Further exploration of music perception is proposed with an aim toward complementing what is already known about perceptual development from research in areas such as speech perception and color vision. A series of experiments on the perception of musical tuning from infancy to adulthood will be conducted. In order to enhance the generalizability of results, a variety of experimental paradigms will be used to explore infants', childrens', and adults' processing of musical stimuli that will be based on native and nonnative frequency interval patterns. Influences of family background on perceptual development will be probed by comparing music perception of infants from musician parents with that of infants from nonmusician parents, and the question of whether infants are born with an equipotentiality for the processing of music from a variety of cultures will be examined by providing infants with systematic exposure to nonnative music. Finally, paralleling recent work on infant speech perception, the influence of similarity to native structure on the preparation for later studies with infants. The proposed experiments promise to increase our understanding of perceptual development and to provide information about the importance of exposure to music early in life.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
First Independent Research Support & Transition (FIRST) Awards (R29)
Project #
5R29HD028527-02
Application #
3470477
Study Section
Human Development and Aging Subcommittee 3 (HUD)
Project Start
1992-04-01
Project End
1997-03-31
Budget Start
1993-04-01
Budget End
1994-03-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
1993
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Purdue University
Department
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
072051394
City
West Lafayette
State
IN
Country
United States
Zip Code
47907
Lynch, M P; Oller, D K; Steffens, M L et al. (1995) Phrasing in prelinguistic vocalizations. Dev Psychobiol 28:3-25
Lynch, M P; Short, L B; Chua, R (1995) Contributions of experience to the development of musical processing in infancy. Dev Psychobiol 28:377-98
Lynch, M P; Steffens, M L (1994) Effects of aging on processing of novel musical structure. J Gerontol 49:P165-72
Lynch, M P; Eilers, R E (1992) A study of perceptual development for musical tuning. Percept Psychophys 52:599-608