There were three papers in this symposium, which focused on the effects of musical experience on musical development during infancy. They were nicely organised to include one paper on newborns, one on 6-12 month olds, and finally one on toddlers.  Glenn Schellenberg provided discussion at the end. 1) Henkjan Honing presented a study which investigated whether beat induction is a fundamental cognitive mechanism contributing to musicality and the origins of music. In order to answer this question his research group sought to determine if newborn babies (2 days) can induce the beat in music. If newborns notice a change to a beat then the assumption is that we are born…

This week I am in Seattle at the 11th International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition. It is typically the world’s biggest meeting in the field of music psychology. It is a chance to hear about the latest research, meet collaborators and discuss new projects, and to meet those people whose names you know so well from books and papers 🙂 This year ICMPC is being held in Seattle.  So far I am having a great time! I arrived on Saturday night after 16 hours flying. Sunday, my partner Oscar and I did some typical Seattle sight-seeing. We went to the Pike Place market and ate ‘New England’s best chowder’…