Blog #11

1. Familiarize yourself with your topic:

            Some may say that remembering a song has to do with this melody, repetition and tune but other studies show that this is not always true. There are studies that show that melody and tune have no contribution towards memorization. In my research I would like to explore this idea.

2. Identify a research question:

            How does melody associate with how language phrases affect memorization?

           

3. Decide what you need to know in order to answer your research question:

·      Research that backs up my idea:

-       Rainey and Larson:
Two songs were song, "pop goes the weasel" and "yankee doodle" were played and measured the number of trials to learn the list initially and the number of trials to learn the list a week later.
There was no advantage of the music but the participants who heard the sung version required less trials to RELEARN.
After lyrics were read with no rhythm, read with influence of rhythm and read with rhythm and beat, there was no significant difference in verbatim recall of the total lyrics.
Combo of melody, rhythm and text is the promoter of recall because of information but it doesn't measure long-term recall.

-       Whitney Sim’s:
Research to see if spoken words were remembered better than sung words depending on    pace of song (fast, medium, slow) Thought that the slower the song, the more recall but there was-
No response of memory was due to presentation of rate
Pointed out that more meaningful connected text could create a difference in initial learning.
Combination of knowing a previous song with new words is DUAL-ENCODING--> melodies and lyrics compete


 . My own research

4.  Formulate a research plan that includes:

Purpose:

      That remembering a song has more external motivations

Such as: finding an identity, social, interest in subject, etc.

Detailed statement of your research question:

      Although people may think that music is easy to remember, is that always true or do people just prefer to remember it? Would someone be able to remember the words to a song they didn’t like? Are there more contributions to why people remember certain songs easier?

     

List of the information you need to gather:

-       Backed up research

-       Information from interviews

A preliminary list of sources:

-       Rainey and Larson

-       Whitney Sim’s
-   My interview

Plan for gathering your information that includes:

·      My 11 year old cousin.

·      At home

·      1 (or maybe 2?)

·      interviews

Conclusion-  That songs can be used as a neumonic device but there is no research that says that songs will always help with long-term memory. There are other external motivations for memorizing.