Does music have a more powerful effect on memory than images, words, or smells?

So I can eat meat again if I listen to music? cool

music enhances our lives, with just a chorus of a song your mind unlease all of your memories, good and bad, and allows to becomes our true selves.

i think it's just because we can't shut our ears that easily...we hear all kinds of noise all the time..once some beautiful voice hits our ears we would just couldn't help but pay attention..and when we use our eyes we kind of only see what we want to see and what we r "able" to see...so in some way creating some really eye-catching and lasting image is harder than creating the music..coz most ppl don't care what they hear, but they care more what they see

If it does, then that music must be off the CHAIN!

duh...

it is mental visual articulation.

I think that different people experience different sensory stimulation at many different levels. That's why we have musicians, wine conniseurs, perfume creators, gourmet chefs. Some people insist on gourmet meals while some choke down pb and jelly and think it is just great...combine them all. Remember a teen dance, your date's perfume during the last waltz music and the spots from the disco ball rotating around the gymnasium. It's all connected to our chemical release..the hymn amazing grace to a church organ, the insense and a coffin at the front of a church with weeping crowds in dark suits. Some people are more responsive to the smells, some to the sounds and some to the sights. Add the feelings of touch and it becomes almost real. Wonderful little brain we have isn't it.

There are songs I have not heard in a long time that deal with learning things like names of states or cities or names of famous people (ie. Presidents) and I remember those songs.

I use to remember the song that did the capitals and the states. Sad that song is gone. I learned that in Elementary school. The new one is from Animainiacs. I still remember most of their informative songs. Love that cartoon.

i have basically no visual memories of my chilhood, although i know/remember the words of my mothers favourie songs which she playes when i was a baby

music puts you in that place more than anything

I think all of our senses work together to create and remember memories. Some just overpower others at times, but in the end, they all remind us of something at some point or another.

Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Very yes.

If I'm listening to a specific album when studying a specific subject in school, I can usually recall the tunes while I'm taking the exam, and it helps me remember some of what I studied.

im thinking of seinfeld and the episode where elaines boyfriend gets all emotional everytime he hears desperado.

personally all i have to do to get energized is listen to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj9yqnJsrEM

also if i ever hear "never gunna give you up" i know ive been rick rolld and begin to feel incredibly angry.

nah, i'll pass on this one. the study doesn't sound convincing, and it's just too hard to test his theory with such a small sample size. music is most likely just another attribute or detail when retrieving a memory.

music has changed my life in so many ways...and it affects my moods

i honestly believe it depends based on how a person thinks naturally, i happen to be a more music oriented thinker, meaning i can link almost anything(memories, events, smells, tastes Ect...) to a song, but i know people who are more sight oriented, or even more mathematically oriented, everyone is different.

I know it does for me. I can give you many songs that give me a feeling of walking in the grass when I was 3 years old.

...And You Will Know Us After The Trail Of Dead... has a song called "Summer Of '91." I was born that fall, but that song just takes me to memories I wouldn't remember otherwise. It's an amazing feeling.

There is a heirarchy, I don't think music has more powerful effect than smells but it does more than images or words. Images have a more powerful effect than words.

Music survives even when language doesn't. That fact alone should tell us something about the power of music.

When I listen to music I see colors and images-- often not related to my past at all. That's how I get inspiration for paintings.

There are some folks in recovery from drug abuse who can't listen to certain tunes without having "euphoric recall". The songs trigger strong reactions associated with being high.
The power of music, indeed.
(Pink Floyd, anyone?)

I always think its interesting how many songs, beats, and ryhthms are catalouged in our minds and how easily they are retrieved.

Smells burn themselves into our memories too but more often than not its much harder to place their origins.

"The research team collected over 1,500 "preview" clips from the iTunes Music Store's listing of the top 100 pop and R&B songs from each year over the past couple decades."

And in a related story, the RIAA has filed a multi-million dollar law suit against UC Davis...

Seriously, though, last summer, in order to clear some space off of a shelf, I decided to transfer dozens of old mixed tapes I had from college over a decade ago to mp3. I had a beautiful time.

"Does music have a more powerful effect on memory than other influences, like images, words, or smells?"

Absolutely.

I think that in certain cases music does have an overwhelming effect on memory over the other sense. I don't think it's limited to just music though, distinct sounds in general can trigger things.

The sound of cicadas is a personal example of mine.

I love this. Do you ever stop to realize when an older song comes on the radio that you still know every word, and your fingers are drumming to the beat subconsciously? It's marvelous how that happens. I sure know that all the songs my history class group partners made up with me helped us for our quizzes this year.

Maybe teachers should be required to sing their lessons. I'd retain more information and be more apt to stay awake if that was the case.

There are certain songs from my past that everytime I hear them I am almost taken back in time to the place where I first heard them. Probably the song that has the most effect on me is Asia's Heat Of The Moment. Everytime I hear the first few notes of this song it's almost an out of body experience. These songs act as markers in our lives when we step from one of lifes plateaus to the next. I would have to say there are more songs that effect me in this strange way than there are smells, words or images combined.

The fact that music makes me remember images, words, & smells from the past, might very well mean that it does.

i think this would be true.. listening to old tunes can be very nostalgic

Ha. Totally. My dad always says that when 'Band on the Run' comes on the radio its like he's transported back 1974. He's says its like he can almost feel those itchy polyester pants his parents made him wear.

I don't know about smell and music but that picture up top is sure as hell going to burn itself into my brain

Just read Pythagoras's Theory on music, music is an inter-multi dimensional force, that effects the mind body and soul, some musical notes correlate to planetary phenomena as well as certain colors and signals that trigger responses.

We need more stories llike this at current_. Understanding, research and thoughtful discussion.