Year: 2019
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: How easily can people tune their inner radio? Musical imagery—hearing music in your mind—is common but little is known about people’s ability to control their musical imagery in daily life. A recent model distinguishes between initiation (starting musical imagery) vs. management (modifying, stopping, or sustaining musical imagery) as facets of control, and the present research examined people’s ability to use these two forms of control in daily life. For seven days, students (29 music students, 29 non-music students) were signaled 10 times daily and asked to initiate musical imagery and to perform manipulations on initiated and ongoing imagery (e.g., increasing the tempo, changing the vocalist’s gender). When asked, people reported exerting control over the initiation and management of their musical imagery most of the time. As expected, music students reported controlling their musical imagery more often and more easily. This work suggests that people’s control over their musical imagery is stronger and more flexible than prior work implies.
Source: Psychology of Music
Authors: Katherine N. Cotter, Paul J. Silvia
Institution: University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2916208418