Associate Professor Kelly Jakubowski studies the songs that run through our heads to establish why they’re there, and what can be done about them.
Kelly Jakubowski, Associate Professor in music psychology, studies music and memory, including the phenomenon of songs getting ‘stuck’ in one’s head, also known as earworms.
Whenever she collects data around Christmas-time— which involves participants keeping an ‘earworm diary’ — Professor Jakubowski notices a surge in people recording festive songs.
For those who struggle the most with earworms, Professor Jakubowski may have a tool that can help.
It’s estimated that 90% of people experience earworms and it's a striking example of how much our memories love music.
Even people with late-stage dementia can remember songs they first learned as children and songs can be used to trigger memories as well.
As part of her studies, Professor Jakubowski uses diaries to capture the soundtrack of people’s everyday lives, as well as what triggers each song and what emotions it evokes.
There are a few factors that make the Christmas holidays especially ‘tough’ for earworms. According to Professor Jakubowski, hearing a relatively small set of songs repeatedly can set earworms off.
Repetitive, upbeat songs with predictable melodies — like carols — make for good earworms.
Other cues in our environment, like pictures and symbols, can trigger them. That means even seeing a Christmas tree can cause the radio in your head to switch stations.
According to Professor Jakubowski, people find earworms annoying about a third of the time.
And for some people, earworms can be linked to anxiety, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, or other mental health issues. Earworms can even interfere with everyday tasks.
Professor Jakubowski recently consulted on a project to help.
The Earworm Eraser is a 40-second song loop of deliberately dull music.
And, since you can’t listen to two songs at once, it blocks the earworm.
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