The conventional framework for differentiating media relies on a passive-active distinction or attentional load alone, neither of which adequately explains why individuals report richer spontaneous mental exploration during music listening than during equally passive engagement with short-form video. This paper proposes a theoretical framework built on four interrelated constructs: Packaging Completeness, Abstraction Gap, Cognitive Openness, and Media Agency. The framework predicts that media low in Packaging Completeness, such as music, maximizes the Abstraction Gap, facilitates Cognitive Openness through Default Mode Network availability, and preserves user agency, while high-packaging media forecloses these conditions by monopolizing attentional resources across sensory, narrative, and emotional dimensions simultaneously. Converging evidence from cognitive neuroscience, music psychology, and attention research is synthesized to support this framework, and testable predictions are derived.
Zaelani (Sat,) studied this question.
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