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Date Permissions Signed

5-2-2021

Date of Award

Spring 2021

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Department or Program Affiliation

Experimental Psychology Graduate Program

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Hyman, Ira E.

Second Advisor

Lemm, Kristi M., 1971-

Third Advisor

Jantzen, Kelly J.

Abstract

This research was conducted to understand the effect of cognitive load on the occurrence of earworms. A go/no go task, a typical mind wandering method, was used to create different levels of cognitive load based on the difficulty of the task. We also used a control condition which more closely matched previous earworm studies. Both probe-caught and survey reports were used to measure earworms and mind wandering in the study. Earworms were not found to occur more often in the lower experimental levels of cognitive load but controls reported spending more time with earworms. This finding is mostly inconsistent with research on mind wandering which occurs in low cognitive load conditions when more resources are available. I theorize that earworms may occur with minimal resources where more complex thoughts in mind wandering cannot. Earworms may follow a U-shape continuum where earworms may occur in lower levels of cognitive load but must compete with the opportunity of other mind wandering topics. Future research should aim to use more moderate cognitive load tasks to better understand when the occurrence of earworms increases on the lower end of the cognitive load spectrum.

Type

Text

Keywords

Cognitive Load, Involuntary Thought, Musical Imagery, Mind Wandering, Mindwandering, Earworms

Publisher

Western Washington University

OCLC Number

1250390918

Subject – LCSH

Music--Psychological aspects; Imagery (Psychology); Thought suppression; Cognitive consistency

Format

application/pdf

Genre/Form

masters theses

Language

English

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

Rights Statement

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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