“Subjective Complexity, Familiarity, and Liking for Popular Music”, 1995 (; similar):
The optimal complexity and preference-feedback hypotheses make specific predictions about the effects of stimulus familiarity and subjective complexity on liking for music excerpts.
This study investigated the relationships between each of these 3 variables within the same experimental design. 75 undergraduates rated 60 excerpts of contemporary popular music for liking, subjective complexity, or familiarity.
Results: strongly supported the predictions of the 2 models, indicating a positive relationship between liking and familiarity, and an inverted-U relationship between liking and subjective complexity.
The observed relationship between familiarity and subjective complexity was more difficult to predict and explain, although there was some evidence that this relationship might best be described as an inverted-U function. The different relationships of these 2 variables with liking are explained in terms of subjective complexity being related to objective properties of the stimuli, and familiarity being determined by cultural exposure and subjects’ own volition.