Increasing the complexity of isolated musical chords benefits concurrent associative memory formation.

ABSTRACT: The effects of background music on learning and memory are inconsistent, partially due to the intrinsic complexity and diversity of music, as well as variability in music perception and preference. By stripping down musical harmony to its building blocks, namely discrete chords, we explored their effects on memory formation of unfamiliar word-image associations. Chords, defined as two or more simultaneously played notes, differ in the number of tones and inter-tone intervals, yielding varying degrees of harmonic complexity, which translate into a continuum of consonance to dissonance percepts. In the current study, participants heard four different types of musical chords (major, minor, medium complex, and high complex chords) while they learned new word-image pairs of a foreign language.

SUBMITTER: Kurzom N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10169783 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature