Maternal singing in cross-cultural perspective

Mothers were recorded as they informally sang a song of their choice, once to their infant and once in the infant's absence. Paired excerpts from different mothers were then presented to adult listeners, who were required to identify the infant-directed song in each pair. In Experiment 1, with singers and listeners of North American origin, infant-directed excerpts were identified with a high level of accuracy. Mothers in Experiment 2, all of …