Infants’ perception of rhythmic patterns

We explored 9-month-old infants perception of auditory temporal sequences in a series of three experiments. In Experiment 1, we presented some infants with tone sequences that were expected to induce a strongly metric framework and others with a sequence that was expected to induce a weakly metric framework or no such framework. Infants detected a change in the context of the former sequences but not in the latter sequence. In Experiment 2, infants listened to a tone sequence with temporal cues to duple or triple meter. Infants detected a change in the pattern with duple meter but not in the pattern with triple meter. In Experiment 3, infants listened to a tone sequence with harmonic cues to duple or triple meter. As in Experiment 2, infants detected a change in the context of the duple meter pattern but not in the context of triple meter. These findings are consistent with processing predispositions for auditory temporal sequences that induce a metric framework, particularly those in duple meter.