Musicality in Infancy

The present review summarizes the available evidence on musicality, or music-related abilities, in infants (birth to 3 years). In the early months of life, infants are responsive to the pitch and temporal patterns of music. Their perceptual skills are similar, in many respects, to those of adults, presumably because of the nature of the human auditory system. Adult-infant differences, where evident, are attributable to infants’ unfamiliarity with the musical conventions of their culture. Musical enculturation proceeds more rapidly for temporal than for pitch processing. Musical exposure, especially the singing of caregivers, is prevalent in infancy. Caregivers’ music-making for infants has consequences for their emotional and social regulation and for their subsequent self-regulation abilities. By the end of their first year, most infants have become music-makers as well as music listeners. They move spontaneously to music, and their patterns of “dancing” undergo considerable change in the subsequent months and years. Early dancing is influenced by the familiarity of the music, and later dancing may include aspects of caregivers’ dance movements. Although the onset of singing occurs considerably later than the onset of dance, early singing is remarkably accurate in terms of its pitch range, pitch contours, rhythmic patterning, and fluency, especially when infants sing in their familiar home environment

Musicality in Infancy

The present review summarizes the available evidence on musicality, or music-related abilities, in infants (birth to 3 years). In the early months of life, infants are responsive to the pitch and temporal patterns of music. Their perceptual skills are similar, in many respects, to those of adults, presumably because of the nature of the human auditory system. Adult-infant differences, where evident, are attributable to infants’ unfamiliarity with the musical conventions of their culture. Musical enculturation proceeds more rapidly for temporal than for pitch processing. Musical exposure, especially the singing of caregivers, is prevalent in infancy. Caregivers’ music-making for infants has consequences for their emotional and social regulation and for their subsequent self-regulation abilities. By the end of their first year, most infants have become music-makers as well as music listeners. They move spontaneously to music, and their patterns of “dancing” undergo considerable change in the subsequent months and years. Early dancing is influenced by the familiarity of the music, and later dancing may include aspects of caregivers’ dance movements. Although the onset of singing occurs considerably later than the onset of dance, early singing is remarkably accurate in terms of its pitch range, pitch contours, rhythmic patterning, and fluency, especially when infants sing in their familiar home environment

Cross-cultural perspectives on pitch memory.

Abstract We examined effects of age and culture on children's memory for the pitch level of familiar music. Canadian 9-and 10-year-olds distinguished the original pitch level of familiar television theme songs from foils that were pitch-shifted by one semitone, whereas 5-to 8-year-olds failed to do so (Experiment 1). In contrast, Japanese 5-and 6-year-olds distinguished the pitch-shifted foils from the originals, performing significantly better than same-age Canadian children (Experiment 2). Moreover, Japanese 6-year-olds were more accurate than their 5-year-old counterparts. These findings challenge the prevailing view of enhanced pitch memory during early life. We consider factors that may account for Japanese children's superior performance such as their use of a pitch accent language (Japanese) rather than a stress accent language (English) and their experience with musical pitch labels

Speech versus singing: Infants choose happier sounds

Infants prefer speech to non-vocal sounds and to non-human vocalizations, and they prefer happy-sounding speech to neutral speech. They also exhibit an interest in singing, but there is little knowledge of their relative interest in speech and singing. The present study explored infants’ attention to unfamiliar audio samples of speech and singing. In Experiment 1, infants 4-13 months of age were exposed to happy-sounding infant-directed speech versus hummed lullabies by the same woman. They listened significantly longer to the speech, which had considerably greater acoustic variability and expressiveness, than to the lullabies. In Experiment 2, infants of comparable age who heard the lyrics of a Turkish children’s song spoken versus sung in a joyful/happy manner did not exhibit differential listening. Infants in Experiment 3 heard the happily sung lyrics of the Turkish children’s song versus a version that was spoken in an adult-directed or affectively neutral manner. They listened significantly longer to the sung version. Overall, happy voice quality rather than vocal mode (speech or singing) was the principal contributor to infant attention, regardless of age

Infants’ sensitivity to vowel and tonal contrasts

Infants 4 to 17 weeks of age were presented with sound which was contingent upon nonnutritive sucking. When the infants gave evidence of satiation to the initial stimulus, a contrasting sound was substituted. Significant response recovery was found when the stimuli were vowel contrasts but was absent when the stimuli were tones differing in frequency

Familiar songs reduce infant distress

Parents commonly vocalize to infants to mitigate their distress, especially when holding them is not possible. Here we examined the relative efficacy of parents’ speech and singing (familiar and unfamiliar songs) in alleviating the distress of 8- and 10-month-old infants (n = 68 per age group). Parent–infant dyads participated in 3 trials of the Still Face procedure, featuring a 2-min Play Phase, a Still Face phase (parents immobile and unresponsive for 1 min or until infants became visibly distressed), and a 2-min Reunion Phase in which caregivers attempted to reverse infant distress by (a) singing a highly familiar song, (b) singing an unfamiliar song, or (c) expressive talking (order counterbalanced across dyads). In the Reunion Phase, talking led to increased negative affect in both age groups, in contrast to singing familiar or unfamiliar songs, which increased infant attention to parent and decreased negative affect. The favorable consequences were greatest for familiar songs, which also generated increased smiling. Skin conductance recorded from a subset of infants (n = 36 younger, 41 older infants) revealed that arousal levels were highest for the talking reunion, lowest for unfamiliar songs, and intermediate for familiar songs. The arousal effects, considered in conjunction with the behavioral effects, confirm that songs are more effective than speech at mitigating infant distress. We suggest, moreover, that familiar songs generate higher infant arousal than unfamiliar songs because they evoke excitement, reflected in modestly elevated arousal as well as pleasure, in contrast to more subdued responses to unfamiliar songs

Infants’ responsiveness to maternal speech and singing.

Abstract Infants who were 6 months of age were presented with extended audiovisual episodes of their mother's infantdirected speech or singing. Cumulative visual fixation and initial fixation of the mother's image were longer for maternal singing than for maternal speech. Moreover, movement reduction, which may signal intense engagement, accompanied visual fixation more frequently for maternal singing than for maternal speech. The stereotypy and repetitiveness of maternal singing may promote moderate arousal levels, which sustain infant attention, in contrast to the greater variability of speech, which may result in cycles of heightened arousal, gaze aversion, and re-engagement. The regular pulse of music may also enhance emotional coordination between mother and infant