The roles of pitch and emotion in immediate recall

Abstract

Music-dependent memory occurs when a person learns material while listening to music and subsequently recalls more of that material when listening to that same music than when not listening to that same music. Several studies (Smith, 1985; Balch et al., 1992; Balch & Lewis, 1996) have demonstrated the existence of music-dependent memory, but which aspect of music was primarily responsible for the memory facilitation was not clear. Balch and Lewis (1996) demonstrated that tempo influences music- dependent memory. This dissertation further examined the music-dependent memory phenomenon. Experiment I demonstrated a frequency dependent memory effect where individuals listening to relatively low frequency tones during the presentation of words remembered more of those words at recall when they listened to the same relatively low frequency tones, as opposed to high frequency tones. Experiment 2 failed to find a frequency dependent memory effect; however, there were methodological differences between Experiments I and 2. Participants in Experiment 2 were given the additional task of filling of the Session Evaluation Questionnaire (SEQ) (Stiles & Snow, 1984) at three different occasions during the experiment, and it may be that use of the SEQ disrupted frequency dependent memory by drawing participants' attention toward their own differing emotional states. In conclusion, the frequency dependent memory effect for relatively lower frequency auditory tones seems to be fragile and may be related to the emotional state of the listener.