Two experiments were performed using listening to music and a sensorimotor task as the two components of a concurrent task situation. In Experiment 1 subjects who performed an easy sensorimotor task preferred complex music in the concurrent situation more than did those performing a difficult sensorimotor task. In Experiment 2 we found that this result occurred only among those subjects with a music background. We hypothesized that these subjects listened to music more analytically than did those with no music background. It was concluded that for musically experienced subjects the processing of complex music demands more capacity than the processing of simple music, and that preference for complex music is directly related to the amount of capacity available to process it
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