In the second study discussed in “Earworms from Three Angles” by Victoria J. Williamson and Daniel Müllensiefen, which active musical behaviour was linked with more lengthy and more frequent involuntary musical imagery (a.k.a. Earworms)?

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Question

In the second study discussed in “Earworms from Three Angles” by Victoria J. Williamson and Daniel Müllensiefen, which active musical behaviour was linked with more lengthy and more frequent involuntary musical imagery (a.k.a. Earworms)?

Notice: The questions and answer sets for this quiz are protected under copyright, and may not be reproduced without the author's consent.

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Singing was the active musical behaviour associated with both longer-lasting and more frequent involuntary musical imagery (earworms).

Relevant knowledge points and concepts:
- Involuntary musical imagery (IMI or earworms) refers to musical fragments that come to mind spontaneously and repeat involuntarily.
- Active musical behaviours (singing, humming, foot tapping, dancing) differ in how much they engage melodic representation, vocal-motor systems, and auditory feedback.
- The second study in Williamson & Müllensiefen compared participants’ reports of IMI frequency and duration across these behaviours.

Step-by-step reasoning and mechanisms:
1. The study measured participants’ IMI occurrences (how often) and their length (how long they persisted) and related these measures to recent engagement in specific active musical behaviours.
2. Singing directly engages melodic production, precise pitch sequences, and coordinated vocal-motor planning; it creates strong auditory-motor and sensorimotor memory traces for the tune.
3. These stronger, more elaborated memory traces make a melody more likely to be reactivated involuntarily and to persist once reactivated (longer duration and higher frequency).
4. Humming engages melody but typically with reduced articulation and lower motoric/auditory feedback than full singing, producing a weaker effect.
5. Foot tapping and dancing emphasize rhythm and movement rather than detailed melodic encoding, so they are less likely to cue repeated melodic involuntary imagery.

Why the correct answer is correct:
- Empirical finding: participants who reported singing before or during assessment experienced earworms both more frequently and with longer duration than those engaging in other behaviours. The cognitive explanation is that singing reinforces the internal representation of melody through vocal production and auditory feedback, increasing both the probability and persistence of IMI.

Why other options are incorrect:
- Foot tapping: rhythmic, minimal melodic encoding, so not linked to longer/more frequent IMI.
- Humming: melodic but less articulatory/auditory reinforcement than singing, thus weaker association.
- Dancing: primarily motoric and rhythmic; does not preferentially strengthen melodic memory.

Conclusion: The evidence and mechanistic reasoning confirm the correct answer is Singing.

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