Physical interaction and association by contiguity in memory for the words and melodies of songs

Abstract

Three experiments were designed to investigate two explanations for the integration effect in memory for songs (Serafine, Crowder, & Repp, 1984; Serafine, Davidson, Crowder, & Repp, 1986). The integration effect is the finding that recognition of the melody (or text) of a song is better in the presence of the text (or melody) with which it had been heard originally than in the presence of a different text (or melody). One explanation for this finding is the physical interaction hypothesis, which holds that one component of a song exerts subtle but memorable physical changes on the other component, making the latter different from what it would be with a different companion. In Experiments 1 and 2, we investigated the influence that words could exert on the subtle musical character of a melody. A second explanation for the integration effect is the association-by-contiguity hypothesis, which holds that any two events experienced in close temporal proximity may become connected in memory such that each acts as a recall cue for the other. In Experiment 3, we investigated the degree to which simultaneous presentations of spoken text with a hummed melody would induce an association between the two components. The results gave encouragement for both explanations and are discussed in terms of the distinction between encoding specificity and independent associative bonding.