www.goodnewsnetwork.org
Research Shows Babies Are Relaxed By Lullabies Even in Foreign Languages: The Frère Jacques Response - Good News Network
Virtually all new parents quickly discover that a lullaby will in fact help an infant unwind, but they might be surprised to learn that babies aren’t fussy about the language. Researchers at Harvard’s Music Lab have determined that American infants relaxed when played lullabies that were unfamiliar and in a foreign language. “Common sense tells […]
Social & Lifestyle
Virtually all new parents quickly discover that a lullaby will in fact help an infant unwind, but they might be surprised to learn that babies aren’t fussy about the language.
Researchers at Harvard’s Music Lab have determined that American infants relaxed when played lullabies that were unfamiliar and in a foreign language.
“Common sense tells us that infants find the lullabies they hear relaxing,” said Samuel Mehr, a Department of Psychology research associate and principal investigator at the Music Lab. “Is this just because they’ve experienced their parents’ singing before and know it means they’re safe and secure? Or is there also something universal about lullabies that produces these effects, independently of experience?”
The new findings, published in Nature Human Behaviour, supported the latter hypothesis.
Infants responded to universal elements of songs, despite the unfamiliarity of their melodies and words, and relaxed. The study was conducted in 2018 and 2019 at the Music Lab, which focuses on the psychology of music from infancy to adulthood.
In the experiment, each infant watched an animated video of two characters singing either a lullaby or a non-lullaby. To measure the infants’ relaxation responses to the recordings, the researchers focused on pupil dilation, heart rate changes, electrodermal activity (a measure of “arousal” or excitement, from electrical resistance of the skin), frequency of blinking, and gaze direction as indicators of relaxation or agitation.