Department of Music, Durham University, Durham, UK.
Department of Psychological Science, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri, USA.
Br J Psychol. 2023 Aug;114(3):580-604. doi: 10.1111/bjop.12639. Epub 2023 Feb 13.
Previous research has found that music brings back more vivid and emotional autobiographical memories than various other retrieval cues. However, such studies have often been low in ecological validity and constrained by relatively limited cue selection and predominantly young adult samples. Here, we compared music to food as cues for autobiographical memories in everyday life in young and older adults. In two separate four-day periods, 39 younger (ages 18-34) and 39 older (ages 60-77) adults recorded their music- and food-evoked autobiographical memories in paper diaries. Across both age groups, music triggered more frequent autobiographical memories, a greater proportion of involuntary memories, and memories rated as more personally important in comparison to food cues. Age differences impacted music- and food-evoked memories similarly, with older adults consistently recalling older and less specific memories, which they rated as more positive, vivid, and rehearsed. However, young and older adults did not differ in the number or involuntary nature of their recorded memories. This work represents an important step in understanding the phenomenology of naturally occurring music-evoked autobiographical memories across adulthood and provides new insights into how and why music may be a more effective trigger for personally valued memories than certain other everyday cues.
先前的研究发现，与其他各种检索线索相比，音乐能让人回想起更生动、更情绪化的自传体记忆。然而，此类研究往往缺乏生态有效性，并且受到相对有限的线索选择和以年轻成年人为主体的样本的限制。在这里，我们比较了音乐和食物作为日常生活中年轻人和老年人自传体记忆的线索。在两个单独的为期四天的时间里，39 名年轻参与者（年龄在 18-34 岁之间）和 39 名年长参与者（年龄在 60-77 岁之间）分别在纸质日记中记录了音乐和食物引发的自传体记忆。在两个年龄组中，音乐引发的自传体记忆更频繁，无意识记忆的比例更高，与食物线索相比，参与者对这些记忆的个人重要性的评价也更高。年龄差异对音乐和食物引发的记忆的影响相似，年长参与者回忆起的记忆更久远、更不具体，但他们对这些记忆的评价更积极、更生动、更有排练。然而，年轻和年长的成年人在记录的记忆数量或无意识性质方面没有差异。这项工作代表了理解成年期自然发生的音乐引发的自传体记忆现象学的重要一步，为音乐如何以及为何比某些其他日常线索更能成为个人有价值记忆的有效触发因素提供了新的见解。
