ABSTRACT
The developmental approach is gaining its significance in recent researches into the psychology of music. Though there were already systematic contributions by Gardner (1973), Hargreaves (1986), and Sloboda (1985) and solid experimental contributions by Imberty (1969) and Zenatti (1969), the fields of research in developmental music psychology in this period were rather limited. A recent surge of interest in the developmental approach permeates almost all fields of music psychology. In the third ICMPC at Liège, 1994, about fifteen percent of all papers read at the conference treated some aspects of developmental problems, from prenatal musical environment to musicality in adolescence. Traditionally, the developmental approach has been an important method to assess the relative weight of environmental factors to innate dispositions on music perception, cognition and music behaviour. Today the significance of the developmental approach is found not only in the broader contexts of biological and comparative studies, but also in cognitive studies for assessment of the relative contribution of knowledge or experience as compared to maturational factors like age, to say nothing of its significance in educational contexts.
