Involuntary Musical Imagery (InMI): A Cognitive Inquiry

• Grant number: 25/08009-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: October 01, 2025
• End date: July 31, 2029
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Music
• Principal Investigator: Graziela Bortz
• Grantee: Vitor Djun Yamaguchi
• Host Institution: Instituto de Artes (IA). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Involuntary Musical Imagery (InMI), commonly referred to as an earworm, is an everyday experience in which musical excerpts spontaneously emerge in the mind without the individual's intention or control. Despite its apparent universality (Liikkanen & Jakubowski, 2020), its causes and psychological impact remain poorly understood within musicology and cognitive psychology. InMI raises important questions regarding its functionality-whether it is a by-product of other cognitive functions or a more specialized propensity of the human mind. These questions carry potential implications for evolutionary perspectives on musicality, with possible impacts on fields such as education, health, and well-being (Fitch, 2015; Cross, 2016; Varella, 2018). While the importance of musical imagination is well recognized in contexts of musical expertise, it is still unclear why so many people spend a considerable amount of their lives spontaneously imagining music. This project aims to broaden the understanding of InMI by adapting and validating, for a Brazilian population, two psychological instruments: the Involuntary Musical Imagery Scale (IMIS) (Floridou et al., 2015) and the Need for Cognitive Closure Scale (NFCS) (Roets & Hiel, 2011). Unlike previous studies, which face conceptual and methodological challenges due to their focus on related but less specific phenomena (Hyman et al., 2013; Campbell & Margulis, 2015; Killingsly, Lacherez & Meuter, 2021), this research proposes a more precise and replicable approach, grounded in psychometrically validated constructs and measures. The expected results may offer deeper insight into the relationship between earworm experiences and broader cognitive tendencies, the cross-cultural understanding of the phenomenon, and other underexplored associations in this field. (AU)