Autobiographical Memories and Emotional Characteristics in Response to Musical and Non-Musical Sounds

Several studies show that music evokes more positive and detailed autobiographical memories than other stimuli (e.g., environmental sounds). However, systematic evaluation of comparison stimuli as experimental controls has been limited. This study evaluated the autobiographical memories evoked in response to musical and non-musical excerpts, analyzing emotional responses, liking, familiarity, and subjective sensations. A within-subject design was used (n = 138). Subjects listened to eight excerpts: two environmental sounds (cafeteria and walking), three noises (white: 20 Hz–20 kHz; pink and brown, with a predominance of low frequencies), two musical pieces (arousing and relaxing), and a voice recording. After each excerpt, subjects reported memories and sensations and rated familiarity, liking, valence, and arousal (1–9 scale). The arousing piece and the walking sound evoked memories with more spatio-temporal references and references to actions, thoughts, and emotions than the voice and the relaxing piece did. The musical pieces received the highest, while white noise had the lowest scores for valence and liking. Environmental sounds were perceived as the most familiar. In conclusion, non-musical sounds can evoke more detailed autobiographical memories than non-self-selected music, highlighting the importance of characterizing the evocative and affective properties of different auditory stimuli to optimize studies on music-evoked autobiographical memories.