Music-dependent memory in immediate and delayed word recall

W. BALCH, K. BOWMAN, L. A. MOHLER (1992) Music-dependent memory in immediate and delayed word recall. Memory & Cognition, 20 (I), 21-28.
Undergraduate volunteers rated a series of words for pleasantness while hearing a particular
background music. The subjects in Experiment 1 received, immediately or after a 48-h delay,
an unexpected word-recall test in one of the following musical cue contexts: same cue (8), different
cue (D), or no cue (N). For immediate recall, context dependency (8 – D) was significant but
same-cue facilitation (8 – N) was not. No cue effects at all were found for delayed recall, and there
was a significant interaction between cue and retention interval. A similar interaction was also
found in Experiment 3, which was designed to rule out an alternative explanation with respect
to distraction. When the different musical selection was changed specifically in either tempo or
form (genre), only pieces having an altered tempo produced significantly lower immediate recall
compared with the same pieces (Experiment 2). The results support a stimulus generalization
view of music-dependent memory.