Music in mind? An experience sampling study of what and when, towards an understanding of why.

Abstract

Imagining music in the course of everyday life has only recently graduated from anecdote to the subject of scientific investigation. Although recent empirical studies concern Involuntary Musical Imagery (INMI, Liikkanen, 2008), or earworms that stick or repeat in mind, this article adopts a broader perspective in its concern for any form of imagined music that might occur, whether or voluntary, persistent or fleeting. An experience sampling study of university music students' everyday imaginings of music (Bailes, 2006, 2007) found that musical imagery occurred both spontaneously and as an corollary of a voluntary musical activity such as performing or thinking about music. Broader questions of volition arise. Liikkanen (2008) acknowledged the potential importance of voluntary control in involuntary musical imagery, by conceptually separating activation and upkeep components; the former occurring outside of attention, and the latter allowing for mental control. Individual differences in thought suppression and schizotypy predict experiences of INMI (Beaman & Williams, 2013). Mullensiefen et al. (2014) found a relationship between obsessive- compulsive attributes in a nonclinical population and INMI disturbance and frequency, speculating that deliberate attempts to suppress unwanted INMI might in fact enhance its occurrence. However, the authors note a potential weakness with their reliance on retrospective questionnaires, which might have led to a greater focus on INMI than would occur with the use of time-sensitive methods such as experience pling. with this, Beaty et al. (2013) report a discrepancy between their own two studies of musical imagery that they attribute to method: their retrospective questionnaire study revealed a relationship between neuroticism and reports of music being stuck in the head, whereas their experience sampling study revealed no such relationship.There are many reasons to favor experience sampling methods (ESM) in the study of ephemeral phenomena such as musical imagery (see Bailes, 2006). Retrospective methods such as questionnaires and diary studies are particularly prone to memory and reporting biases, and do not capture fine-grained longitudinal patterns. Bailes (2007) used ESM to observe musical imagery experiences as they occurred, rather than through retrospective recall. Respondents filled out an Experience Sampling Form (ESF) each time they received a signal on their mobile phone. Six signals were sent each day, at semirandom times throughout the day (10 a.m.-10 p.m.), for a period of 7 days. The form comprised both closed and open questions, with the advantage of capturing a quick snapshot of each episode that could be readily compared with other episodes by the same individual and other respondents, as well as capturing qualitative data describing the context and feel of the episode (qualitative detail that was not recorded in the recent experience sampling study of musical imagery by Beaty et al. (2013)). Respondents imagined music on average 35% of the sampled time, melody and lyrics were rated as the most vivid components of their mental image, and respondents reported imagining music most when interacting with others, working or traveling. The number of episodes of imagined music dropped in the final 2-hr time period of the day (8 p.m.-10 p.m.). However, Bailes (2006, 2007) was limited by a relatively small sample size (N ^ 11, 417 completed ESFs), but also by a focus on the experiences of university music students. The aim of the current article is to expand this earlier research by using the same qualitatively rich ESM to investigate 47 members of the wider public. It will ask whether findings from the previous ESM study with music students can be generalized to a wider population, and address the question of what and when people imagine in everyday life.What Do We Imagine?Regarding what is imagined, people report imagining music that is familiar to them (Bailes, 2007), a form of memory (Halpern & Bartlett, 2011), although a minority imagine their own composed music (Bailes, 2006, 2007; Beaty et al. …