Babies Know Happy From Sad Songs
Babies as young as 5 months can distinguish an upbeat tune from a lineup of gloomy tunes.
According to Live Science, researchers displayed an emotionally-neutral face for the baby while sad music played.
When the baby looked away from the face, the music stopped and a new sad song would start. When the happier played, the babies stared at the face three to four seconds longer, suggesting they were interested in the shift.
By 9 months old, babies can do the opposite, picking out the sorrowful sound from a pack of happy pieces.
The finding is another example of how babies make sense of the world long before they can talk, said Brigham Young University psychology professor and study author Ross Flom.
“One of the first things babies understand communicatively is emotion, so for them the melody is the message,“ Flom said. “Our study showed that by nine months, babies are categorizing songs as happy or sad the same way that preschoolers and adults do.“
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