Infants’ Perception of Phrase Structure in Music

A visual preference procedure was used to examine 6- and 41/2-monthold infants’ sensitivity to phrase structure in music. Sections of Mozart minuets were divided into segments that either did or did not correspond to the phrase structure of the music. Infants in both age groups listened significantly longer to the appropriately segmented versions. Their behavior accorded well with judgments of the same materials made by adults, suggesting that protracted musical experience may not be necessary to perceive phrase structure in music. Strong correlations were found between certain musical variables and the infants’ preferences for the musical passages, pointing to acoustic properties that may be important for defining musical phrases.