Earworms: Those songs that get stuck in your head - Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis
-
0:07 - 0:10Have you ever been waiting in line
at the grocery store, -
0:10 - 0:15innocently perusing the magazine rack,
when a song pops into your head? -
0:15 - 0:19Not the whole song, but a fragment of it
that plays and replays -
0:19 - 0:24until you find yourself unloading
the vegetables in time to the beat. -
0:24 - 0:28You've been struck by an earworm,
and you're not alone. -
0:28 - 0:33Over 90% of people are plagued
by earworms at least once a week, -
0:33 - 0:37and about a quarter of people
experience them several times a day. -
0:37 - 0:41They tend to burrow in during tasks
that don't require much attention, -
0:41 - 0:44say, when waiting on water to boil
-
0:44 - 0:46or a traffic light to change.
-
0:46 - 0:49This phenomenon is one
of the mind's great mysteries. -
0:49 - 0:53Scientists don't know
exactly why it's so easy -
0:53 - 0:55for tunes to get stuck in our heads.
-
0:55 - 0:58From a psychological perspective,
-
0:58 - 1:01earworms are an example of mental imagery.
-
1:01 - 1:03This imagery can be visual,
-
1:03 - 1:06like when you close your eyes
and imagine a red wagon, -
1:06 - 1:08or it can be auditory,
-
1:08 - 1:11like when you imagine
the sound of a baby screaming, -
1:11 - 1:13or oil sizzling in a pan.
-
1:13 - 1:16Earworms are a special form
of auditory imagery -
1:16 - 1:19because they're involuntary.
-
1:19 - 1:23You don't plug your ears
and try to imagine "Who Let the Dogs Out," -
1:23 - 1:25or, well, you probably don't.
-
1:25 - 1:28It just intrudes onto
your mental soundscape -
1:28 - 1:31and hangs around
like an unwanted house guest. -
1:31 - 1:33Earworms tend to be quite vivid
-
1:33 - 1:38and they're normally made up of a tune,
rather than, say, harmonies. -
1:38 - 1:43A remarkable feature of earworms
is their tendency to get stuck in a loop, -
1:43 - 1:47repeating again and again
for minutes or hours. -
1:47 - 1:52Also remarkable is the role
of repetition in sparking earworms. -
1:52 - 1:57Songs tend to get stuck when
we listen to them recently and repeatedly. -
1:57 - 2:00If repetition is such a trigger,
-
2:00 - 2:04then perhaps we can blame our earworms
on modern technology. -
2:04 - 2:07The last hundred years have seen
an incredible proliferation -
2:07 - 2:13of devices that help you listen
to the same thing again and again. -
2:13 - 2:17Records, cassettes, CDs,
or streamed audio files. -
2:17 - 2:21Have these technologies bread some
kind of unique, contemporary experience, -
2:21 - 2:26and are earworms just a product
of the late 20th century? -
2:26 - 2:28The answer comes from an unlikely source:
-
2:28 - 2:30Mark Twain.
-
2:30 - 2:34In 1876, just one year
before the phonograph was invented, -
2:34 - 2:38he wrote a short story
imagining a sinister takeover -
2:38 - 2:42of an entire town by a rhyming jingle.
-
2:42 - 2:44This reference, and others,
-
2:44 - 2:48show us that earworms seem
to be a basic psychological phenomenon, -
2:48 - 2:51perhaps exacerbated
by recording technology -
2:51 - 2:53but not new to this century.
-
2:53 - 2:57So yes, every great historical figure,
from Shakespeare to Sacajawea, -
2:57 - 3:02may well have wandered around
with a song stuck in their head. -
3:02 - 3:06Besides music, it's hard to think
of another case of intrusive imagery -
3:06 - 3:08that's so widespread.
-
3:08 - 3:09Why music?
-
3:09 - 3:12Why don't watercolors
get stuck in our heads? -
3:12 - 3:14Or the taste of cheesy taquitos?
-
3:14 - 3:19One theory has to do with the way music
is represented in memory. -
3:19 - 3:21When we listen to a song we know,
-
3:21 - 3:26we're constantly hearing forward in time,
anticipating the next note. -
3:26 - 3:31It's hard for us to think about one
particular musical moment in isolation. -
3:31 - 3:35If we want to think about the pitch
of the word "you" in "Happy Birthday," -
3:35 - 3:37we have to start back at "Happy,"
-
3:37 - 3:39and sing through until we get to "you."
-
3:39 - 3:43In this way, a tune
is sort of like a habit. -
3:43 - 3:45Just like once you start tying your shoe,
-
3:45 - 3:48you're on automatic
until you tighten the bow, -
3:48 - 3:51once a tune is suggested
-
3:51 - 3:54because, for example, someone says,
"my umbrella," -
3:54 - 3:58we have to play through until it
reaches a natural stopping point, -
3:58 - 4:01"ella, ella, ella."
-
4:01 - 4:03But this is largely speculation.
-
4:03 - 4:08The basic fact remains we don't know
exactly why we're susceptible to earworms. -
4:08 - 4:11But understanding them better
could give us important clues -
4:11 - 4:13to the workings of the human brain.
-
4:13 - 4:15Maybe the next time we're plagued
-
4:15 - 4:18by a Taylor Swift tune
that just won't go away, -
4:18 - 4:22we'll use it as the starting point
for a scientific odyssey -
4:22 - 4:26that will unlock important mysteries
about basic cognition. -
4:26 - 4:29And if not, well,
we can just shake it off.
- Title:
- Earworms: Those songs that get stuck in your head - Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis
- Description:
-
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/earworms-those-songs-that-get-stuck-in-your-head-elizabeth-hellmuth-margulis
Have you ever been waiting in line at the grocery store, innocently perusing the magazine rack, when a song pops into your head? Not the whole song, but a fragment of it that plays and replays until you find yourself unloading the vegetables in time to the beat? Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis explores earworms — a cognitive phenomenon that plagues over 90% of people at least once a week.
Lesson by Elizabeth Margulis, animation by Artrake Studio.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TED-Ed
- Duration:
- 04:46
Jenny Zurawell edited English subtitles for Earworms: Those songs that get stuck in your head - Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis | ||
Jessica Ruby approved English subtitles for Earworms: Those songs that get stuck in your head - Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis | ||
Jessica Ruby edited English subtitles for Earworms: Those songs that get stuck in your head - Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis | ||
Jessica Ruby accepted English subtitles for Earworms: Those songs that get stuck in your head - Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis | ||
Jessica Ruby edited English subtitles for Earworms: Those songs that get stuck in your head - Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis | ||
Jessica Ruby edited English subtitles for Earworms: Those songs that get stuck in your head - Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis | ||
Jennifer Cody edited English subtitles for Earworms: Those songs that get stuck in your head - Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis | ||
Jennifer Cody edited English subtitles for Earworms: Those songs that get stuck in your head - Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis |