“Development of Liking for Familiar and Unfamiliar Melodies”, 1987 (; similar):
Subjects aged 4–5 yrs, 6–7 yrs, 8–9 yrs, 10–11 yrs, 13–14 yrs, and 18 yrs or older (n = 16 per group) were asked to rate 5 tone sequences in each of 4 categories: familiar or unfamiliar melodies and near or far approximations to music.
Data show that familiar melodies were best liked, followed by unfamiliar melodies, near approximations, and far approximations. There was an overall decline in liking for the stimuli with age.
…In summary, liking ratings for familiar and unfamiliar real-life melodies were obtained which were consistent with the hypothesized inverted-U relationship between liking and familiarity, with age representing the latter. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that the peak of the inverted U would occur at a later age for unfamiliar than for familiar melodies. The pattern of ratings obtained for the statistical approximations to music was also consistent with the inverted-U hypothesis: liking was an inverse function of age for these stimuli, and it was argued that this was because the extent to which they appeared unfamiliar when compared with the other melodies increased with age. No difference was found between ratings given to the 2 types of statistical approximation to music. In general terms, these results provide further support for the “optimum complexity” model of musical preference.