The purpose of this study was to investigate infants' preferences and long-term memory for two contrasting complex pieces of music, that is, Prelude and Forlane from Le Tombeau de Couperin by Maurice Ravel (1875--1937). Seventy 8.5-month-old infants were randomly assigned to one of four experiments conducted on the Headturn Preference Procedure. The first experiment examined infants' preferences for Prelude and Forlane in piano timbre. The second experiment assessed infants' preferences for Prelude and Forlane in orchestra timbre. Infants' preferences for the Forlane in piano and orchestra timbres were investigated in the third experiment. The last experiment aimed at infants' long-term memory for complex music. Thirty infants were exposed to either the Prelude or the Forlane three times a day for ten consecutive days. Two weeks following the exposure, infants were tested on the HPP. It was predicted that these infants would prefer to listen to the familiar piece from the exposure over the unfamiliar one. Results suggested that 8.5-month-olds could tell apart two complex pieces of music in orchestra timbre and could discriminate between the piano and the orchestra timbres. Contrary to the belief that infants are ill equipped to process complex music, this study found that infants could encode and remember complex pieces of music for at least two weeks. / Because infants rely on their caretakers to provide musical experiences for them, maternal beliefs and uses of music were also investigated. Mothers of participating infants were interviewed on musical background, listening preferences and musical behaviors and beliefs with their infants. The analysis of interview data yielded the following main results: (1) Singing was the primary musical activity of mothers and babies; (2) Maternal occupation and previous musical experiences affected their musical behaviors with their babies; (3) Most mothers held the belief that there is appropriate music for babies to listen to although there was no consensus as to what is appropriate music. Such beliefs reflect a conflict between maternal beliefs regarding infants' music cognition and the actual music-related perceptual and cognitive abilities of infants. Attempting to attenuate this conflict, suggestions for music educators, parents and researchers were proposed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.38490 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Ilari, Beatriz Senoi |
| Contributors | Costa-Giomi, Eugenia (advisor), Polka, Linda (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Faculty of Music.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001956985, proquestno: NQ85713, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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