Children’s attributions of shared musical experiences on the basis of group membership

• In Event: 3-221 - The social and emotional significance of early shared musical experiences

Integrative Statement

While music, like language, varies from one cultural group to another, it is an important element of virtually all cultures. Common song knowledge is privileged over shared songs preference, in eliciting social choices in children (Soley & Spelke, 2016), raising the possibility that the sensitivity to the link between social group membership and song knowledge might arise early. The present studies assess children’s inferences of shared song knowledge and shared song preference based on individuals’ social group membership. In Study 1, 48 5-6 year-olds (Mage = 6,05 years) were presented with two novel groups and and their attributions of knowledge of songs and preference for songs, based on agents’ social group memberships, were explored. Across four trials, children were introduced to one target agent and two other agents, one of which belonged to the same group as the target and one belonged to a different group. Children were then asked who would know or like same songs as the target. The tunes were instrumental melodies, adapted from 18th Century Western Folk Songs. When generalizing song knowledge, children chose same group members more than different group members (Wilcoxon Z = 3.17, p < .05). Preference for songs were generalized similarly within and across groups (Z = 1.49, p > .1). In a follow up condition, using the same method as above, children’s (N = 40, Mage = 6 years) attributions of knowledge of novel generic facts were examined. Unlike song knowledge, knowledge of generic facts was generalized similarly within and across groups (Z = .42, p > .6), suggesting that children do not infer that group members know similar things, but they selectively generalize song knowledge on the basis of social group membership. In Study 2, 60 5-6 year-olds’ (Mage = 6,01 years) attributions of shared song knowledge and shared song preference were investigated across two prominent social categories: language and gender. Children were presented with triads of children’s photographs and listened to short sound clips that were identified as the voices of the children on the photographs. The target child whose photograph appeared at the top of the screen matched the other two children either in terms of gender or language. In other words, if the target child was a Spanish-speaking female, one of the other two children was a Spanish-speaking male and the other child was a Turkish-speaking female. Children were then asked which of the latter children knew or liked the same songs as the target child. Children generalized song knowledge across same-language speakers rather than same-gender individuals (t(29) = 2.67, p < .05). In contrast, song preference was not systematically generalized across either category (t(29) = -.7, p > .4) (See Figure 1). Taken together, these findings show that children selectively generalize song knowledge across members of the same social groups and same-language speakers, and they suggest that from early in life, children might be sensitive to the exclusive link between song knowledge and cultural boundaries, which in turn might play a role in children’s social preferences.

Author

• Gaye Soley, Bogazici University
  Presenting Author