title: Age-related improvements in auditory backward and simultaneous masking in 6- to 10-year-old children.
abstract: This study investigated the development of auditory frequency and temporal resolution using simultaneous and backward masking of a tone by a noise. The participants were 6- to 10-year-old children and adults. On the measure of frequency resolution (the difference in the detection threshold for a tone presented either in a bandpass noise or in a spectrally notched noise), 6-year-old children performed as well as adults. However, for the backward masking task, 6-year-olds had, on average, 34 dB higher thresholds than adults. A negative exponential decay function fitted to the backward masking data for subjects of all ages indicated that adult-like temporal resolution may not be reached until about 11 years of age. These results show that, measured by masking, frequency resolution has reached adult-like performance by 6 years of age, whereas temporal resolution develops beyond 10 years of age. Six-year-old children were also assessed with tests of cognitive ability. Improvements in both frequency and temporal resolution were found with increasing IQ score.
authors.affiliation: University Laboratory of Physiology, Oxford, England, UK. douglas.hartley@physiol.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Hartley
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Hogan
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Moore
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D010699:Phonation; D011601:Psychophysics; D011897:Random Allocation; D013067:Speech Perception