Visual Reinforcement of Head-Turn Responses in Infants Under 12 Months of Age

Abstract

The effect of complex visual reinforcement (animated toy animal) on auditory localization responses of infants below 12 months of age was studied. Sixty infants served as subjects and each subject received 30 presentations of complex noise at suprathreshold level. After each response to an auditory signal, one-half of the infants (experimental group) received complex visual reinforcement and the other half (control group) received no reinforcement. The experimental and control groups were further subdivided into three age groups: four months, five and six months, and seven to 11 months. Visual reinforcement produced significantly more responses (head turn) than no reinforcement for the two older age groups. There was no significant difference between the experimental and control conditions at four months of age.

Infant discrimination of two- and five-formant voiced stop consonants differing in place of articulation

“…A variant of the operant head-turning (OHT) procedure developed by Moore et al (1977) was employed in the present experiment to measure discrimination of the FF and TF contrasts (see Aslin and Pisoni, 1980a). Basically, the procedure entails the repetitive presentation of a "background" stimulus that is interrupted by several presentations of a novel, "target" stimulus.…”

The masking of octave-band noise by broad-spectrum noise: A comparison of infant and adult thresholds

“…Since Moore, Wilson, and Thompson (1977) demonstrated that the auditory-localization response could be reinforced in infants as young as 5 months of age, the response has been used to ascertain absolute thresholds in quiet backgrounds for infants 5-24 months of age (Moore & Wilson, 1978;Trehub, Schneider, & Endman, 1980). The purpose of the present investigation was to extend these procedures to the study of masking in infancy.…”

An adaptive psychophysical method for subject classification

“…In order to allow fast and accurate estimation ofaudiograms in infants, Ozdamar, Eilers, and colleagues developed an algorithm known as CAST (classification ofaudiograms by sequential testing; Eilers, Ozdamar, & Steffens, 1993;Ozdamar, Eilers, Miskiel, & Widen, 1990). CAST is an automated form of visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA; Liden & Kankkunen, 1969;Moore, Wilson, & Thompson, 1977;Suzuki & Ogiba, 1961) whereby infant subjects are taught to respond to audible stimuli via the use of visual reinforcers. The infant is seated with head facing straight ahead, and sounds are presented via speakers positioned off of midline.…”