Gap detection in infants, children, and adults.
Listeners who were 6.5 months, 12 months, 5 years, and 21 years of age were required to discriminate a pair of 500-Hz, Gaussian-enveloped tone pips from a short 500-Hz tone of the same duration and total energy. Groups of 6.5-month-old infants were tested on a single gap duration: 8, 12, 16, 20, 28, or 40 ms. Groups of 12-month-olds were also tested on a single gap duration: 8, 12, 16, or 20 ms. The 5-year-old children and adults were tested on gap durations of 8, 12, and 16 ms. The mean performance of 6.5-month-olds significantly exceeded chance levels on all gap durations except 8 ms, and that of 12-month-olds was above chance levels on all gap durations. For 5-year-old children and adults, mean performance also exceeded chance levels for all gap durations tested. Adults performed significantly better than 5-year-old children on gap durations of 12 and 16 ms. Gap-detection thresholds, defined by a performance criterion of d' = 0.5, were estimated at 11, 5.6, and 5.2 ms for infants, children, and adults, respectively. It is likely that smaller adult-infant differences in the present study compared to those reported in previous research stem from our use of Gaussian-enveloped tone pips and the consequent minimization of adaptation effects.
Trehub
S E
SE
University of Toronto, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
Schneider
B A
BA
Henderson
J L
JL
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001307:Auditory Perception; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013997:Time Factors