CONTRIBUTIONS OF EXPERIENCE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF MUSICAL PROCESSING IN INFANCY

Full-term infants' performance in detection of melodic alterations app eared to be influenced by perceptual experience from 6 months to 1 yea r of age, and an experiment with infants born prematurely supported th e hypothesis that experience affects music processing in infancy. Thes e findings suggest parallel developmental tendencies in the perception of music and speech that may reflect general acquisition of perceptua l abilities for processing of complex auditory patterns. This acquisit ion may contribute to the cultural enfranchisement of infants through perceptual experience. (C) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.