Biomaterial Database

Infants' perception of rhythm: categorization of auditory sequences by temporal structure. 1989

S E Trehub, and L A Thorpe

We presented 7- to 9-month-old infants with repetitions of three- or four-tone sequences characterized by a particular rhythmic structure. We then evaluated their detection of changes in rhythmic structure in the context of randomly presented variations in tempo (rate) and frequency. Infants successfully differentiated between three-tones sequences with 1, 2 (X XX) and 2, 1 (XX X) structure as well as four-tone sequences with 2, 2 (XX XX) and 3, 1 (XXX X) structure. In other tasks, they indicated their ability to discriminate between contrasting tempos in the context of frequency variations. We conclude, then, that infants can categorize auditory sequences on the basis of rhythm and also on the basis of tempo.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007223	Infant	A child between 1 and 23 months of age.	Infants
D009949	Orientation	Awareness of oneself in relation to time, place and person.	Cognitive Orientation,Mental Orientation,Psychological Orientation,Cognitive Orientations,Mental Orientations,Orientation, Cognitive,Orientation, Mental,Orientation, Psychological,Orientations,Orientations, Cognitive,Orientations, Mental,Orientations, Psychological,Psychological Orientations
D010898	Pitch Perception	A dimension of auditory sensation varying with cycles per second of the sound stimulus.	Perception, Pitch,Perceptions, Pitch,Pitch Perceptions
D002666	Psychology, Child	Branch of psychology involving the study of normal and abnormal behavior of children.	Child Psychology,Infant Psychology,Pediatric Psychology,Psychology, Infant,Psychology, Pediatric
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D001143	Arousal	Cortical vigilance or readiness of tone, presumed to be in response to sensory stimulation via the reticular activating system.	Vigilance, Cortical,Arousals,Cortical Vigilance
D001288	Attention	Focusing on certain aspects of current experience to the exclusion of others. It is the act of heeding or taking notice or concentrating.	Focus of Attention,Selective Attention,Social Attention,Attention Focus,Attention, Selective,Attention, Social,Selective Attentions
D013998	Time Perception	The ability to estimate periods of time lapsed or duration of time.	Temporal Perception,Temporal Processing,Time Processing,Perception, Temporal,Perception, Time,Processing, Temporal,Processing, Time