Infants' responsiveness to fathers' singing

Fathers were recorded singing a song once to their infants and once in the absence of their infants. Adults readily identified fathers' infant-directe d renditions and rated them as more rhythmic, loving, and appropriate for i nfants than the infant-absent renditions. Unlike mothers, however, fathers did not consistently raise the pitch of their infant-directed versions. Mor eover, infants showed no preference for infant-directed over infant-absent versions unless the infant-directed versions were higher in pitch. Neverthe less, infants showed greater visual attention when listening to fathers' si nging than to mothers' singing, The results confirm that a distinctive infa nt-directed style is used by singing fathers as well as mothers, that pitch height is a salient dimension of songs for infant listeners, and that fath ers' singing in general is highly engaging to infant listeners.