Perception of auditory-visual temporal synchrony in human infants.
Using a habituation/test procedure, the author investigated adults' and infants' perception of auditory-visual temporal synchrony. Participants were familiarized with a bouncing green disk and a sound that occurred each time the disk bounced. Then, they were given a series of asynchrony test trials where the sound occurred either before or after the disk bounced. The magnitude of the auditory-visual temporal asynchrony threshold differed markedly in adults and infants. The threshold for the detection of asynchrony created by a sound preceding a visible event was 65 ms in adults and 350 ms in infants and for the detection of asynchrony created by a sound following a visible event was 112 ms in adults and 450 ms in infants. Also, infants did not respond to asynchronies that exceeded intervals that yielded reliable discrimination. Infants' perception of auditory-visual temporal unity is guided by a synchrony and an asynchrony window, both of which become narrower in development.
Lewkowicz
D J
DJ
New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities, Staten Island, New York 10314, USA. ddlsi@cunyvm.cuny.edu
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D001307:Auditory Perception; D005260:Female; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D002666:Psychology, Child; D013998:Time Perception