The recall and recognition of sonic logos

Abstract

Sonic logos are short musical signatures designed to support brand recognition and facilitate the transmission of brand identity. Yet little is known about how their melodic properties shape memorability, or how melodic recognition and sung recall relate to one another. Using two established paradigms—the continuous recognition task (Herff, Olsen, & Dean, 2018) and the melodic recall task (Silas & Müllensiefen, 2023; Sloboda & Parker, 1985)—we tested 90 sonic logos with a large number of participants (N = 1,860) and found that both recognisability and recallability vary reliably across representative commercial sonic logos. Melodic features indicating complexity predicted both forms of memory but in opposite directions: greater structural complexity enhanced recognisability while hindering sung recall, producing a negative correlation between recall and recognition. However, once both paradigm scores, melodic features, and contextual influences were taken into account in the same models, the apparent negative relationship between recognition and recall disappeared, indicating that the two forms of memory draw on different aspects of melodic structure rather than directly reflecting one another. These findings clarify the cognitive bases of melodic memorability and offer practical guidance for the design of effective sonic logos.