Auditory temporal resolution in normal-hearing preschool children revealed by word recognition in continuous and interrupted noise.
The purpose of this study was to examine temporal resolution in normal-hearing preschool children. Word recognition was evaluated in quiet and in spectrally identical continuous and interrupted noise at signal-to-noise ratios (S/Ns) of 10, 0, and -10 dB. Sixteen children 4 to 5 years of age and eight adults participated. Performance decreased with decreasing S/N. At poorer S/Ns, participants demonstrated superior performance or a release from masking in the interrupted noise. Adults performed better than children, yet the release from masking was equivalent. Collectively these findings are consistent with the notion that preschool children suffer from poorer processing efficiency rather than temporal resolution per se.
Stuart
Andrew
A
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina 27858-4353, USA. stuart@ecu.edu
Givens
Gregg D
GD
Walker
Letitia J
LJ
Elangovan
Saravanan
S
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D011930:Reaction Time; D012016:Reference Values; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013067:Speech Perception