title: Auditory localization and precedence effect: an exploratory study in infants and toddlers with visual impairment and normal vision.
abstract: The precedence effect is a spatial hearing phenomenon implicated in sound localization on reverberant environments. It occurs when a pair of sounds, with a brief delay between them, is presented from different directions; listeners give greater perceptual weight to localization cues coming from the first-arriving sound, called lead, and suppress localization cues from the later-arriving reflection, called lag. Developmental studies with sighted infants show that the first responses to precedence effect stimuli are observed at 4-5 months of life. In this exploratory study, we use the minimum audible angle (MAA) paradigm in conjunction with the observer-based psychophysical procedure to test the ability of infants and toddlers, with visual impairment and normal vision, to discriminate changes in the azimuthal position of sounds configured under precedence effect conditions. The results indicated that similar and, in some conditions, higher performances were obtained by blind toddlers when compared to sighted children of similar age, and revealed that the observer-based psychophysical procedure is a valuable method to measure auditory localization acuity in infants and toddlers with visual impairment. The video records showed auditory orienting behaviors specific of the blind children group.
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Enfermera Gordillo esq. Enrique Barros, 5016, Córdoba, Argentina; Centro de Investigación y Transferencia en Acústica (CINTRA), Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, Facultad Regional Córdoba, Mtro. López esq. Cruz Roja Argentina, 5016, Córdoba, Argentina. Electronic address: mercehug@psyche.unc.edu.ar.
authors.forename: Mercedes X
authors.initials: MX
authors.lastname: Hüg
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Enfermera Gordillo esq. Enrique Barros, 5016, Córdoba, Argentina; Centro de Investigación y Transferencia en Acústica (CINTRA), Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, Facultad Regional Córdoba, Mtro. López esq. Cruz Roja Argentina, 5016, Córdoba, Argentina; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Arias
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación y Transferencia en Acústica (CINTRA), Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, Facultad Regional Córdoba, Mtro. López esq. Cruz Roja Argentina, 5016, Córdoba, Argentina.
authors.forename: Fabián C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Tommasini
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación y Transferencia en Acústica (CINTRA), Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, Facultad Regional Córdoba, Mtro. López esq. Cruz Roja Argentina, 5016, Córdoba, Argentina; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina.
authors.forename: Oscar A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Ramos
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001766:Blindness / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D013017:Sound Localization / Q000502:physiology*; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology
keywords: Blind children; Developmental psychoacoustics; Localization acuity; Precedence effect