A new study has found that the energy levels of music affect what we remember. Two researchers from Goldsmiths, University of London looked into what kinds of memories people had after listening to different types of music. Music psychologist Safiyyah Nawaz and neuroscientist Dr Diana Omigie investigated how the tempo and mood of songs affected what people remembered about their life. The researchers found that high-energy music made people remember funny and happy events from their past. In contrast, slower and acoustic music brought back memories of calmness and sadness. It even made people recall romantic experiences.
一項新研究發現，音樂的能量級別會影響我們的記憶內容。倫敦大學金匠學院的兩位研究者深入探究人們在聽完不同類型音樂後產生的記憶類型。音樂心理學家薩菲雅·納瓦茲與神經科學家戴安娜·奧米吉博士共同研究歌曲的節奏與情緒如何影響人們對生活的記憶。研究發現，高能量音樂會讓人回憶起過去有趣與快樂的事件；相反地，緩慢的民謠音樂則喚醒平靜、悲傷的情緒記憶，甚至使人回想起浪漫體驗。
The researchers asked 233 people about the sorts of memories they had after listening to music. The people listened to popular songs from their childhood and early adulthood. Dr Omigie said the feelings people had for music affected their memories. She said: "It's not just the musical features that influence memory, but also how much a person likes a song." Ms Nawaz said: "Acoustic songs were associated with memories that were more vivid, unique, and characterized by complex emotions like romance." She added that energetic songs were linked to "social, exciting, high-energy memories". The research will be put into a database of musical memories on the website memoryrecords.xyz.
研究者詢問了233名受試者，請他們描述聽完音樂後產生的記憶類型。這些受試者聆聽了來自童年及青年時期的流行歌曲。奧米吉博士指出，人們對音樂的情感投射會影響記憶內容，她強調：「不僅是音樂特徵會影響記憶，個人對歌曲的喜愛程度更是關鍵因素。」納瓦茲補充說明：「民謠歌曲往往引發更鮮明、獨特且充滿複雜情感（如浪漫情懷）的記憶。」她同時發現，高能量歌曲則與「社交性、令人興奮且充滿活力的回憶」密切相關。這項研究將被收錄於記憶資料庫網站 memoryrecords.xyz 的「音樂記憶專區」。
Vocabulary 單字
•Energy (n): music's intensity or power
•Tempo (n): speed of the music
•Acoustic (adj): non-electric, softer sound
•Contrast (n): clear difference
•Vivid (adj): clear and detailed
•Unique (adj): one of a kind
•Characterized (v): described by a feature
•Neuroscientist (n): brain scientist
•Associated (v): connected to something
•Investigated (v): studied carefully
