Music-Evoked Emotions and Nostalgia
Document Type
Oral Presentation
Campus where you would like to present
Des Moines
Start Date
17-5-2012
Abstract
Music is a powerful tool that can be used to evoke emotions and salient autobiographical memories. A common emotion brought about by listening to meaningful music is nostalgia. Nostalgia can be defined as a sentimental longing for the past and is usually a positive emotion that brings pleasure to those who experience it. Twenty undergraduate students participated in this study; it was hypothesized that those who heard the songs would feel more nostalgia than those who read lyrics to the same songs. Participants were exposed to songs by either hearing them as music or reading lyrics. The participants were asked to rate how nostalgic each song made them feel and how many memories they associated with each song. There were some songs that provided statistically significant results between the hearing songs and reading lyrics groups, however this was not the case for all of the songs. When the data was grouped for all of the participants, the average nostalgia rating was significantly higher for the group who heard the songs.
Recommended Citation
Pelkey, Crystal, "Music-Evoked Emotions and Nostalgia" (2012). Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 3.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2012/cwucenters/3
Poster Number
2
Additional Mentoring Department
Psychology
Music-Evoked Emotions and Nostalgia
Des Moines
Music is a powerful tool that can be used to evoke emotions and salient autobiographical memories. A common emotion brought about by listening to meaningful music is nostalgia. Nostalgia can be defined as a sentimental longing for the past and is usually a positive emotion that brings pleasure to those who experience it. Twenty undergraduate students participated in this study; it was hypothesized that those who heard the songs would feel more nostalgia than those who read lyrics to the same songs. Participants were exposed to songs by either hearing them as music or reading lyrics. The participants were asked to rate how nostalgic each song made them feel and how many memories they associated with each song. There were some songs that provided statistically significant results between the hearing songs and reading lyrics groups, however this was not the case for all of the songs. When the data was grouped for all of the participants, the average nostalgia rating was significantly higher for the group who heard the songs.
Faculty Mentor(s)
Danielle Polage