Neutral experiences are shaped into memorable events by emotions. The way we recall, find meaning, and retain information from our experiences carves out our memories. Psychologists from UCLA conducted a study manipulating volunteers’ emotions through music while they performed simple tasks, they found that these emotions shape neutral experiences into memorable events. The study reveals a fascinating link between emotions, music, and memory, offering insights into potential new avenues for therapy and memory management. The implications stretch towards therapeutic potential, especially for conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression.
Although time is a continuous stream, our memories are broken down into discrete events that each contribute to our unique story. Scientists have just recently started to solve the puzzle of how emotions influence this memory-creation process. The most recent hint comes from psychologists at UCLA, who have found that music’s ability to evoke a range of emotions contributes to the formation of distinct and long-lasting memories.
The study, which was published in Nature Communications, employed music to influence the volunteers’ feelings while they completed easy computer tasks. The dynamics of people’s emotions, the researchers discovered, transformed otherwise neutral situations into events that people would remember.
Music helps create boundaries between experiences and makes it easier for people to remember
“Changes in emotion evoked by music created boundaries between episodes that made it easier for people to remember what they had seen and when they had seen it,” said lead author Mason McClay, a doctoral student in psychology at UCLA. “We think this finding has great therapeutic promise for helping people with PTSD and depression.”
People must organize knowledge as time goes on since there is too much to remember (and not all of it is valuable). Over time, experiences seem to become memories through two processes: While the latter enlarges and divides each memory as the event fades into the past, the former unifies our recollections by condensing and connecting them into distinct episodes. The process of forming unique memories involves a continuous tug-of-war between the integration and separation of memories. This adaptable method aids in memory retention and helps an individual make sense of their experiences.
“It’s like putting items into boxes for long-term storage,” said corresponding author David Clewett, an assistant professor of psychology at UCLA. “When we need to retrieve a piece of information, we open the box that holds it. This research shows that emotions seem to be an effective box for doing this sort of organization and making memories more accessible.”
A similar phenomenon could help explain why Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” has been so successful in evoking strong, enduring memories: each concert features significant chapters that can be opened and closed to revisit intensely felt moments.
Change in emotion resulting from listening to music pushes new memories apart
At Columbia University, McClay Clewett and Matthew Sachs employed composers to write music intended to evoke a range of emotions, including joy, anxiety, sadness, and calmness. A sequence of neutral images, like a slice of watermelon, a wallet, or a soccer ball, was displayed on a computer screen, and study participants were asked to imagine a story to go with each image while listening to the music. Additionally, they tracked their mood swings using a computer mouse and a cutting-edge technology designed to measure emotional responses to music.
Participants were then given another activity designed to divert their attention, during which they were shown pairs of photographs in a different order. In order to determine how far apart in time each couple felt they had seen the two objects; they were asked which image they had seen first. When compared to photos that did not span an emotional change, pairs of objects that participants had seen just before and after a change in emotional state—whether of high, low, or medium intensity—were remembered as having occurred farther apart in time.
In addition, as compared to objects they had observed while their emotions were more stable, participants’ recollection of the order of items that spanned emotional fluctuations was worse. These results imply that fresh memories were being pushed apart by an emotional shift brought on by music listening.
Feeling more positive and energized can fuse different elements of an experience together in memory
“This tells us that intense moments of emotional change and suspense, like the musical phrases in Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ could be remembered as having lasted longer than less emotive experiences of similar length,” McClay said. “Musicians and composers who weave emotional events together to tell a story may be imbuing our memories with a rich temporal structure and longer sense of time.”
It also mattered which way the mood changed. When the change went towards more pleasant emotions, memory integration was at its greatest. In other words, memories of consecutive things seemed closer together in time, and participants were better at recalling their sequence. Conversely, a change in mood towards more negative feelings (such as going from calmer to sadder) tended to increase and create mental distance between newly formed memories.
In a follow-up survey, participants were asked to rate their longer-term memory. They performed better when asked to recall items and instances when their emotions fluctuated, particularly when they were feeling very happy. This implies that combining many aspects of an experience into one cohesive memory can be achieved by feeling more upbeat and motivated.
Dynamic music may directly treat memory issues in disorders
Sachs emphasized the utility of music as an intervention technique.
“Most music-based therapies for disorders rely on the fact that listening to music can help patients relax or feel enjoyment, which reduces negative emotional symptoms,” he said. The benefits of music listening in these cases are therefore secondary and indirect. Here, we are suggesting a possible mechanism by which emotionally dynamic music might be able to directly treat the memory issues that characterize such disorders.”
According to Clewett, these results may aid in the reintegration of memories that have contributed to PTSD.
“If traumatic memories are not stored away properly, their contents will come spilling out when the closet door opens, often without warning. This is why ordinary events, such as fireworks, can trigger flashbacks of traumatic experiences, such as surviving a bombing or gunfire,” he said. “We think we can deploy positive emotions, possibly using music, to help people with PTSD put that original memory in a box and reintegrate it, so that negative emotions don’t spill over into everyday life.”
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, UCLA, and Columbia University.
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of California – Los Angeles. Original written by Holly Ober. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
Mason McClay, Matthew E. Sachs, David Clewett. Dynamic emotional states shape the episodic structure of memory. Nature Communications, 2023; 14 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42241-2
Page citation:
University of California – Los Angeles. “Why emotions stirred by music create such powerful memories.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 20 November 2023. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/11/231120171003.htm>.
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