Liking and memory for musical stimuli as a function of exposure

Three experiments examined changes in liking and memory for music as a function of number of previous exposures, the ecological validity of the music, and whether the exposure phase required focused or incidental listening. After incidental listening, liking ratings were higher for music heard more often in the exposure phase and this association was stronger as ecological validity increased. After focused listening, liking ratings followed an inverted U-shaped function of exposure for the most ecologically valid stimuli (initial increases followed by decreases), but this curvilinear function was attenuated or nonexistent for less valid stimuli. In general, recognition improved as a function of previous exposure for focused listeners, but the effect was attenuated or absent for incidental listeners. Since Zajonc’s (1968) report that “mere exposure is a sufficient condition for attitude enhancement ” (p. 15), there have been nu-merous replications and extensions of the finding that simple exposure to a novel, neutral stimulus increases liking for it (for a review, see Bornstein, 1989). On the basis of a meta-analysis of the relevant literature, Bornstein concluded that the effect is stronger (a) for complex than for simple stimuli, (b) for exposure t