How Music Influences Your Memories
Many people think that music is a particularly “powerful” cue for bringing back memories from our lives. Scientific research has partially supported this idea, by showing that music can evoke more vivid and emotional autobiographical memories than various other everyday cues. But it is still not well understood as to why music might be a particularly good cue for such memories.
In this talk, I’ll provide an overview of recent research in which my team has identified several features of music and its associated life events that help explain this “power” of music in memory. I’ll also outline implications of this research for therapy, advertising, and everyday music uses.
Kelly’s bio
A Music & Memory Researcher
- Dr Kelly Jakubowski is Associate Professor in Music Psychology at Durham University, where she co-directs both the Music and Science Lab and the Centre for Research into Inner Experience. Her research focuses on the intersection of music and memory, touching on questions spanning from “Why does music bring back vivid memories from our lives?” to “Why do songs get stuck in our heads?”
- Holding degrees in both music and psychology, she takes a highly interdisciplinary approach to understanding how we remember music and how musical memory can be understood in relation to broader psychological processes. She has published over 30 journal articles and book chapters on these topics.
- She writes regularly about music and memory for The Conversation and Psychology Today, and her research has been featured in a range of international media outlets, from The New York Times and TIME Magazine to The Guardian and BBC World Service.
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