ABSTRACT
Music is often cited as a powerful cue for bringing back significant and emotional lifetime memories. One feature that appears to be a substantial contributor to this experience is the fact that these music-evoked autobiographical memories (MEAMs) are often accompanied by a high degree of reliving and vivid mental imagery-one is brought back to the sights, smells, and sounds of a past event. In this chapter, the relationship between mental imagery and autobiographical memory in general will be briefly reviewed, followed by a discussion as to why music in particular may be a highly effective cue for autobiographical memories. I will then review the existing research evidence on MEAMs to probe the extent to which MEAMs are accompanied by different types of mental imagery (visual, auditory, motor, etc.). Particular attention will be paid to recent research suggesting that MEAMs may actually be accompanied by more vivid mental imagery than autobiographical memories retrieved in response to other types of perceptual cues. Suggestions for future research to more systematically probe the features and acuity of mental imagery within MEAMs will be put forward, and potential theoretical and clinical implications of this research topic will be highlighted.
