Most of
us have been victims of catchy songs or melodies that get stuck in our heads
and that are hard to get out. According to a study called “Songs That Cause the Brain to ‘Itch’: UC Professor Investigating Why Certain Tunes Get Stuck In Our Heads” by Carey Hoffman from the University of Cincinnati, some of the songs
that get stuck in our heads more easily are “The Macarena” and “We Will Rock You”.
Dr. Williamson, a memory expert at Goldsmith's College in London, also found
that scientists use many terms to describe this subject - stuck-song syndrome,
sticky music, and cognitive itch, or most commonly "earworm".
Scientists
suggests that there may be psychological reasons why some songs are more likely
get stuck in our minds, including memory triggers, emotional states and stress.
According to Vicky Williamson, an American psychologist,
these are some earworm causes: recent music exposure, repeated music exposure, word
association, people association (when memories of a person are associated with
a song), situation association (e.g. Christmas may cause you to remember carols),
stress, surprise, dreams, and mind wandering.
Other
experts say that some earworms causes are song repetition, musical simplicity and incongruity.
Williamson
explains that earworms are an everyday phenomenon: “People always get a tune
stuck in their head, it happens to at least 90 percent of people. It’s a very
effortless form of memory, we're not even trying to remember, and this music
comes into our head and repeats over and over again. Imagine if we could recall
facts that we wanted as easily as we can bring new ones to mind without even
trying."
On the
video “Earworms, The Psycho-Science of Memorable Melodies” by A Viewpoints
Media, the phenomenon of earworms is easily explained.
But what
if you want to get rid of that annoying earworm? Experts say that going for a
run or doing a crossword seems to help. Also, it is said that listening to
other new songs may also work.
Earworms show us how fragile−and
at the same time strong− our memory is. Have you ever been victim of earworms?
If so, how did you get rid of that song or melody stuck in your head?
I certainty have been victim of earworms. Sometimes it does not annoy me, since most of the times they are songs I really like and I enjoy singing them in my head while walking down the street or sitting in a bus. But what I really cannot stand is when a melody gets stuck in my head when a want to get some sleep at night. The awful part of this is that typically these are songs I do not like and the only way I can get rid of them is singing them in my head until I fall asleep. So, as a piece of advice, do not fight earworms.
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