Schedule of Events | Symposia

Sketchpad Series

The Effects of Repeated Exposure on Musical Reward

Poster Session F - Tuesday, April 1, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Harley Glassman¹ (hglassman@torontomu.ca), Frank Russo¹; ¹Toronto Metropolitan University

Music can elicit such a powerful emotional response that people will voluntarily listen to their favourite pieces repeatedly. This study aimed to investigate whether repeated exposure to music influences participants' ratings of liking across their most and least preferred genres while controlling for familiarity. Additionally, we explored individual reward sensitivity, as measured by the extended Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire (eBMRQ). Participants first selected their most and least preferred musical genres. Then they listened to pieces from those genres over five repetitions and rated them on liking and familiarity. Lastly, they completed the eBMRQ. A linear mixed effects model revealed a significant negative effect of repetition on overall liking ratings (β = -0.28, p = <0.001). Meanwhile, higher liking ratings were found for the most preferred genre compared to the least preferred genre (β = 1.26, p < 0.001). Additionally, familiarity was a significant predictor of liking (β = 0.37, p < 0.001), suggesting that familiar music was rated more favourably. Reward sensitivity did not significantly predict liking ratings (β = -0.006, p = 0.44), indicating that individual differences in reward sensitivity did not directly influence overall liking across conditions and repetition cycles. Random effects were included for each participant. These findings underscore the importance of familiarity and musical preferences on pleasure while suggesting a limited role of reward sensitivity in predicting musical reward. Our future work will explore the neural mechanisms involved in musical reward and familiarity with repeated exposure.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Audition