Pure-tone sensitivity of human infants

Olsho, Lynne Werner; Koch, Elizabeth G.; Carter, Elizabeth A.; Halpin, Christopher F.; Spetner, Nancy B.

doi:10.1121/1.2023630

Cited by 34 publications

(70 citation statements)

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“…Schneider et al 1989 tested this hypothesis by estimating percent correct for the detection of a tone masked by a 1/3 octave band of noise; psychometric functions from group data failed to show compelling evidence that children's psychometric functions are shallower than those of adults. However, other studies (e.g., Allen and Wightman, 1994;Olsho et al, 1988) have estimated psychometric functions based on individual listeners' data and have found an increase in slope with age, as would be expected if internal noise played a role in the elevated masked detection thresholds of the child listeners.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and the role of internal noise in detection and discrimination thresholds with narrow band stimuli

Buss

Hall

Grose

2006

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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The experiments reported here examine the role of internal noise in the detection of a tone in narrow band noise and intensity discrimination for narrow band stimuli in school-aged children as compared to adults. Experiment 1 used 20-Hz wide bands of Gaussian and low-fluctuation noise centered at 500 Hz to assess the role of stimulus fluctuation in detection of a 500-Hz pure tone. Additional conditions tested whether performance was based on level and/or level-independent cues. Children's thresholds were elevated with respect to adults, and whereas adults benefited from the reduced fluctuation of low-fluctuation noise, children did not. Results from both groups were consistent with the use of a level cue. Experiment 2 estimated intensity increment thresholds for a narrow band Gaussian noise or a pure tone, either with or without a presentation-by-presentation level rove, an additional source of level variability. Stimulus variability was found to have a larger effect on performance of adults as compared to children, a rather counterintuitive finding if one thinks of children as more prone to informational masking introduced by stimulus variability. Both tone-innoise and intensity discrimination data were consistent with the hypothesis that children's performance is limited by greater levels of internal noise.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and the role of internal noise in detection and discrimination thresholds with narrow band stimuli

Buss

Hall

Grose

2006

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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“…The present investigation was designed to address this question by examining infants' ability to detect differences in intensity over a wider range of standard levels. Because previous work has demonstrated that the thresholds of6-to 7-month-old infants are significantly less mature at low than at mid and high frequencies (Olsho, Koch, Carter, Halpin, & Spetner, 1988;Trehub, Schneider, & Endman, 1980), we elected to compare discrimination performance for both 10w-and highfrequency noise bands. Under a number of conditions, thresholds are also less mature at short durations during infancy.…”

Section: Examined Dlsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infants’ detection of increments in low- and high-frequency noise

Berg

Boswell

1998

Perception & Psychophysics

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Avisually reinforced operant paradigm was employed to examine the relationship between the difference limen (DL)for intensity and level of the standard during infancy.In Experiment 1, 7-month-old infants and adults detected increments in continuous noise presented via headphones at each of four levels ranging from 28 to 58 dB SPL. Noise stimuli were 2-octave bands centered at either 400 or 4000Hz, and increments were 10 and 100msec in duration. Infants' DLswere significantly larger than those of adult subjects and significantly larger for low-than for high-frequency stimuli. For the highfrequency noise band, infants' DLs were generally consistent with Weber's law, remaining essentially constant for standards higher than 28 dB SPL(3 dB SL)for 100-msecincrements and 38 dB SPL(13 dB SL)for lO-msecincrements. For low-frequency noise, infants' absolute thresholds were exceptionally high, and sensation levels ofthe standards were too low to adequately describe the relationship. In Experiment 2, 7-month-old infants detected 10-and 100-msec increments in 400-Hz noise stimuli presented in sound field. Infants' low-frequency DLswere large at low intensities and decreased with increases in level of the standard up to at least 30 dB SL. For both low-and high-frequency noise, the difference between DLsfor 10-and 100-msecincrements tended to be large at low levels of the standard and to decrease at higher levels. These results suggest that the relationship between the DLand levelof the standard varies with both stimulus frequencyand duration duringinfancy. However,stimulusdependent immaturities in increment detection may be most evident at levels within approximately 30 dB of absolute threshold.One ofthe most basic of auditory capacities is the ability to detect a change in the intensity or level ofan auditory stimulus. This ability has been widely studied in both normal and hearing-impaired adults, but little is known about discrimination of intensity differences in infants and young children. The few experiments examining this topic from a developmental perspective are consistent in showing poorer performance in young subjects. Sinnott and Aslin (1985) reported difference limens (DLs) ranging from 3 to 12 dB for a group of 7-to 9-month~old infants detecting increments in a constantly repeating 1-kHz tone presented at 60 dB SPL. By comparison, adult DLs obtained under identical conditions ranged from 1 to 2 dB. Bull, Eilers, and Oiler (1984) varied the intensity of individual synthetic syllables embedded within multi syllable wordlike units and found increment thresholds on the order of 2-6 dB in young infants; Schneider and Trehub (1985) reported similar estimates of2.5-5 dB for infants' detection of increments in continuous broadband noise. These values compare with DLs of less than 1 dB typically obtained in adult subjects for similar types of stimuli (see, e.g., Miller,

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“…Infants can have thresholds up to 25 dB worse than adults; rapid improvement occurs before the age of 6 months (Tharpe and Ashmead, 2001), with a difference narrowing down to a 10-15 dB gap by the time that children reach 5 years of age. Differences in detecting sounds seem to also depend on the frequency, whereby sensitivity is near adult-like by age 6 months for high-frequency sounds of around 4000 Hz, but not for low-frequency sounds around 500 Hz (Olsho et al, 1988;Trehub et al, 1988). The physiologic basis for this difference has not been identified, and does not appear to result from maturation in conductive properties of the peripheral auditory system or in the sensory development that takes place during infancy and childhood.…”

Section: Detection Of Soundmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…For example, it was well documented that thresholds for detecting stimuli in quiet improve between infancy and early school age (Olsho et al, 1988;Trehub et al, 1988). Infants can have thresholds up to 25 dB worse than adults; rapid improvement occurs before the age of 6 months (Tharpe and Ashmead, 2001), with a difference narrowing down to a 10-15 dB gap by the time that children reach 5 years of age.…”

Section: Detection Of Soundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although not often used with special populations such as persons with cognitive and/or physical disability, this approach has the strength in its objectivity, such that it could theoretically be adapted to any population. With normal-hearing infants, the OBPM can be used to determine thresholds for hearing sounds of various frequencies and other characteristics as early as 2-4 months' age postnatal (Olsho et al, 1987(Olsho et al, , 1988, and has been applied to testing of toddlers (GriecoCalub et al, 2008;Grieco-Calub and Litovsky, 2010). However, in newborn infants the method is less reliable (Tharpe and Ashmead, 2001).…”

Section: Behavioral Testing and Psychoacousticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Development of the Auditory System

Rubel¹,

Popper²,

Fay³

1998

Springer Handbook of Auditory Research

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Auditory development involves changes in the peripheral and central nervous system along the auditory pathways, and these occur naturally, and in response to stimulation. Human development occurs along a trajectory that can last decades, and is studied using behavioral psychophysics, as well as physiologic measurements with neural imaging. The auditory system constructs a perceptual space that takes information from objects and groups, segregates sounds, and provides meaning and access to communication tools such as language. Auditory signals are processed in a series of analysis stages, from peripheral to central. Coding of information has been studied for features of sound, including frequency, intensity, loudness, and location, in quiet and in the presence of maskers. In the latter case, the ability of the auditory system to perform an analysis of the scene becomes highly relevant. While some basic abilities are well developed at birth, there is a clear prolonged maturation of auditory development well into the teenage years. Maturation involves auditory pathways. However, non-auditory changes (attention, memory, cognition) play an important role in auditory development. The ability of the auditory system to adapt in response to novel stimuli is a key feature of development throughout the nervous system, known as neural plasticity.

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Pure-tone sensitivity of human infants

Cited by 34 publications

References 0 publications

Development and the role of internal noise in detection and discrimination thresholds with narrow band stimuli

Development and the role of internal noise in detection and discrimination thresholds with narrow band stimuli

Infants’ detection of increments in low- and high-frequency noise

Development of the Auditory System

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