The effect of concurrent task complexity and music experience on preference for simple and complex music.

Abstract

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

Repeated Listening Increases the Liking for Music Regardless of Its Complexity: Implications for the Appreciation and Aesthetics of Music

“…All were musically educated (6–12 years) and currently performing musicians, as well as professionally engaged as musicians, music teachers, composers, or arrangers (Orr and Ohlsson, 2005 ). Preferences for higher levels of complexity are not correlated with greater musical experience (Arkes et al, 1986 ), so no potential confounds are introduced by the use of experts for initial complexity rating.…”

“…One way to apply formal measures of complexity would be an experimental situation in which complexity could be independently and exclusively manipulated. This level of control, however, requires highly constrained sound sequences, and synthetic examples typically have low ecological validity (Heyduk, 1975 ; Steck and Machotka, 1975 ; Arkes et al, 1986 ; Hargreaves and Castell, 1987 ; Szpunar et al, 2004 ). Another approach would be to separate listeners into groups based on their cognitive processing abilities while keeping the musical complexity constant, but results from such studies have not indicated any preference among those with more advanced abstract thinking for more complex music during either focused listening or listening during a cognitive demanding task (Rohner, 1985 ; Arkes et al, 1986 ).…”

Melodic Contour Similarity Using Folk Melodies

“…As discussed by Schmuckler (1999), musical, or in this case melodic, complexity is, in and of itself, a psychologically intricate concept-one that has been a topic of a great deal of research in its own right (Arkes, Rettig, & Scougale, 1986;Conley, 1981;Eerola et al, 2006;Konečni, 1982;Rohner, 1985;Williams, 2004). Accordingly, the divergence between these sets of ratings might highlight those factors that are intrinsic to the notion of melodic complexity, but have little to do with contour structure per se.…”

Liking music: Genres, contextual factors, and individual differences

“…There is also some evidence that preferences for simple or complex music are affected by situational factors. For example, in one study, listeners preferred to hear simple music in the background while they performed a difficult sensorimotor task, but they preferred complex music while they performed a simple task (Arkes et al 1986). Thus, the preferred level of musical complexity may vary with an individual's attentional capacity to process the music at a given point in time.…”