Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 8-2-2017 12:00 AM Popular Music-Evoked Autobiographical Memories - Developing a Database of Songs and Studying the Role of Cue Emotionality and Relevance on Recalled Memories Krysten Zator The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Albert N. Katz The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Psychology A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Master of Science © Krysten Zator 2017 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Cognition and Perception Commons, and the Cognitive Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Zator, Krysten, "Popular Music-Evoked Autobiographical Memories - Developing a Database of Songs and Studying the Role of Cue Emotionality and Relevance on Recalled Memories" (2017). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 4701. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/4701 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract In Study 1, undergraduate students rated popular music songs on several factors. A database of knowledge was created for popular music autobiographical memory (AM) cueing research. Study 2 examined the role of emotional experience and relevance associated with a popular music AM cue on recalled AMs. In Phase 1, undergraduate participants described AMs to short music clips or a blank computer screen (control). In Phase 2, participants answered questions about these AMs. In Phase 3, participants rated musical clips (including Phase 1 stimuli). Unexpectedly, music-cued memories were less salient and did not differ emotionally from control-cued, but contained more perceptual and leisure content. When examining only participants cued by music, the emotional experience associated with listening to the cue was congruent with that of the produced memory. In addition, memories evoked to highly relevant music were rated as more salient and emotional than those evoked to less personally relevant music. Keywords: Autobiographical Memory, Popular Music Cueing, Emotion, Stimuli Selection, Popular Music Cueing Database i Acknowledgments Western: I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Albert Katz, for his continued guidance, insight, and support over the past four years and particularly, his interesting stories and caring nature. I feel privileged to have worked with such a fascinating and compassionate mentor who possesses a blend of genuine care for his students, both personally and academically, and thoughtful research expertise. I will sincerely miss most, our meetings that turned into long chats about traveling and life. Academically, thank you for pushing me to go beyond what was expected of me and for helping me improve my writing skills. I will try to remember that “firstly” is not an appropriate word choice. I would also like to thank the other wonderful, unique people in the Katz lab who have also always provided both a comfortable, nurturing environment and just plain good company. Especially, I thank Nick Reid for his support both academically and personally. Most importantly, I thank him for being a great karate partner and an even better friend. I also thank Hamad Al-Azary for sharing my love of coffee and exuding a contagious passion for research. His dedication and professionalism towards his research is inspiring. I thank James Boylan for his help with both my memory program and statistical analyses during my honors thesis. This assistance has been instrumental throughout my continued memory research. Finally, I wish to thank our lab mother hen, Dr. Karen Hussey for her toughness, advice, and feedback during my time in the Katz lab. I will think of her every time I consume large quantities of vegetables in one sitting. To my other friends in the psychology department that I have grown close to: particularly Matt, Bryan, Nick A., Mikayla, Alex, and others, I thank them for their friendship, expertise, advice, and encouragement throughout these past two years. Finally, I wish to also thank my examination committee for reviewing my long thesis document and for their insightful comments and suggestions. Family and Friends: I would especially like to thank my family: my parents Todd and Dianna, and my siblings Kaity, Alex, and Emily, for their continued encouragement and support in many ways, throughout my long academic journey. Specifically, I would like ii to thank both my Dad for inadvertently sparking my interest in popular music-evoked memories by playing many Motown songs in the car when I was a child, and my Mom, for constantly providing an ear. To Alasdair, I thank him for his unconditional encouragement and love throughout the past 3 years. Last but certainly not least, I would also like to thank some of my closest friends: Meghan, Meghan, Chelsea, Miki, Djurdja, Sarah, Natalie, and Alyson for their friendship and support during my entire university career and the completion of my Master of Science degree, many from far away. iii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ i Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iv List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vii List of Appendices ........................................................................................................... xiv Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................. 1 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Autobiographical memory ...................................................................................... 3 1.1.1 Emotion and retrieval .................................................................................. 4 1.1.2 Cueing autobiographical memory ............................................................... 5 1.2 Emotion and autobiographical memory: Measurement .......................................... 6 1.3 Music-cued autobiographical memory studies ....................................................... 8 1.3.1 Music and emotion: Classical music ........................................................... 8 1.3.2 Popular music and autobiographical memory ........................................... 10 1.4 Summary of purpose of thesis ............................................................................... 14 Chapter 2 ........................................................................................................................... 15 2 Study 1 ......................................................................................................................... 15 2.1 Method .................................................................................................................. 16 2.1.1 Participants ................................................................................................ 16 2.1.2 Materials ................................................................................................... 17 2.1.3 Procedure .................................................................................................. 18 2.2 Results and discussion .......................................................................................... 21 2.2.1 Demographic questions ............................................................................. 21 2.2.2 Memory – Relevant measures ................................................................... 23 2.2.3 Supplementary analyses ............................................................................ 27 iv 2.2.4 What predicts AM recall? ......................................................................... 31 2.2.5 The database .............................................................................................. 33 Chapter 3 ........................................................................................................................... 35 3 Study 2 ......................................................................................................................... 35 3.1 Method .................................................................................................................. 37 3.1.1 Participants ................................................................................................ 37 3.1.2 Materials ................................................................................................... 38 3.1.3 Procedure .................................................................................................. 40 3.2 Results and discussion .......................................................................................... 48 3.2.1 Preliminary analyses: Recall statistics, information on the dependent measures and manipulation checks ........................................................... 49 3.2.2 The main analyses: Emotion, cue emotionality, relevance ....................... 62 3.2.3 Results summary ......................................................................................