Infants' Perception of Melodies: the Role of Melodic Contour

Infants 8-11 months of age were exposed to repetitions of a 6-tone sequence or melody, then tested for their discrimination of transpositions of that sequence as well as other melodic transformations previously used by Massaro, Kallman, and Kelly with adults. In experiment 1, infants showed evidence of discriminating all transformations from the original melody. In Experiment 2, the task was made more difficult, and infants failed to discriminate transpositions of the original melody as well as transformations that preserved the melodic contour and approximate frequency range of the original melody. By contrast, infants showed evidence of discriminating transformations that violated the contour of the original melody or that included changes in the octaves from which component tones were drawn. This global processing strategy parallels that used by adults with atonal or unfamiliar tonal melodies.