The song, not the singer: Infants prefer to listen to familiar songs, regardless of singer identity

Abstract

for their assistance transcribing mothers' song features. This research was supported by an Insight Grant (Grant # 435-2019-0202) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to EKJ and LKC, Research Highlights• Familiar songs recruited more infant attention, encouraged more rhythmic movement, and resulted in less sympathetic nervous system activation than unfamiliar songs • Stranger's song renditions had comparable behavioral and electrodermal effects as mother's song renditions, even when they differed substantially in mean fundamental frequency and tempo• Early and robust generalization of familiar songs across different singers is consistent with an account of songs as powerful signals for shared cultural identity THE SONG, NOT THE SINGER

Tiny dancers: Effects of musical familiarity and tempo on children’s free dancing.

“…Children also smiled more in response to their favorite compared to unfamiliar music, even though the favorite music was played at a different tempo from what they were used to hearing. Paralleling laboratory research with younger infants (Kragness, Johnson, & Cirelli, 2022), we also found that children smiled more frequently on trials when they danced more, highlighting the connection between musical movement and expressions of joy in early life.…”

“…These findings contribute to a growing body of work documenting the social-emotional importance of familiar music in early childhood, and the flexibility with which young children can identify familiar music. For example, 9- to 12-month-old infants listen longer and move rhythmically more when listening to familiar songs, whether they are sung by their own caregiver or by a stranger (Kragness, Johnson, & Cirelli, 2022), and toddlers help a stranger more if they are familiar with a song she is singing (Cirelli & Trehub, 2018). Songs are proposed to be strong signals for shared culture and group belonging, and this early responsiveness to favorite songs suggests that young children already integrate these songs into their musical identities.…”

“…Familiarity is potentially an important factor in early musical movements. In laboratory studies, infants preferentially listen to and are soothed by familiar over unfamiliar songs (Cirelli & Trehub, 2020; Kragness, Johnson, & Cirelli, 2022). Previous studies of musical beat synchronization have largely used familiar music (but see Rocha & Mareschal, 2017), assuming that a boost in task enjoyment would facilitate optimal performance.…”

Tiny dancers: Effects of musical familiarity and tempo on children’s free dancing

“…Children also smiled more frequently in response to their favorite compared to unfamiliar music, even though the favorite music was played at a different tempo from what they were used to hearing. Paralleling laboratory research with younger infants (Kragness, Johnson, & Cirelli, 2022), we also found that children smiled more frequently on trials when they danced more, highlighting the connection between musical movement and expressions of joy in early life.…”

Musical groove shapes children's free dancing

“…According to caregiver report, half of infants "dance" to music by 6 months, and 90% by their first birthday (Kim & Schachner, 2019). In experimental contexts, infants move more to music or rhythms than speech and more to familiar than unfamiliar songs (Fujii et al, 2014;Kragness et al, 2022;Zentner & Eerola, 2010). These musical movements are frequently accompanied by smiling and laughter (Kragness et al, 2021).…”