Lauren Stewart

Lauren Stewart

Lauren Stewart is a researcher and co-author of the 2015 tempo study and the 2017 melody comparison.

Who they are

The work of Lauren Stewart reaches this site through the papers listed below. The name is tied to Involuntary Musical Imagery.

Key papers

Jakubowski, K., Finkel, S., Stewart, L., & Müllensiefen, D. (2017). Dissecting an earworm: Melodic features and song popularity predict involuntary musical imagery. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 11(2), 122-135. What it reports: About 3,000 survey participants. Songs reported as earworms had more UK chart success. 100 earworm tunes compared with style-matched tunes never reported: shared common global melodic contours, smaller average gradients between turning points, faster tempi.

Jakubowski, K., Farrugia, N., Halpern, A. R., Sankarpandi, S. K., & Stewart, L. (2015). The speed of our mental soundtracks: Tracking the tempo of involuntary musical imagery in everyday life. Memory & Cognition, 43(8), 1229-1242. What it reports: Over four days participants tapped the beat of mental music using a wrist-worn accelerometer and kept a diary. Recalled music largely accurate; tempo tracked earlier findings on voluntary imagery; higher subjective arousal linked to faster tempo.

Key ideas

Involuntary Musical Imagery: A tune that replays in the mind without being called up, commonly known as an earworm.

Sources

  1. Jakubowski, K., Finkel, S., Stewart, L., & Müllensiefen, D. (2017). Dissecting an earworm: Melodic features and song popularity predict involuntary musical imagery. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 11(2), 122-135.
  2. Jakubowski, K., Farrugia, N., Halpern, A. R., Sankarpandi, S. K., & Stewart, L. (2015). The speed of our mental soundtracks: Tracking the tempo of involuntary musical imagery in everyday life. Memory & Cognition, 43(8), 1229-1242.