Is beat induction innate or learned?

This week a short entry with a selection of discussions related to the newborn study mentioned in last months entry.

• Discussion at ScienceNews by Bruce Bower.
  
• Discussion at Wired by Brandon Keim.
  
• Interview at WNYC Public Radio by John Schaefer: [soundfile]
• Report by Science Update by Bob Hirshon: [soundfile]
• Report by NewScientist by Hazel Muir, video by Sandrine Ceurstemont:
  

For more media attention see Google news.

Winkler, I., Haden, G., Ladinig, O., Sziller, I., & Honing, H. (2009). Newborn infants detect the beat in music Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106 (7), 2468-2471 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0809035106

Anecdotal or real evidence?

This week a short anecdotal yet inspiring video.



However, students referred me to this and this video. So is it music or merely sound that stops the baby from crying? Time for a real experiment...


Trehub, S. E. (2009). Music lessons from infants. In: Oxford handbook of music psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 229-234.