Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Are Musical Autobiographical Memories Special? It Ain’T Necessarily So, Andrea R. Halpern, Jennifer M. Talarico, Nura Gouda, Victoria J. Williamson

Faculty Journal Articles

We compared young adults' autobiographical (AB) memories involving Music to memories concerning other specific categories and to Everyday AB memories with no specific cue. In all cases, participants reported both their most vivid memory and another AB memory from approximately the same time. We analyzed responses via quantitative ratings scales on aspects such as vividness and importance, as well as via qualitative thematic coding. In the initial phase, comparison of Music-related to Everyday memories suggested all Musical memories had high emotional and vividness characteristics whereas Everyday memories elicited emotion and other heightened responses only in the ‘‘vivid’’ instruction condition. However, …