Can newborn infants distinguish between tone and noise?
Full-term newborn infants were exposed to sounds produced alternatively either as tone at d = 293 Hz or as noise, each at a sound level of approximately 85 dB. In almost all cases, the infants were disturbed by noise but not by tone. The results suggest that the psychological distinction between tone and noise is inborn rather than conditioned.
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D013016:Sound