Rhythm and interpersonal synchrony in early social development

Trainor, Laurel J.; Cirelli, Laura K.

doi:10.1111/nyas.12649

Cited by 101 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…However, in a third study, infants did extend their helpfulness towards a second experimenter, but only if this person was shown to be socially affiliated with the experimenter with whom the infant had been bounced synchronously (Cirelli et al, 2016;Trainor & Cirelli, 2015). This suggests that infants may use synchronous movement as a cue for social relationships.…”

Section: Oving In Time With Others Ormentioning

confidence: 98%

“…For example, 12-month-old infants are more likely to show a social preference for a synchronously over an asynchronously rocking animate toy in a nonmusical context (Tunçgenç, Cohen, & Fawcett, 2015). Furthermore, work in our laboratory has shown that interpersonal synchrony in a musical context actually encourages directed prosociality in 14-month-old infants (Cirelli, Einarson, & Trainor, 2014;Cirelli, Wan, & Trainor, 2014Trainor & Cirelli, 2015). In these studies, infants were held in a baby carrier worn by an assistant, facing an experimenter.…”

Section: Oving In Time With Others Ormentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of Interpersonal Movement Synchrony on Infant Helping Behaviors

Cirelli¹,

Wan²,

Spinelli³

et al. 2017

Music Perception

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MOVING IN SYNCHRONY WITH OTHERS ENCOURAGESprosocial behavior. Adults who walk, sing, or tap together are later more likely to be cooperative, helpful, and rate each other as likeable. Our previous studies demonstrated that interpersonal synchrony encourages helpfulness even in 14-month-old infants. However, in those studies, infants always experienced interpersonal synchrony in a musical context. Here we investigated whether synchronous movement in a nonmusical context has similar effects on infant helpfulness. Fourteen-month-olds were bounced gently while the experimenter faced the infant and bounced with them either in-or out-of-synchrony. In contrast to our previous studies, instead of listening to music during this interpersonal movement phase while being bounced, infants listened to nonrhythmic nature sounds. We then tested infant prosociality directed toward the experimenter. Results showed that synchronous bouncing still encouraged more prosociality than asynchronous bouncing, despite the absence of music. However, helping was more delayed and fussiness rates were much higher than in our previous studies with music. Thus music may not be necessary for interpersonal synchrony to influence infant helpfulness, but the presence of music may act as a mood regulator or distractor to help keep infants happy and allow them to fully experience the effects of synchronous movement.

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Section: Oving In Time With Others Ormentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Oving In Time With Others Ormentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Interpersonal Movement Synchrony on Infant Helping Behaviors

Cirelli¹,

Wan²,

Spinelli³

et al. 2017

Music Perception

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…The social importance of joint action is demonstrated in that simply moving in synchrony with another increases interpersonal affiliation, trust, and/or cooperative behavior in infants and adults (e.g., refs. [4][5][6][7][8][9]. The temporal predictability of music provides an ideal framework for achieving such synchronous movement, and it has been hypothesized that musical behavior evolved and remains adaptive today because it promotes cooperative social interaction and joint action (10)(11)(12).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Body sway reflects leadership in joint music performance

Chang

Livingstone

Bosnyak

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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117

140

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The cultural and technological achievements of the human species depend on complex social interactions. Nonverbal interpersonal coordination, or joint action, is a crucial element of social interaction, but the dynamics of nonverbal information flow among people are not well understood. We used joint music making in string quartets, a complex, naturalistic nonverbal behavior, as a model system. Using motion capture, we recorded body sway simultaneously in four musicians, which reflected real-time interpersonal information sharing. We used Granger causality to analyze predictive relationships among the motion time series of the players to determine the magnitude and direction of information flow among the players. We experimentally manipulated which musician was the leader (followers were not informed who was leading) and whether they could see each other, to investigate how these variables affect information flow. We found that assigned leaders exerted significantly greater influence on others and were less influenced by others compared with followers. This effect was present, whether or not they could see each other, but was enhanced with visual information, indicating that visual as well as auditory information is used in musical coordination. Importantly, performers' ratings of the "goodness" of their performances were positively correlated with the overall degree of body sway coupling, indicating that communication through body sway reflects perceived performance success. These results confirm that information sharing in a nonverbal joint action task occurs through both auditory and visual cues and that the dynamics of information flow are affected by changing group relationships.leadership | joint action | music performance | body sway | Granger causality C oordinating actions with others in time and space-joint action-is essential for daily life. From opening a door for someone to conducting an orchestra, periods of attentional and physical synchrony are required to achieve a shared goal. Humans have been shaped by evolution to engage in a high level of social interaction, reflected in high perceptual sensitivity to communicative features in voices and faces, the ability to understand the thoughts and beliefs of others, sensitivity to joint attention, and the ability to coordinate goal-directed actions with others (1-3). The social importance of joint action is demonstrated in that simply moving in synchrony with another increases interpersonal affiliation, trust, and/or cooperative behavior in infants and adults (e.g., refs. 4-9). The temporal predictability of music provides an ideal framework for achieving such synchronous movement, and it has been hypothesized that musical behavior evolved and remains adaptive today because it promotes cooperative social interaction and joint action (10-12). Indeed music is used in important situations where the goal is for people to feel a social bond, such as at religious ceremonies, weddings, funerals, parties, sporting events, political rallies, and in the military...

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“…And within each actor there is both ‘self-sensing’ and ‘other-sensing’ of the degree of grace, or biological efficiency (Bernstein, 1967) and hopefulness (Trevarthen and Malloch, 2017a) in the gestural narratives of our projects. These qualities of vitality, or well-being, transmitted to others, become the qualities of relationships and social activities – their moral values (Kirschner and Tomasello, 2010; Narvaez, 2014; Trainor and Cirelli, 2015). They convey relational feelings for the degree of consensuality or sharing of expression in moving.…”

Section: Communicative Musicality and Resilience Of The Human Spiritmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Human Nature of Music

Malloch

Trevarthen

2018

Front. Psychol.

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Music is at the centre of what it means to be human – it is the sounds of human bodies and minds moving in creative, story-making ways. We argue that music comes from the way in which knowing bodies (Merleau-Ponty) prospectively explore the environment using habitual ‘patterns of action,’ which we have identified as our innate ‘communicative musicality.’ To support our argument, we present short case studies of infant interactions using micro analyses of video and audio recordings to show the timings and shapes of intersubjective vocalizations and body movements of adult and child while they improvise shared narratives of meaning. Following a survey of the history of discoveries of infant abilities, we propose that the gestural narrative structures of voice and body seen as infants communicate with loving caregivers are the building blocks of what become particular cultural instances of the art of music, and of dance, theatre and other temporal arts. Children enter into a musical culture where their innate communicative musicality can be encouraged and strengthened through sensitive, respectful, playful, culturally informed teaching in companionship. The central importance of our abilities for music as part of what sustains our well-being is supported by evidence that communicative musicality strengthens emotions of social resilience to aid recovery from mental stress and illness. Drawing on the experience of the first author as a counsellor, we argue that the strength of one person’s communicative musicality can support the vitality of another’s through the application of skilful techniques that encourage an intimate, supportive, therapeutic, spirited companionship. Turning to brain science, we focus on hemispheric differences and the affective neuroscience of Jaak Panksepp. We emphasize that the psychobiological purpose of our innate musicality grows from the integrated rhythms of energy in the brain for prospective, sensation-seeking affective guidance of vitality of movement. We conclude with a Coda that recalls the philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment, which built on the work of Heraclitus and Spinoza. This view places the shared experience of sensations of living – our communicative musicality – as inspiration for rules of logic formulated in symbols of language.

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Rhythm and interpersonal synchrony in early social development

Cited by 101 publications

References 75 publications

Effects of Interpersonal Movement Synchrony on Infant Helping Behaviors

Effects of Interpersonal Movement Synchrony on Infant Helping Behaviors

Body sway reflects leadership in joint music performance

The Human Nature of Music

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