Vocal melodies sung without lyrics (la la) are remembered better than instrumental melodies. What causes the advantage? One possibility is that vocal music elicits subvocal imitation, which could promote enhanced motor representations of a melody. If this motor interpretation is correct, distracting the motor system during encoding should reduce the memory advantage for vocal over piano melodies. In Experiment 1, participants carried out movements of the mouth (i.e., chew gum) or hand (i.e., squeeze a beanbag) while listening to 24 unfamiliar folk melodies (half vocal, half piano). In a subsequent memory test, they rated the same melodies and 24 timbre-matched foils from ‘1–Definitely New’ to ‘7–Definitely Old’. There was a memory advantage for vocal over piano melodies with no effect of group and no interaction. In Experiment 2, participants carried out motor activities during encoding more closely related to singing, either silently articulating (la la) or vocalizing without articulating (humming continuously). Once again, there was a significant advantage for vocal melodies with no effect or interaction of group. In Experiment 3, participants audibly whispered (la la) repeatedly during encoding. Again, the voice advantage was present and did not differ appreciably from prior research with no motor task during encoding. However, we observed that the spontaneous phase-locking of whisper rate and musical beat tended to predict enhanced memory for vocal melodies. Altogether the results challenge the notion that subvocal rehearsal of the melody drives enhanced memory for vocal melodies. Instead, the voice may enhance engagement.

没有歌词的声乐旋律（la la）比器乐旋律更容易记住。什么导致优势？一种可能性是，声乐会引起潜意识模仿，这可以促进旋律的增强运动表现。如果这种运动解释是正确的，在编码过程中分散运动系统的注意力应该会降低人声相对于钢琴旋律的记忆优势。在实验1中，参与者一边听24首不熟悉的民谣旋律（半人声，半钢琴），一边做嘴巴（即嚼口香糖）或手（即挤豆袋）的动作。在随后的记忆测试中，他们对相同的旋律和 24 个音色匹配的箔片进行了评分，从“ 1–绝对新”到“ 7–绝对老”. 与钢琴旋律相比，声乐在记忆方面有优势，没有群体影响，也没有互动。在实验 2 中，参与者在编码过程中进行了与唱歌更密切相关的运动活动，要么默默地发音 ( la la ) ，要么不发音地发声（持续哼唱）。再次，没有效果或群体互动的声乐旋律具有显着优势。在实验 3 中，参与者可听见耳语（la la) 在编码期间重复。同样，语音优势是存在的，并且与之前在编码期间没有运动任务的研究没有明显不同。然而，我们观察到耳语率和音乐节拍的自发锁相倾向于预测人声旋律的增强记忆。总而言之，这些结果挑战了这样一种观念，即旋律的无声排练会增强对声乐旋律的记忆。相反，声音可能会增强参与度。