Klarinet Archive - Posting 000206.txt from 2005/06

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Bounced babies
Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 12:37:25 -0400

Ormondtoby Montoya wrote:

> Nevertheless, it's interesting that body motion played a role in the
> responses of an untrained baby --- as opposed to hearing alone.

Is there ever any such thing as "hearing alone"? You always have a
complete sensory experience. What's happening in this experiment is
that the babies are being given a more intense total sensory experience
in line with certain patterns (march or waltz) in one of two
ways---first by bouncing them, then by actually adding emphasis to the
music---and the babies respond better to the latter if it corresponds in
its patterns of intensity to the patterns they recall from the earlier
experience when the intensity was added through motion.

The issue about visual cues not working is dubious I think since it was
a cue of the sort that the babies could easily ignore. Suppose instead
you had blindfolded them and then flashed lights in their eyes in time
with the rhythm, so that *all* their visual stimulus was strongly
associated with the rhythm---would they be able to ignore that or would
they then appreciate the rhythmic content? Of course, that sort of
treatment might simply be highly distressing so I'm not suggesting
really doing that. :-)

But consider the following analogy---you have a conductor in front of
you giving a beat; or perhaps you have someone behind you tapping firmly
on your shoulders a beat. Which is the easier to ignore? ;-)

-- Joe

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