Preference for infant-directed singing in 2-day-old hearing infants of deaf parents.

L. J. Trainor (1996) reported preferences for infant-directed versus infant-absent singing in English in 4-7-month-old hearing infants of English-speaking hearing parents. In this experiment, the author tested preferences for infant-directed singing versus adult-directed singing in 15 two-day-old hearing infants of deaf parents for a Japanese and an English play song. Using a modified visual-fixation-based auditory-preference procedure, the author found that infants looked longer at a visual stimulus when looking produced infant-directed singing as opposed to adult-directed singing. These results suggest that infants prefer infant-directed singing over adult-directed singing and that the preference is present from birth and is not dependent on any specific prenatal or postnatal experience.