Culture

Beatles' tunes aid memory recall

by Babel-Fish | September 7, 2008 at 06:32 pm

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I was learning to be an adult having my first full relationships with a member of the oposite sex. I remember humming and whistling 'She Love's me' after kissing my sweetheart good night. The world looks very different now and that was 'Yesterday where my troubles were very far away',

The world's largest catalogue of Beatles-related recollections will be unveiled in Liverpool this week.

The 3,000 memories, from 69 nations, could help scientists better understand how music can help humans tap into the long forgotten events of their lives.

A link between positive feelings and music could explain why tunes trigger memories, suggests the UK-based team.

The study is ongoing, and people can add their Beatles-related memory by visiting www.magicalmemorytour.com.

"For a long time people have noticed that music can help people remember events from their lives, [but] this is the first real data that shows this," said Dr Catriona Morrison, a cognitive psychologist from the University of Leeds.

Preliminary results from the study, devised by Dr Morrison and her colleague Professor Martin Conway, are being presented to the British Association Science Festival.