Earworms Characteristics

According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, an earworm is, “a song or melody that keeps repeating in one's mind.” While these songs can be irritating to some people, they could provide a lot of information to help research regarding people’s everyday lives. Although earworms are just songs, they have a big impact on people. Earworms can be used to help researchers learn more about the human brain and the actions of people. There are three different factors that compose every earworm. One is pace. Most earworms have a faster, upbeat tempo. Another factor that makes earworms so catchy is musical shape. Earworms have pretty simple structures with rhythmic patterns. The last factor is some kind of unique interval. While the song still has a simple

Earworms are regular among most people. In Kelly Jakubowski’s study, “Ninety percent of her respondents said they got a song stuck in their heads at least once a week, usually at times when the brain is not particularly engaged, like during a shower, walking or cleaning the house.” People are more likely to get songs stuck in their heads when they are doing something that doesn’t require a lot of brain activity. Earworms could also help explain why people think about so many things during the day. Jakubowski says that, “Research on earworms can help to inform us about how and why our brains spend up to 40% of our days thinking thoughts that are unrelated to our present task at hand.” Earworms can help people in many ways and make a big impact on learning. People’s lifestyles, genders, and moods can have an impact on their earworms, which could provide information about processing moods. Along with memorization, earworms help with learning in general and could make a big impact in schools. Earworms could also provide information about why people get distracted from their tasks. Earworms aren’t just catchy tunes that get stuck in a person’s head, they’re tools to help us