Infants' perception of consonance and dissonance in music

Abstract

The origins of the perception of consonance and dissonance in music are a matter of debate. The present study examined the hypothesis of an innate preferential bias favoring consonance over dissonance by exposing 4 month old infants to consonant and dissonant versions of two melodies. Infants looked significantly longer at the source of sound and were less motorically active to consonant compared with dissonant versions of each melody. Further, fretting and turning away from the music source occurred more frequently during the dissonant than the consonant versions. The results suggest that infants are biologically prepared to treat consonance as perceptually more pleasing than dissonance.