Chapter 13

Memory for Musical Attributes

Daniel J. Levitin

13.1 Introduction

What is memory? As with many concepts in psychology, people have an intu-
ition about what memory is until they are asked to define it. When we try
to define memory, and break it up into its components, this becomes a compli-
cated question. We talk about memorizing phone numbers, remembering a
smell, remembering the best route to school. We talk about ‘‘knowing’’ that
we’re allergic to ragweed or that we had a haircut three weeks ago. Is this
knowing a form of memory? A panty hose manufacturer boasts that its new
fabric has memory. What do all these forms of memory and knowledge have in
common? How do they differ? Psychology departments teach whole courses on
memory. It is thus impossible to say much of importance about the topic in just
a few introductory paragraphs, but what follows is a brief overview of some
of the issues in memory research. Then we will discuss memory for musical
events in more detail.

13.2 Types of Memory

Psychologists tend to make conceptual distinctions among different types of
memory. When we talk about different types of memory, an immediate ques-
tion that comes to mind is whether these different types are conceptual con-
veniences, or whether they have an underlying neural basis. There is strong
neurological evidence that particular memory systems are indeed localized in
separate parts of the brain. The hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, for exam-
ple, are known to play a role in the encoding and storage of particular forms of
memory. However, the computational environment of the brain is massively
parallel and widely distributed. It is likely that a number of processes related
to memory are located throughout the brain. Further, some of the conceptual
labels for memory systems, such as ‘‘procedural memory,’’ actually encompass
somewhat independent processes that are conveniently categorized together
(for pedagogical reasons), but do not necessarily activate a single distinct brain
structure. A more detailed discussion of the relation between brain and mem-
ory can be found in the book by Larry Squire (1987).
One kind of memory is the immediate sensory memory we experience as
image persistence. For example, if you look outside the window on a bright

From chapter 17 inMusic, Cognition, and Computerized Sound, ed. P. R. Cook (Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press, 1999), 209–227. Reprinted with permission.