Development of frequency discrimination at 250 Hz is similar for tone and /ba/ stimuli

Buss, Emily; Flaherty, Mary; Leibold, Lori J.

doi:10.1121/1.4994687

Cited by 13 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Adults' VTL JNDs did not significantly differ from those of 8-to 12-year-old children, whereas adults' F0 JNDs differed from children's F0 JNDs at all ages. The increase in sensitivity to differences in F0 cues with age is in line with previously reported research [10][11][12][13] . The differences in the reported ages at which children's discrimination of F0 is adult-like are likely due to differences in stimuli and task demands.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…In the present study, we investigated whether children's ability to discriminate voice gender cues (Experiment 1) and how they weigh voice gender cues for categorization (Experiment 2) develop similarly for F0 as for VTL cues, the primary cues of voice gender, and at what age children's performance is adult-like. Previous studies have shown that children's discrimination of F0 continues to develop throughout childhood, but some of these studies measured pure-tone frequency discrimination using non-voice stimuli 11,40 instead of discrimination of more realistic voice pitch cues using voice stimuli 12,13 . Regarding VTL, discrimination has only been studied before in infants and only using EEG, which, while providing some evidence of processing of the acoustic traits associated with VTL, does not necessarily reflect perception 5 .…”

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confidence: 99%

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Development of voice perception is dissociated across gender cues in school-age children

Nagels

Gaudrain

Vickers

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Children's ability to distinguish speakers' voices continues to develop throughout childhood, yet it remains unclear how children's sensitivity to voice cues, such as differences in speakers' gender, develops over time. This so-called voice gender is primarily characterized by speakers' mean fundamental frequency (F0), related to glottal pulse rate, and vocal-tract length (VTL), related to speakers' size. Here we show that children's acquisition of adult-like performance for discrimination, a lower-order perceptual task, and categorization, a higher-order cognitive task, differs across voice gender cues. Children's discrimination was adult-like around the age of 8 for VTL but still differed from adults at the age of 12 for F0. Children's perceptual weight attributed to F0 for gender categorization was adult-like around the age of 6 but around the age of 10 for VTL. Children's discrimination and weighting of F0 and VTL were only correlated for 4-to 6-year-olds. Hence, children's development of discrimination and weighting of voice gender cues are dissociated, i.e., adult-like performance for F0 and VTL is acquired at different rates and does not seem to be closely related. The different developmental patterns for auditory discrimination and categorization highlight the complexity of the relationship between perceptual and cognitive mechanisms of voice perception. Voice cues enable listeners to recognize and distinguish speakers, which is imperative for speech-related tasks, such as speech perception in noisy environments. At an early age, children are already sensitive to differences in voice cues, especially for familiar speakers 1 and in their native language 2. Furthermore, infants are already sensitive to differences in voice cues, such as fundamental frequency (F0) 3 or voice pitch 4 , timbre differences associated with vocal-tract length 5 , or prosody 6. On the other hand, there is a clear prolonged development in children's ability to encode and recognize the characteristics of voices 7-9. Hence, it is unclear how children's sensitivity to differences in voice cues develops over time. Children's ability to discriminate differences in voice-related acoustic cues, such as F0 10-13 or temporal cues 14,15 , continues to develop throughout childhood. Yet, the specific age at which children's voice discrimination thresholds are adult-like has been debated, partially due to differences in experimental stimuli. Earlier research has primarily used non-voice stimuli, such as pure tones 10,11 , or octave-band 14 and narrow-band noises 15 , where the results were interpreted and extrapolated for voice perception. In contrast, research directly using voice stimuli has been scarce 12,13. Further challenges come from task demands, as these can influence outcomes, and the high variability among children's performance, even after controlling for effects of age 16. Children's ability to categorize voice and speech cues, a higher-order cognitive task, also continues to develop even after 12 years of age, e.g., as observed fo...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of voice perception is dissociated across gender cues in school-age children

Nagels

Gaudrain

Vickers

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…All adults began at a difference of 0.5 ST, whereas the experimenter determined the starting place for children based on previously reported development trends in pitch discrimination tasks [e.g. 36,[39][40][41][42] ]. Pilot data indicated that the variable starting place did not impede accurate measurement of pitch discrimination abilities.…”

Section: Data Acquisition Participants Completed Three Experimental mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similar to the analysis of the vocal responses to unexpected pitch-shifts, the vocal responses to the +1 ST shift condition were inverted, and if a participant had two shift conditions, the responses to +1 ST and the −1 ST shift conditions were averaged. The vocal responses examined for analysis were the average f o values during the hold phase (trials [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45], in which the pitch-shift was at its maximum and held constant.…”

Section: Data Acquisition Participants Completed Three Experimental mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast, auditory discrimination tasks are less invasive and are frequently evaluated in both adults and children. Classically, this involves examining pitch discrimination abilities to pure tone stimuli [36][37][38][39][40][41] , with only a few studies examining more complex stimuli, such as consonant-vowel syllables or stimuli with speech-like harmonic structures 42,43 . Auditory discrimination abilities in children generally improve with age 36,38,39,41,42,44 ; however, some children as young as 4-6 years of age can show adult-like discrimination abilities 37,40,43 , suggesting that additional variables besides age are influencing the development of auditory discrimination abilities.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Relationships between vocal pitch perception and production: a developmental perspective

Murray

Stepp

2020

Sci Rep

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the purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between vocal pitch discrimination abilities and vocal responses to auditory pitch-shifts. Twenty children (6.6-11.7 years) and twenty adults (18-28 years) completed a listening task to determine auditory discrimination abilities to vocal fundamental frequency (f o ) as well as two vocalization tasks in which their perceived f o was modulated in real-time. These pitch-shifts were either unexpected, providing information on auditory feedback control, or sustained, providing information on sensorimotor adaptation. Children were subdivided into two groups based on their auditory pitch discrimination abilities; children within two standard deviations of the adult group were classified as having adult-like discrimination abilities (N = 11), whereas children outside of this range were classified as having less sensitive discrimination abilities than adults (n = 9). Children with less sensitive auditory pitch discrimination abilities had significantly larger vocal response magnitudes to unexpected pitch-shifts and significantly smaller vocal response magnitudes to sustained pitch-shifts. children with less sensitive auditory pitch discrimination abilities may rely more on auditory feedback and thus may be less adept at updating their stored motor programs.

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Effects of Monaural Asymmetry and Target–Masker Similarity on Binaural Advantage in Children and Adults With Normal Hearing

Liu

Tao

et al. 2020

J Speech Lang Hear Res

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Purpose For colocated targets and maskers, binaural listening typically offers a small but significant advantage over monaural listening. This study investigated how monaural asymmetry and target–masker similarity may limit binaural advantage in adults and children. Method Ten Mandarin-speaking Chinese adults (aged 22–27 years) and 12 children (aged 7–14 years) with normal hearing participated in the study. Monaural and binaural speech recognition thresholds (SRTs) were adaptively measured for colocated competing speech. The target–masker sex was the same or different. Performance was measured using headphones for three listening conditions: left ear, right ear, and both ears. Binaural advantage was calculated relative to the poorer or better ear. Results Mean SRTs were significantly lower for adults than children. When the target–masker sex was the same, SRTs were significantly lower with the better ear than with the poorer ear or both ears ( p < .05). When the target–masker sex was different, SRTs were significantly lower with the better ear or both ears than with the poorer ear ( p < .05). Children and adults similarly benefitted from target–masker sex differences. Substantial monaural asymmetry was observed, but the effects of asymmetry on binaural advantage were similar between adults and children. Monaural asymmetry was significantly correlated with binaural advantage relative to the poorer ear ( p = .004), but not to the better ear ( p = .056). Conclusions Binaural listening may offer little advantage (or even a disadvantage) over monaural listening with the better ear, especially when competing talkers have similar vocal characteristics. Monaural asymmetry appears to limit binaural advantage in listeners with normal hearing, similar to observations in listeners with hearing impairment. While language development may limit perception of competing speech, it does not appear to limit the effects of monaural asymmetry or target–masker sex on binaural advantage.

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Development of frequency discrimination at 250 Hz is similar for tone and /ba/ stimuli

Cited by 13 publications

References 16 publications

Development of voice perception is dissociated across gender cues in school-age children

Development of voice perception is dissociated across gender cues in school-age children

Relationships between vocal pitch perception and production: a developmental perspective

Effects of Monaural Asymmetry and Target–Masker Similarity on Binaural Advantage in Children and Adults With Normal Hearing

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