title: Unforgettable film music: the role of emotion in episodic long-term memory for music.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Specific pieces of music can elicit strong emotions in listeners and, possibly in connection with these emotions, can be remembered even years later. However, episodic memory for emotional music compared with less emotional music has not yet been examined. We investigated whether emotional music is remembered better than less emotional music. Also, we examined the influence of musical structure on memory performance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Recognition of 40 musical excerpts was investigated as a function of arousal, valence, and emotional intensity ratings of the music. In the first session the participants judged valence and arousal of the musical pieces. One week later, participants listened to the 40 old and 40 new musical excerpts randomly interspersed and were asked to make an old/new decision as well as to indicate arousal and valence of the pieces. Musical pieces that were rated as very positive were recognized significantly better.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Musical excerpts rated as very positive are remembered better. Valence seems to be an important modulator of episodic long-term memory for music. Evidently, strong emotions related to the musical experience facilitate memory formation and retrieval.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Music Physiology and Musicians' Medicine, University of Music and Drama Hannover, Hohenzollernstrasse 47, 30161 Hannover, Germany. eschrich@hmt-hannover.de
authors.forename: Susann
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eschrich
authors.forename: Thomas F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Münte
authors.forename: Eckart O
authors.initials: EO
authors.lastname: Altenmüller
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000145:classification* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009040:Motion Pictures; D009146:Music / Q000523:psychology*; D046709:Pattern Recognition, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results