音樂可以讓嬰兒更有團隊精神大綱

Moving with a partner to the musical beat may make people more cooperative — even babies as young as 14 months.

隨着音樂節拍和一位同伴一起手舞足蹈能讓人更具合作精神——甚至連14個月大的嬰兒也是如此。

Researchers worked with 48 toddlers, each held by an assistant and gently bounced for about two minutes to the rhythm of the Beatles’ version of “Twist and Shout.” They faced an experimenter who bounced in the same rhythm or off the beat.

研究者們對48個初學走路的嬰兒進行研究，每個嬰兒由一位輔導員拉着，隨着披頭士樂隊(Beatles)演唱的《搖擺和吶喊》(Twist and Shout)的節奏輕輕跳大約兩分鐘。他們面前的實驗者以同樣的節奏或者不按節奏跳躍。

Then the scientists tested whether the babies would help out when an experimenter “accidentally” dropped an object, or tried to pick up an object just out of hand’s reach. The study was published online in Developmental Science.

然後科學家們測驗當實驗者“不小心”掉了一個物品或者想撿起一個無法伸手就夠到的物品時，這些嬰兒是否會幫忙。這項研究公佈在《發育科學》(Developmental Science)期刊的在線版本上。

After controlling for other behaviors, such as smiling or approaching the experimenter, they found that babies who were bounced in a synchronous rhythm were slightly but significantly more likely to help than those who were bounced off beat. Although the effect was moderate, the authors say, it was still impressive given the quite short duration of the interaction.

對諸如微笑或者接近實驗者等其他行爲加以考慮後，他們發現跟着節拍跳躍的嬰兒們比不按節拍跳躍的嬰兒更願意去幫助，雖然只是稍微而已，但是很明顯。作者們說，雖然影響有限，但仍令人印象深刻，畢竟互動的時間很短。

“We tend to think that music is a frill that doesn’t matter,” said the lead author, Laurel J. Trainor, a professor of psychology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. “But in fact, these social binds that we form early in development affect everything that happens later, including our ability to learn and how we view others and ourselves.”

“我們通常認爲音樂無關緊要，”主要作者勞蕾爾·J·特雷納(Laurel J. Trainor)說。她是安大略省漢密爾頓市麥克馬斯特大學的心理學教授。“但是實際上，在發育初期形成的這些社會聯繫影響到後來發生的所有事情，包括學習能力以及如何看待他人和自己。”