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Council for Research in Music Education

The Power of Contingent Music for Infant LearningAuthor(s): Jayne M. StandleyReviewed work(s):Source: Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, No. 149, Pioneering Inquiryin the New Century: Exemplars of Music Research, Part II (Spring, 2001), pp. 65-71Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of the Council for Research in Music EducationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40319091 .

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Bulletin f theCouncilforResearchnMusic Education Spring, 001,No. 149

The PowerofContingent usic for nfant earningJayne M. StandleyFlorida State UniversityTallahassee, FL

AbstractFor the ast 10yearswe havebeen aware that nfantearning egins n thewomb. Only

recentlyas researchhown hat earningrom irth ontinues t an incrediblyastrate nd thatthenewborn s makingmillions f neurological onnections veryhour. It is evident hat hisearly earning eliesprimarilyncause-effectelationshipsxperienced ythe nfantrommo-ment omoment. nfact,more han 0years go DeCasper andCarstens1981) showed hat hemother's oicepresentedo nfantsontingentpon particular ucking attern nabled2-dayold infantsoquicklyearn andproducetherequired attern.Additionally,hen hemother'svoice wasfirst resented oncontingently,nd then ater ontingently,he nfants ever earnedtherequired ask.Music has beenshown obea powerful einforceforpeople of ll ages, includingnfants.There snowan identifiable odyofresearch singmusic ncontingentelationshipsor nfantlearning.Thispaper reviews nd analyzesthat iteraturend discusses thepotential ower ofmusic nshaping arly nfant ehavior.Introduction

Recentmedia attentionas focusedon the assumedconnection etweenmusicand nfantearning. his ntense ublicity as resultednwidespread ublicbelief hatlisteningo musicwill mprove n infant'subsequent.Q. score. Unfortunately,heactualresearch onnection othis ssumption, hich rosefrom ttentionn studieswithkindergartenndelementarygedchildrenRauscher, 999) is nebulous t best.Whatwe do know boutneurological rowthnddevelopment uringhe nfant earsis exciting.At term irth,heneonate'sneurological evelopments stillverymma-ture. Intelligence volves from heopportunityo acquire nformationsingone'sinnate enetic apability.he brain equirestimulationtouch, ound,movement,ndhearing) odevelop ndwillgo throughour eriods fmajor tructuralhange: n thewomb, tbirth,ges4-10years, ndduringheremainderf ife. Frombirthoage 3years s a critical hasewhen mostof theneurological wiring" akesplace. Braincellscompete or unctionnd those hat ose therace willdieoff, eeka newpurposeorsimply ail to connectKotulak,1993). Generalopinion s hopeful hat hegainsevidencednkindergartenndelementarygedchildren ue to music tudymaybeginmuch arlier n ife, erhapsn thewomb.Music researchersrebeginningoexplorerecognitionf music xposure rom he hird rimesternthewomb Wilkin, 995).While theres little esearch hat ocuments relationshipetween nfantmusiclisteningndsubsequent.Q., there s research hat emonstratesnfantsisten are-fully o music (de l'Etoile, 2001) and that nfantong-termmemory or musicalexperiencess excellent nd contextualSaffran,oman,& Robertson,000). Infantsdemonstratehe bility o match ocalpitches s early s 3 months fage (Wendrich,1981) and can recognize changes in transformed elodies as earlyas 6 months(Summers, 984).Beside thebeginning cquisition f music apabilities,re there ther enefitsfmusic n the arly tagesofdevelopment? or at east a decade,we havebeen aware

65

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66 The Power ofContingentMusic for nfant earning

that nfantearning egins n thethird rimestern the womb. Only recently as re-search hown hatearning rom irthontinues t an incrediblyast ate nd that henewbornsmakingmillions fneurological onnectionsveryhour. t s also evidentthat his rolific arly earning eriod eliesprimarilyn cause-effectelationshipsorcontingencies)xperienced ythe nfant rommoment o moment.Ifcause-effects theprimary ode of earning orneonates,what olemightmu-sic play? Is music's attractionowerful noughto reinforcearly nfant ehavior?Music as a contingencyor ubjects f all age rangeswas thoroughlynvestigatednapriormeta-analysisStandley, 996). Infanttudieswere ncluded, utnot solated,nthis tudywhich valuated208 variablesderivedfrom 8 studies. Resultsfor achdependent ariable wereconverted o effect izes (ES) via statistical ormulae ndrevealed hat heoverallbenefits ttributableocontingent usicwere almost hreestandard eviations reater han ontrol/baselineonditions5=2.90). Contingentmusicwas more ffectivenchanging esiredbehaviors han ither ontingenton-music stimuli r continuousmusic. Pairing ther timuli uch as food, pproval, rvisual stimulation ith hemusicactually ecreased tseffectivenesss a reinforcer.Music also had theunique bility ofunctionimultaneouslys a reinforceror ehav-ior hangewhile ncreasing nowledgebout he ubjectmatterfmusic.Additionally,studies fmusic as reinforcementor pecific cademicgainsdemonstratedeneral-ized benefit o other cademicandsocial behaviors ot ctually onsequated.Ifmusic s a highly ffective einforcerenerally,ow soon are nfantswareof,and capable of responding o it in a learning ituation?Butterfieldnd Siperstein(1972) werethefirst odocumentnearly nfantesponse ocontingent usic. Theydemonstratedhatmusic was an effective einforceror ncreasing ucking ateof 2day-old ermnfantsnddeterminedhatnfants iscriminatedndwerereinforcedymusicbutnotbywide-band oise. Since that ime ther esearch as shown hat venprematurenfantsre wareof ontingenciesn earningasksSolkoff Cotton, 975)and that uditorytimulationncreases erebral loodoxygen onsumptionnd acti-vatesthefrontalobes ofthebrain n infantsSakatani,Chen,Lichty, uo, & Wang,1999). Despite hese athermazing indings,he ctual ncidence fcontingent usicfor nfantearnings sparse n theresearch iterature.Thepurpose fthis tudywas to dentifyndanalyze he xistingnfantearningliteraturehat sescontingent usic. Ameta-analysis asconductedwith hese rite-riafor tudynclusion: )experimentaltudies sing roup r ndividualubject esigns;2) subjectswhowerepretermndtermnfantstudied rior o theage of 1year;3)music ncluded s a separate, ndependentariable; nd4) reportsntheEnglish an-guageofdesign, rocedures,ndresults menable oreplicated ataanalysis.The procedures ollowed hefour asic stepsof a meta-analysis:1) a completeliteratureearchwasconducted o find ll possiblemembers f thedefined opulationof studieswhetherublished runpublishedources; 2) the haracteristicsnd find-ingsof thecollectedstudieswere dentified,escribed, nd coded; (3) these codeswere independentlyeviewed forreliabilitynd agreement,hen 4) each study'sresultswere tatisticallynalyzed nd converted ocomputed ffect izesusingmeta-analysis oftwareJohnson, 989).The dentificationrocess ncludedxhaustive earches fMEDLINE, PsychFirst,and FirstSearchRILM Abstracts f Music Literature.Keywordsfor searchesofelectronicndexes ncluded eonates,nfants, usic, ontingent,ndauditorytimula-tion. The referenceistsof all relevant rticles ocated ntheelectronic earchwerealso reviewed.

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Standley 67

StudyDescriptionsEight tudiesmetcriteria or nclusion nthemeta-analysis.These studies remarkedwith n asteriskn thereferencesnd aresummarized elow. ButterfieldndSiperstein1 72) usedcontingentusic oreinforceuckingf2-dayold nfants.hey lso demonstratedhat esponse o musicwasdifferentiatedfromhat o wide-band oisewhichwas not ffectiven ncreasingucking ate. DeCasper and Carstens 1981) used contingentmusictochangethesuckingpatternsf newborns. hose nfants irstxposed ononcontingentusicneverlearned he ask.Those firstxposedtocontingent usicdid earn newsuck-ingpattern y spacing heir uckingntervals s required. Etscheidt1 89)taught arentsoreinforcenfantlertness ith ontingentusicandtoadministerimeout or xcessive rying ue to colic. Contingent usicalone was effectivenreducing ryingfa smallproportionf nfants hile hecombinedontingent usic/timeoutrocedure aseffective ith he thers. Finkelstein ndRamey 1977) combined ontingent usic/slideresentationsfor nfantrmpullsand everpressingna series fexperiments. dditionally,they emonstratedhat xperiencewith he ontingencyasksfacilitatedearn-ing nsubsequent asks. LarsonandAyllon 1990) also combined ontingent usic withparent tten-tion uring eriods fquiet lertnessncolickynfantsndwith rief eriods ftimeouturingxcessive rying.Thisprocedure educed rying ate f nfantswith olicby75%. Standley2000) assessed thecontingentffects f music on prematurenfantbehavior. It was determinedhatpacifier ctivatedullabymusic reinforcednon-nutritiveucking atesofprematurenfantswho wereevaluated s poorfeeders yNICU personnel.Theseyoung nfants lso discriminated hen n/offmusicconditions ccurred.Resultsdemonstratedhatmusic ucking ateswere2.43 times reaterhan aselinerates. Music contributedignificantlyothedevelopmentf non-nutritiveucking fprematurenfants. Standley1999) provided ecorded ullabies s reinforcementornon-nutritivesuckingnd assessednipple eeding ates re ndpost reatment.ubjectswere32prematurenfants ho werereferredor eingpoornipple eeders, ere 34weeksadjustedgestationalge, and who wereable to tolerate simultaneousforms f stimulationpacifier nd music). Resultsshowed that ontingentmusic interventionesultedna significantlyettereeding ate or he xperi-mentalgroupvs. thecontrol roup. This studydemonstratedheability fprematurenfantso transfereinforceducking ehavior rom on-nutritiveonutritivevents. Standley nd Madsen 1990) tested hepreferencef 1-8 month ld infants ormusic versusfemalevoices. A mercurywitch ttached o each infant'segactivatedontingentuditorytimuli. ery oungnfantsreferredheirmother'svoice,whileolder nfantsreferred usic.

Data ExtractionQualities fselected tudieswere dentifiednd coded. Thevalueofeachdepen-dent ariable eportednthe elected tudieswas converted othe stimatedffectize,Cohen'sd (Cohen,1988). Table 1 identifiesach study,tssample ize, nfantge attimeof study, ependent ariables, tudy tatisticsonverted o effect ize, and theresultingohen'sd and Pearson statistics. able2 shows achstudy's esign harac-teristics,ncluding ateofpublication, ublication tatus,ndependentariable, ndtype f dataanalysis, ither etweenB) or withinW) subjects.

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68 ThePower fContingentusicfor nfantearning

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