Suchergebnisse

Abstract
I review two recent books on music, both inspired by cognitive neuroscience but differing in most other respects. Isabelle Peretz, an expert in the cognitive neuroscience of music, describes how we perceive and produce music, as reflected in neural and behavioral re­sponsiveness. Her book is intended for general readers who are interested in music and curious about the science behind our musical nature-brains that are prepared for music and changed by active musical engagement. Lynn Helding, an expert in vocal perfor­mance and pedagogy, draws on findings from psychology and neuroscience to inform her approach to music learning and teaching. Aimed at musicians, aspiring musicians, and those who teach them, her book focuses largely on the means of optimizing learning and skilled performance.

Abstract Toddlers 15 and 18 months of age were exposed to audiovisual recordings of two novel words paired with novel toys. The words were presented in familiar sentence frames or in isolation. Linguistic context had a greater effect on younger than on older infants. Specifically, 15‐month‐old boys exhibited successful learning only in the context of single words, and 15‐month‐old girls did so only for words presented in sentences. Older infants acquired the new words from both contexts, and they learned more rapidly than younger infants. Receptive and expressive vocabulary made no independent contribution to performance.

AbstractThe present study examined the influence of infant visual cues on maternal vocal and facial expressiveness while speaking or singing and the influence of maternal visual cues on infant attention. Experiment 1 asked whether mothers exhibit more vocal emotion when speaking and singing to infants in or out of view. Adults judged which of each pair of audio excerpts (in view, out of view) sounded more emotional. Face‐to‐face vocalizations were judged more emotional than vocalizations to infants out of view. Moreover, mothers smiled considerably more while singing than while speaking to infants. Experiment 2 examined the influence of video feedback from infants on maternal speech and singing. Maternal vocalizations in the context of video feedback were judged to be less emotional than those in face‐to‐face contexts but more emotional than those in out‐of‐view contexts. Experiment 3 compared six‐month‐old infants' attention to maternal speech and singing with audio‐only versions or with silent video‐only versions. Infants exhibited comparable attention to audio‐only versions of speech and singing but greater attention to video‐only versions of singing. The present investigation is unique in documenting the contribution of infant visual feedback to maternal vocal emotion in contexts that control for infants' presence, visibility, and proximity.

Abstract We evaluated 6‐ and 7‐month‐olds' preference and memory for expressive recordings of sung lullabies. In Experiment 1, both age groups preferred lower‐pitched to higher‐pitched renditions of unfamiliar lullabies. In Experiment 2, infants were tested after 2 weeks of daily exposure to a lullaby at one pitch level. Seven‐month‐olds listened significantly longer to the lullaby at a novel pitch level than at the original pitch level. Six‐month‐olds showed no preference but their low‐pitch preference was eliminated. We conclude that infants' memory for musical performances is enhanced by the ecological validity of the materials. Moreover, infants' pitch preferences are influenced by their previous exposure and by the nature of the music.