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Previous research reveals that vocal melodies are remembered better than instrumental renditions. Here we explored the possibility that the voice, as a highly salient stimulus, elicits greater arousal than nonvocal stimuli, resulting in greater pupil dilation for vocal than for instrumental melodies. We also explored the possibility that pupil dilation indexes memory for melodies. We tracked pupil dilation during a single exposure to 24 unfamiliar folk melodies (half sung to la la, half piano) and during a subsequent recognition test in which the previously heard melodies were intermixed with 24 novel melodies (half sung, half piano) from the same corpus. Pupil dilation was greater for vocal melodies than for piano melodies in the exposure phase and in the test phase. It was also greater for previously heard melodies than for novel melodies. Our findings provide the first evidence that pupillometry can be used to measure recognition of stimuli that unfold over several seconds. They also provide the first evidence of enhanced arousal to vocal melodies during encoding and retrieval, thereby supporting the more general notion of the voice as a privileged signal. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).)

The origin of the Western preference for consonance remains unresolved, with some suggesting that the preference is innate. In Experiments 1 and 2 of the present study, 6-month-old infants heard six different consonant/dissonant pairs of stimuli, including those tested in previous research. In contrast to the findings of others, infants in the present study failed to listen longer to consonant stimuli. After 3 minutes of exposure to consonant or dissonant stimuli in Experiment 3, 6-month-old infants listened longer to the familiar stimulus, whether consonant or dissonant. Our findings are inconsistent with innate preferences for consonant stimuli. Instead, the effect of short-term exposure is consistent with the view that familiarity underlies the origin of the Western preference for consonant intervals., (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.)

Adults and 9-month-old infants were required to detect mistuned tones in multitone sequences. When 7-tone versions of a common nursery tune were generated from the Western major scale (unequal scale steps) or from an alternative scale (equal steps), infants detected the mistuned tones more accurately in the unequal-step context than in the equal-step context (Experiment 1). Infants and adults were subsequently tested with 1 of 3 ascending-descending scales (15 tones): (a) a potentially familiar scale (major) with unequal steps, (b) an unfamiliar scale with unequal steps, and (c) an unfamiliar scale with equal steps. Infants detected mistuned tones only in the scales with unequal steps (Experiment 2). Adults performed better on the familiar (major) unequal-step scale and equally poorly on both unfamiliar scales (Experiments 3 and 4). These findings are indicative of an inherent processing bias favoring unequal-step scales.

Adults and 9- to 11-month-old infants listened to repeated transpositions of either a prototypical Western melody that was based on the major triad or a nonprototypical Western melody that was based on the augmented triad. In both cases, the transpositions were either to related keys (standing in a 2:3 frequency ratio) or to unrelated keys (more complex frequency ratios). For the prototypical melody, both infants and adults more readily discriminated a change to the melody in the context of related keys. For the nonprototypical melody, infant listeners performed better in the context of related keys, but adult listeners performed worse. The findings indicate that the global context of auditory patterns influences the processing of pattern details for infant and adult listeners.

Adults (n = 28) and 8-month-old infants (n = 48) listened to repeated transpositions of a 10-note melody exemplifying the rules of Western tonal music. They were tested for their detection of two types of changes to that melody: (a) a 4-semitone change in 1 note that remained within the key and implied dominant harmony (diatonic change) or (b) a 1-semitone change in the same note that went outside the key (nondiatonic change). Adults easily detected the nondiatonic change but had difficulty with the diatonic change. Infants detected both changes equally well, performing better than adults in some circumstances. These findings imply that there are qualitative differences in infants' and adults' processing of musical information.

Masked thresholds at two signal frequencies (0.8 and 4 kHz) were obtained from listeners aged 6.5 months, 2 years, 5 years, and 20.5 years in the presence of constant spectrum level, narrowband maskers of differing bandwidths. Consistent with the classical results of Fletcher (1940), masked threshold for all age groups increased with bandwidth up to a critical width, beyond which further increases in bandwidth were ineffective in increasing threshold. These critical widths (estimates of critical band size) did not change substantially with age (critical widths for infants were no more than 50% larger than those of adults) despite substantial changes in masked thresholds with age. Thus, contrary to previous claims, changes in auditory filter width cannot account for developmental changes in masked or absolute thresholds.

In the present research we examined the development of sensitivity to two musical relations significant in Western tonal music, the semitone and diatonic structure. Infants and preschool children were tested for their detection of a semitone change in any position of a five-note melody. Two standard melodies were used, one composed of diatonic tones only and the other containing a non-diatonic tone. In Experiment 1, children from 4 to 6 years of age were superior in detecting the semitone change in the diatonic context compared with the nondiatonic context. In Experiment 2, infants 9 to 11 months of age detected the semitone change in all positions, but their performance was not influenced by diatonic context. These findings indicate that infants and children can discriminate a semitone in a musical context and that the priority of diatonic structure emerges by 4 to 6 years of age.