psychological processes
involved in music-evoked memories and emotion, and the motivations for recalling music-evoked
memories and nostalgia. After this review we will discuss the relevance to a new research approach
within this field. We posit that there is a need for more studies that focus on self-selected music in
empirical research. Moreover, to demonstrate evidence of the validity of this approach we will test
hypotheses about sad music-evoked memories, and link familiarity of music to increased
psychological experience as a result of hearing music.
1.2.1 The psychological processes
Research provides strong evidence that music evoked-memories are accompanied by emotions. For
example, in a recent study participants were asked to listen to popular music fragments, and then they
self-reported their experiences. Their reports involved rating several statements and answering
several open ended questions. The results of this study indicated that, on average, 30% of the popular
music fragments evoked memories. Moreover, of such musical fragments, most of them evoked
memories, which in turn evoked various emotions, which were primarily positive, such as happiness,
joyfulness, nostalgia, excitement, feeling energized, love and being excited (P 852, 32). Music did not
have to be familiar in order to evoke a memory, as roughly 3% of music listening episodes that were
unfamiliar to the listener evoked an autobiographic memory (32).
One popular theory that explains this link between music-evoked memories and emotion is by Bower
(33), who proposes that emotions are used as contextual information linked to remembered
information. This theory has been referred to as ‘the semantic associative network model of memory”
and posits that emotions are represented in a network of nodes together with words, pictures or music.
Stimulation of emotion nodes lowers the threshold of excitation of all associatively linked nodes, which
in turn, helps to retrieve emotional information from our memory. It helps to explain the strong
connection between music-evoked memories and emotion. Indeed, a variety of different studies have
found that music is processed in areas in the brain that are relevant to processing emotion as well as
to retrieving and processing memory (34).
1.2.2 Motivations for recalling memories
In order to better understand people’s voluntarily engagement in listening to music that evokes
memories, as well as emotions, it is important to consider research on nostalgia (as explained above
(24)). Wildschut and colleagues (35) described nostalgia as a bittersweet emotion: feeling nostalgic
includes happiness with elements of negative emotions; it is a complex emotion with unique
signatures and characteristics. Barrett and others (36) indicated that sad moods can motivate people
to listen to music as a means to retrieve nostalgic memories. Moreover, research on nostalgia (35)
also suggests that individuals frequently engage in nostalgia to repair their own moods. Additionally,
individuals who rated high on nostalgia proneness items were more likely to select happy music than
individuals who rated low on nostalgia proneness (37). However, in order to interpret these findings it
is important to note that most of these studies looked at nostalgia in general, whereas Batcho (p 362,
37) noted that ‘one can remember without being nostalgic, but one cannot be nostalgic without
remembering’. Interestingly, most of these studies did not examine the emotional valance of the
experienced nostalgia. This suggests a stronger focus on positive/happy rather than negative/sad
nostalgia (as outlined above).
In some of the earlier research on music-evoked memories and emotions (38) the effects of listening
to experimenter-selected happy or sad music were examined. It was found that music had an impact
on the total number of recalled childhood memories in the happy condition, but no significant effect of
was found on eliciting sad memory recall, when compared to the happy music for the sad music
condition. Moreover, recent research has compared accuracy of memory across emotions, higher
accuracy rates were found in memories for musical clips expressing fear and, to some extent,
happiness, but not for sadness (39). When interpreting such results it is important to remember that
the music in this study and in other studies (see chapter by Ritchie, this volume) was experimenterselected. Moreover, research suggests that people in general prefer happy over sad music (40, 41),
and that liking for familiar and novel music impacts on emotional reactivity to the music (42) as well as
on people’s ability to recognize the music (43, 44). What remains unclear is the relative importance of
selecting the same music for all participants in comparison to requiring each participant to select their
own music for a lab procedure or research task.
As indicated above, a challenge of current research on music-evoked memory and nostalgia is a
stronger focus on positive/happy music-evoked memories and nostalgia and negative/sad musicevoked memories and nostalgia. For example, research has yet to identify the emotions portrayed in
music associated with music-evoked sad memories. Several recent studies suggested that even
though some participants were more likely to select a cheerful, upbeat and happy song, in an attempt
to supplant one’s negative emotions when feeling sad, most participants were more likely to select a
gloomy and sad song, in an attempt to work through one’s negative emotions while feeling sad (22, 45
46).
In line with these findings, we think that people will be more likely to select sad music for retrieving
sad-music evoked memories. We anticipate that music that elicits these kind of memories will be more
likely to portray sad than happy emotions. We tested such ideas in a study.
1.2.3 The need for a different approach: Self-selected music
A huge challenge in the study of music-evoked autobiographical memories is ‘finding a suitable way to
study them’ (p. 846) (48). One common approach to studying music-evoked memories is letting
participants listen to several different pieces of music, and then monitoring their response to those
pieces of music via self-report. However, most of the music that people hear is not selected by others,
but rather selected by the listener itself (49, 50). Despite these findings, researchers in the combined
field of music emotion and autobiographical memories do not often study self-selected music.
We propose that studying self-selected music has several advantages. For example, when
investigating people’s reaction to new age music selected by the researchers, North and Hargreaves
(41) found a positive linear relationship between familiarity and liking, whereas other research also
indicated a link between familiarity and liking which stayed stable independent of people’s mood (51).
Similarly to these findings, results of a review indicated a strong relationship for familiarity of the
music, with liking as well as with emotional response (52, 53, 54). To extend on these findings, a
series of recent studies has indicated that music that is conventional or familiar to listeners is
perceived to be more meaningful (55).
1.2.4 Aim of this study:
The research conducted for this study had two aims. First, we wanted to test if people will be more
likely to attach a sad memory to a music piece that could be qualified as portraying sad emotions
rather than happy emotions.
Hypothesis 1: Sad music-evoked memories are generally more strongly associated with music that
portrays sadness than with music that portrays happiness.
Second, to elucidate the advantage of studying participant-selected music, we investigated several
potential psychological advantages of listening to familiar music. In line with the literature outlined
above, we hypothesised the following:
Hypothesis 2: Familiarity ratings of the music will be linked to increases in perceived aesthetic value,
enjoyment during listening, intensity of emotional response, perceived meaning in music, vividness of
mental imagery, and detailed recollection of memory.
2 METHODS
2.1 Design
A correlation study was conducted with a sample of volunteers who were rewarded with credit that
could be used to purchase goods on an online website. The invitation stated that researchers were
looking for volunteers for a study on music that evokes a sad memory, who would be able to listen to
some music on their computer. This invitation included a link to the website on which the study was
conducted, and an information sheet and a consent form were presented prior to the survey which
was presented on this website.
2.2 Measurements
Participants were first asked to respond to several questions about their personality. They were then
asked to think of a piece of music that reminded them of a sad event or an occasion that makes them
feel sad (which they would listen to later). The instructions were as follows: ‘Think of a piece of music
that will likely remind you of a sad event or sad occasion when listening to it. (This piece of music can
be any piece of music, it does not have to have certain specific music features/qualities.)’ Before
listening to the music they rated several statements about why they had decided to mention this
specific piece of music. These questions included statements such as; ‘This is a beautiful piece of
music’ or ‘This music is meaningful to me’. Next they were asked to search for the piece of music on
their computer or online and listen to the music as soon as they had found it. It was specified that we
did not want them to do anything else (such as watch the video clip or browse the internet) until the
music had ended. They then answered several questions on the perception of emotions in the music,
on their emotional experience during music listening and on the memories conveyed by the music
(see Tables 1 and 2). All items were rated on a 7-point Likert scale that ranged from 1 (I do not agree
with this at all) to 7 (I do very much agree with this). The research ended with several questions to
1
help statistically control for potential biases in recalled affect. Upon completing the questionnaire
participants were thanked and given the principal investigator’s contact information for further
questions. The entire procedure was approved by the ethics committee of the School of Psychology,
University of Kent.
To test if participants did really listen to the music we included on item that asked people to indicate
how much of the music they had listened to. To test if people understood the purpose of our study
people had to rate the following statement (which people had to rate before listening to the music);
‘The memories attached to this song are sad.’ A total of 10 participants were removed from the sample
based on their response to these questions.
2.3 Participants
Participants included 80 volunteers, 34 men and 46 women. Their mean age was 44.24 years (SD =
14.06). Seventy-five participants indicated that they were Americans, and five participants indicated a
different nationality.
3 RESULTS
Hypothesis 1: Sad music-evoked memories are generally more strongly associated with music that
portrays sadness, than with music that portrays happiness.
To test the first hypothesis we conducted several paired sampled t-tests. Results of the t-tests were
significant, confirming our hypothesis that sad music-evoked memories are more likely to be evoked
by music that portrays sadness than by music that portrays happiness. (Table 1).
Hypothesis 2: Familiarity ratings of the music will be linked to increases in: perceived aesthetic value,
enjoyment during listening, intensity of emotional response, perceived meaning in music, vividness of
mental imagery, and detailed recollection of memory.
To test the second hypothesis we conducted several regression analyses for which familiarity with the
music was the independent variables. These regression analyses were conducted while controlling for
the fading affect bias, and while not controlling for the fading affect bias. Results of these regression
analyses were significant for most (but not for all) of the anticipated effects (Table 2). This largely
confirmed our second hypothesis.
Table 1: Means, standard deviations (SD), and mean differences in the perceived happiness and
sadness for self-selected music that evokes sad memories.
Happy (SD)
Sad (SD)
difference
t
If I would have never heard this piece of music before and
would have heard it for the first time I think I would consider
this piece of music to be a… piece of music.
5.25 (1.79)
2.79 (1.85)
2.46 (3.44)
6.37*
If I would have never associated this memory with the
music this piece of music would make me ....
4.88 (1.73)
3.20 (1.93)
1.68 (3.44)
4.35*
I think that other people who listen to this piece of music
consider this to be a. .. piece of music .
5.45 (1.45)
2.94 (1.94)
2.51 (3.07)
7.31*
*p < .001. All of the results above remained significant with comparable p-values when each analysis
controlled for the effect of the amount of times that people had shared their memory with other people
and the amount of weeks passed since the event. Results can be requested by contacting the authors.
Table 2: The effects of familiarity on a variety of different effects of music listening.
Questions asked before hearing the music
The music brings back memories
Beta
t
Beta
0.15
1.41** 0.45
t
4.41**
0.43
0.50
0.32
4.36** 0.44
5.29** 0.54
3.07* 0.35
4.24**
0.34
2.99*
2.90*
0.43
4.58** 0.50
5.04**
Listening to this piece of music makes me re-live experiences
0.49
5.27** 0.50
4.91**
I really experienced the beauty of the lyrics of the music
0.27
0.32
0.02
0.14
0.22
0.24
0.15
0.00
2.53*
3.12*
0.88
1.30
2.11*
2.26*
1.38
-0.03
0.27
2.44*
0.35
3.25*
0.03
0.22
0.08
0.19
0.20
0.72
1.70
1.78
0.15
1.33
-0.02
-0.15
The music is meaningful to me
I love this type of music
This is a beautiful piece of music
Questions asked after hearing the music
The music induces strong emotional experiences
Listening to this piece of music makes me re-live feelings I
experienced earlier.
I really experienced the beauty of the piece of music
how significant is this memory to who you are/have become
How detailed is your memory
How emotional does this memory make you
How vivid was the mental imagery of the memory
Empathy (entire scale)
Nostalgia proneness (entire scale)
0.35
5.71**
3.31**
*p < .05. **p< .005. The left part of the table shows effects that controlled for effect of the amount of
times that people had shared their memory with other people and the amount of weeks passed since
the event.
3 CONCLUSIONS
In this chapter we aimed to briefly and critically review current research on music emotions, and the
emotional response to music-evoked memories, with a focus on recommendations for future research.
A review of the research suggests an ongoing struggle with identifying appropriate approaches to
investigate music-evoked memories (26). Based on an evaluation of current approaches, we proposed
a relatively novel method to this field of music research. We proposed to introduce participantselected rather than experimenter-selected music.
We think that reluctance in using participant-selected music in their research can be explained, in part,
by the novelty of this approach. It is possible that researchers believe that self-selected music will not
objectively portray the emotions that the researcher is interested in; however, as outlined in our review
(11, 14, 15, 16, 17), individuals are very well able to distinguish between emotions portrayed in music.
As implicated by our empirical research, research that focuses on self-select music, rather than
experimenter-selected music, will yield stronger effects in some research and applied contexts. Our
results suggest links between familiarity, liking, meaning, perceived and experienced aesthetic value,
as well as with emotional response, amount of detail for memories, and vividness of mental imagery.
Only when we controlled for the recalled affect (i.e., the fading affect bias) (56, 57), we found a
significant relationship between familiarity and how emotional people felt after retrieving the memory.
The same occurred for vividness of mental imagery after listening. Such effects suggest that future
research should also take these variables into account when looking into music-evoked memory and
emotion.
Several recent studies adopt the approach to investigate the effects of participant-selected music, to
explore individuals’ self-regulatory use of sad music when feeling sad (20, 47), or individuals’ use of
music to regulate mood states (6). Research reveals new processes that are relevant to
understanding the effects of music-evoked autobiographical memories on experienced affect. Followup research on this topic will build on these results, such as by reflecting on prior knowledge,
conducted on music selection (8, 9, 20, 22). To summarize, we conclude that using participantselected music in research could indeed strengthen and enrich current ideas about music-evoked
memory and emotions.
Finally, based on a review of current research on music-evoked memory and emotion, we posited a
lack of current research that distinguishes between music-evoked memories; each evokes positive/
happy or negative/ sad emotions. We tested and confirmed the main hypothesis: Music that evokes
sad memories is more like to portray sad than happy emotions. Future research may also look at a
variety of other emotions (e.g., anger, hope). A stronger focus on personal or situational variables may
deepen our understanding of how emotion and autobiographical memories are associated with music.
FOOTNOTE
Research indicates that recalled emotional content of emotions can change. More specific, time
passed since the recalled event as well as the sharing of the emotional experience may contribute to
bias in recollection (56, 57). It is for this reason that we added 2 questions to our research for which
people had to report on the time passed since the event as well as on the amount of times that people
shared their music-evoked memory with others. It has to be noted that biases are more applicable to
intensity of emotions, but rarely affect the valance of emotions (56).
REFERENCES
[1] Lambiotte, R., & Ausloos, M. (2005). Uncovering collective listening habits and music genres in
bipartite networks, Physical Review, 72, 66-107.
[2] Lonsdale, A.J., & North, A.C. (2011). Why do we listen to music? A uses and gratifications
analysis. British Journal of Psychology, 102, 108-134.
[3] Rentfrow, P. J., & Gosling, S. D. (2003). The do re mi's of everyday life: the structure and
personality correlates of music preferences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(6),
1236-1256.
[4] Fitch, W. T. (2006). The biology and evolution of music: A comparative perspective. Cognition,
100, 173-215.
[5] Mithen, S. (2005). The singing Neanderthals: The origins of music, language, mind, and body.
London, England: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
[6] Saarikallio, S., & Erkkilä, J. (2007). The role of music in adolescents' mood regulation.
Psychology of Music, 35, 35- 38.
[7] Sloboda, J., Lamont, A., & Greasley, A. (2009). Choosing to hear music: Motivation, Process
and effect. In S. Hallam, I. Cross & M. Thaut, (Eds), The Oxford handbook of music psychology.
(pp. 431- 441). New York: Oxford University press.
[8] Van Goethem, A., & Sloboda, J.A. (2011). The functions of music for affect regulation. Musicae
Scientiae, 15(2), 208- 228.
[9] Van Goethem, A. (2010). Affect regulation in everyday life: Strategies, tactics, and the role of
music. PhD Thesis.
[10] Lamont, A., & Webb, R. (2009). Short- and long-term musical preferences: What makes a
favourite piece of music? Psychology of Music, 38, 222–241.
[11] Juslin, P.N., & Laukka, P. (2004). Expression, perception, and induction of musical emotions: A
review and a questionnaire study of everyday music listening. Journal of New Music Research,
33, 217-238.
[12] Haack, P.A. (1980). The behavior of music listeners, in D. Hodges (ed.) Handbook of Music
Psychology (pp. 141-182). Lawrence, KS: National Association for Music Therapy.
[13] Lindström, E., Juslin, P.N., Bresin, R. & Williamon, A. (2002). Expressivity comes from within
your soul: A questionnaire study of music Students’ perspectives on expressivity’, Research
Studies in Music Education, 20, 23-47.
[14] Gabrielsson, A., & Lindström, E. (2001). The influence of musical structure on emotional
expression. In P. N. Juslin & J. A. Sloboda (Eds.), Music and emotion: Theory and research (pp.
223-248). New York: Oxford University Press.
[15] Khalfa, S., Roy, M., Rainville, P., Dalla Bella, S., & Peretz, I. (2008). Role of tempo entrainment
in psychophysiological differentiation of happy and sad music? International Journal of
Psychophysiology, 68, 17-26.
[16] Patel, A. (2008). Music, Language, and the Brain. New York: Oxford University Press.
[17] Juslin P.N. (2000). Cue utilization in communication of emotion in music performance: relating
performance to perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and
Performance, 26, 1797-1813. doi: 10.1037/0096-1523.26.6.1797.
[18] Juslin, P. N., & Laukka, P. (2003). Communication of emotions in vocal expression and music
performance: Different channels, same code? Psychological Bulletin, 129, 770-814.
[19] Fritz, T. Jentschke, S., Gosselin, N., Sammler, D. Peretz, I., Turner, R. Friederici, A. D., &
Koelsch, S. (2009). Universal recognition of three basic emotions in music. Current Biology, 19,
573-576.
[20] Juslin, P. N., & Västfjäll, D. (2008). Emotional responses to music: The need to consider
underlying mechanisms. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 31, 559-575.
[21] Juslin, P. N. (2013). From everyday emotions to aesthetic emotions: Towards a unified theory of
musical emotions, Physics of Life Reviews, 10 (3), 235–266.DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2013.05.008
[22] Van den Tol, A. J. M., & Edwards, J. (2014). Listening to sad music in adverse situations: Music
selection strategies, self-regulatory goals, listening effects, and mood-enhancement. Psychology
of Music, doi: 10.1177/0305735613517410.
[23] Zentner, M., Grandjean, D., & Scherer, K. R. (2008). Emotions evoked by the sound of music:
Differentiation, classification, and measurement. Emotion, 8(4), 494-521.
[24] Juslin, P. N., Harmat, L. & Eerola, T (2013). What makes music emotionally significant?
Exploring the underlying mechanisms, Psychology of Music, DOI: 10.1177/0305735613484548.
[25] Gabrielsson, A. (2001). Emotion perceived and emotion felt same or different? Musicae
Scientiae, Special Issue 2001-2002, 123-147.
[26] Egermann, H., & McAdams, S. (2013). Empathy and emotional contagion as a link between
recognized and felt emotions in music listening. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal,
31, 2 139-156.
[27] Vuoskoski, J.K., & Eerola, T. (2011). The role of mood and personality in the perception of
emotions represented by music. Cortex, 47(9), 1099-1106.
[28] Garrido S., & Schubert, E. (2013). Adaptive and maladaptive attraction to negative emotions in
music. Musicae Scientiae, 17 (2), 147-166.
[29] Batcho, K.I. (2007). Nostalgia and the emotional tone and content of song lyrics. The American
Journal of Psychology, 120(3), 361–381.
[30] Scherer, K. & Zentner, M. (2001). Emotional effects of music: production rules. P. Juslin, & J.
Sloboda, (Eds.). Music and Emotion: Theory and Research. Oxford, New York: Oxford University
Press.
[31] LeDoux, J. E. (1992). Emotion as memory: Anatomical systems underlying indelible neural
traces. In S. Christianson (Eds.), Handbook of emotion and memory: Theory and research
(pp.269-88). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
[32] Janata, P., Tomic S.T., & Rakowski S.K. (2007). Characterisation of music-evoked
autobiographical memories. Memory, 15(8), 845-860.
[33] Bower, G.H. (1981). Mood and memory. American Psychologist, 36,129-148.
[34] Jäncke, L. (2008). Music, memory and emotion. Journal of Biology, 7-21 doi:10.1186/jbiol82 .
[35] Wildschut, T., Sedikides, C., Arndt, J., & Routledge, C. (2006). Nostalgia: Content, triggers,
functions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(5), 975-993.
[36] Barrett, F. S., Grimm, K. J., Robins, R.W., Wildschut, T., Sedikides, C, & Janata, P. (2010).
Music-evoked nostalgia: Affect, memory, and personality. Emotion, 10(3), 390-403.
[37] Batcho, K. I. (2007). Nostalgia and the emotional tone and content of song lyrics. The American
Journal of Psychology, 120(3), 361-381.
[38] Martin, M. A. & Metha, A. (1997). Recall of early childhood memories through musical mood
induction. Arts in Psychotherapy, 25, 447-54.
[39] Aubé, W., Peretz, I. & Armony, J. L. (2013). The effects of emotion on memory for music and
vocalisations, Memory, 21:8, 981-990, DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2013.770871.
[40] Hunter, P. G. Schellenberg, E. G. and Griffith A. T. (2011). Misery loves company: MoodCongruent emotional responding to music. Emotion, 11 (5), 1068-1072.
[41] Husain, G, Thomosib, W. F., &Schellenberg, E. G. (2002). Effects of Musical Tempo and Mode
on Arousal, Mood, and Spatial Abilities. Music Perception, 20, (2), 151-171.
[42] North, A. C., & Hargreaves, D. J. (1995). Subjective complexity, familiarity, and liking for popular
music. Psychomusicology, 14, 77-93.
[43] Eschrich, S., Münte, T. F., & Altenmüller, E. O. (2008). Unforgettable film music: the role of
emotion in episodic long-term memory for music. BMC Neuroscience, 9-48.
[44] Stalinski, S. M. &Schellenberg, E. G. (2013). Listeners remember music they like. Journal of
Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39(3), 700-716. doi:
10.1037/a0029671
[45] Hunter, P.G., Schellenberg, E. G., & Griffith, A. T. (2011). Misery loves company: Moodcongruent emotional responding to music. Emotion, 11(5), 1068- 1072.
[46] Schellenberg, E. G., Peretz, I., & Vieillard, S. (2008). Liking for happy and sad sounding music:
Effects of exposure. Cognition and Emotion, 22, 218-237.
[47] Van den Tol, A. J. M., & Edwards, J. (2011). Exploring a rationale for choosing to listen to sad
music when feeling sad. Psychology of Music, DOI: 10.1177/0305735611430433 Janata, P.,
Tomic, S.T., & Rakowski, S.K. (2007). Characterisation of music-evoked autobiographical
memories. Memory, 15(8), 845-860.
[48] Blumler, J.G., & Katz, E. (1974). The uses of mass communications: Current perspectives on
gratifications research. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
[49] Sloboda, J., Lamont, A., & Greasley, A. (2009). Choosing to hear music: Motivation, process and
effect. Hallam, S., Cross I. & Thaut, M. (Eds), The Oxford handbook of music psychology. (pp.
431- 441). New York: Oxford University press.
[50] Kim, J. (2011). Affective states, familiarity and music selection: power of familiarity. International
Journal of Arts and Technology, 4 (1), 74 - 89.
[51] Hallam, S., Cross, I., & Thaut, M. (2008). The oxford handbook of music psychology. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
[52] Ladinig, O., & Schellenberg, E.G. (2011). Liking unfamiliar music: Effects of felt emotion and
individual differences. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, doi:10.1037/a0024671
[53] Finnäs, L. (1989). How can musical preferences be modified? A research review. Council for
Research in Music Education, 102, 1-59.
[54] Maher, P., Van Tilburg, W. A. P., & Van den Tol, A. J. M. (2013). Meaning in music: Deviations
from expectations in music prompt out-group derogation. European Journal of Social
Psychology, 43(6), 449-454.
[55] Ritchie, T. D., Skowronski J. J., Wood, J. A. Vogl, S. E., & Gibbons, J. A. (2006). Event selfimportance, event rehearsal, and the fading affect bias, Self and Identity, 5 (02), 172-195.
[56] Walker, W. R., Skowronski, J. J., Gibbons, J. A., Vogl, S. E., & Ritchie, T. D. (2011). Why people
rehearse their memories: frequency of use and relations to the intensity of emotions associated
with autobiographical memories. Memory, 17 (7), 760-773.