Listening to familiar music enhances the recall of details in young adults’ autobiographical memories

Emanuel Oroná, Morena López, Nadia Justel, Verónika Diaz Abrahan — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Listening to music may help evoke autobiographical memories. Some studies suggest that certain characteristics of music, such as familiarity with the listener, facilitate access to memories. However, it is not known whether listening to familiar promotes the recall of concrete and specific events, more loaded with details. The present study aims to compare the effect of listening to familiar music, unfamiliar music, or ambient sound on the richness and specificity of music-evoked autobiographical memories (MEAM). To do this, 60 participants (mean = 25.08, standard error = 0.57, 85% women) were assigned to three groups that listened, respectively, to familiar music, unfamiliar music, or ambient sound. Then, they performed an autobiographical memory recall task. After comparing the total amount and type of details evoked by the groups, it was found that those who listened to familiar music evoked memories
with a greater number of details (p = .009) and included a greater number of spatial/temporal references (p = .020) and about present entities (p = .003). Additionally, they tended to include more sensory descriptions than the other groups (p = .072). This suggests that listening to familiar music would influence the richness and specificity of MEAM, favoring access to memories about concrete events in a more detailed way. These findings contribute to the development and design of music-based interventions applicable in educational and therapeutic settings, such as in the treatment of dementia and other pathologies which involve impairment of autobiographical memory.

Costa Rican Journal of Psychology

Listening to familiar music enhances the recall of details in young adults’ autobiographical memories