Abstract
Hearing music in your head is a ubiquitous experience, but the role mental control plays in these experiences has not been deeply addressed. In this conceptual analysis, a dual-component model of mental control in musical imagery experiences is developed and discussed. The first component, initiation, refers to whether the musical imagery experience began voluntarily or involuntarily. The second component, management, refers to instances of control that occur after the experience has begun (e.g., changing the song, stopping the experience). Given the complex nature of this inner experience, we propose a new model combining and integrating four literatures: lab-based auditory imagery research using musical stimuli; involuntary musical imagery; mental rehearsal and composition in musicians; and in vivo studies of musical imagery in everyday environments. These literatures support the contention that mental control of musical imagery is multi-faceted. Future research should investigate these two components of mental control and better integrate the diverse literatures on musical imagery.
Highlights
Engagement with music is pervasive—we subscribe to music-listening services, star in miniconcerts during our showers and commutes, and are bombarded by upbeat, bopping tunes when shopping
Musical imagery can be embedded in rich internal narratives, such as envisioning yourself performing in a desired role (Bowes, 2009), or echo our current state of mind and personal concerns (Floridou et al, 2015)
People were most accurate when presented with control melodies and were less accurate when presented with transposed (69–90% accuracy) and reversed melodies (80% accuracy; Foster and Zatorre, 2010; Foster et al, 2013). These findings suggest that manipulations people make to their musical imagery can vary in complexity and difficulty
Summary
Engagement with music is pervasive—we subscribe to music-listening services, star in miniconcerts during our showers and commutes, and are bombarded by upbeat, bopping tunes when shopping. These music-based auditory imagery studies assess a range of people’s auditory imagery capabilities, from simple imagery-assisted pitch discrimination to complex mental transformations of melodies This literature does not formally discuss mental control, the natures of the tasks provide support for the two proposed components of mental control—initiation and management. In Pitch Discrimination tasks (see Table 1), participants imagine specified tones, chords, or short passages of music (e.g., musical scales, simple melodies) and assess whether auditory probes match the pitch of their constructed image (Janata and Paroo, 2006; Herholz et al, 2008). The results indicated that the checkins were related to structural properties in the music, suggesting
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
