title: Some effects of prestimulus activity and length of prestimulus observation on judgments of newborns' responses to sounds.
abstract: Previous work on the effects of prestimulus state on newborn auditory response is briefly reviewed. Subjectively assessed responses of nine newborns by five observers were studied as a function of (1) prestimulus activity level and (2) duration of prestimulus observation period. Response assessment was significantly affected for the former but not by the latter. For sounds which elicited a high proportion of responses, the prestimulus activity level had relatively little effect on judgment of response, whereas for sounds (and no-sound "control" trials) to which few responses were ascribed, prestimulus activity tended to be associated with positive ratings of response.
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001307:Auditory Perception; D001519:Behavior; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004215:Distance Perception; D005260:Female; D006320:Hearing Tests; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D013997:Time Factors