Stuck In My Head
Trying to study and constantly being disrupted by a catchy song is super frustrating. It pops into your head and won’t leave, reminding you of how well you know the lyrics even though the last time you heard the song was probably in the 90s. So why is it that you can be cramming math formulas for an hour but they won’t stick as well as a Taylor Swift song?
Well, according to a study reported by the New York Times, this phenomenon follows the rule of the saying that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. The research pointed out that the older your brain is, the more trouble you have in trying to store new things because your memory is already filled with the song lyrics from when you were a kid. Our brains are also more adaptable in our youth than they are in older age so it’s harder to take in new information.
However, there are more rudimentary explanations as to why you can so easily belt out your childhood anthems. The first is the idea of repetition. As we repeat something multiple times the network of neurons in our brains glue these details together so that your brain just ends up completing the activity without even thinking about it. So when playing your songs on repeat or hearing them on the radio every day, you tend to train your brain to recall all the details.
Our minds also rely on connections and associations. Hence when we hear a song, we tend to relate it to certain things we already know. For example, when hearing a song we can link it to the voice of the singer or the first time we heard it. This allows the brain to contextualise our memories and preserve them for long periods.
And then we get down to the beat. The idea of rhythm and rhyme allows for the brain to make its work easier for itself. Since it is not complicated to anticipate the next line of a song thanks to the rhyme scheme, your brain can find the answer to what comes next much quicker.
So applying what we know to all the ways that songs get jammed into our heads, we can use them to our advantage. Use repetition. Try and incorporate your studies into a routine so that your brain gets accustomed to the information it is being handed. Make memories with your notes. Tie them to things you will likely remember so that you can refer back to them by just recounting certain activities. Lastly, why not write your own music using your notes as lyrics. That way, when the bass drops, you know your grades won’t.