Development of perception and perceptual learning for multi-timescale filtered speech

The perception of temporally changing auditory signals has a gradual developmental trajectory. Speech is a time-varying signal, and slow changes in speech (filtered at 0-4 Hz) are preferentially processed by the right hemisphere, while the left extracts faster changes (filtered at 22-40 Hz). This work examined the ability of 8- to 19-year-olds to both perceive and learn to perceive filtered speech presented diotically for each filter type (low vs high) and dichotically for preferred or non-preferred laterality. Across conditions, performance improved with increasing age, indicating that the ability to perceive filtered speech continues to develop into adolescence. Across age, performance was best when both bands were presented dichotically, but with no benefit for presentation to the preferred hemisphere. Listeners thus integrated slow and fast transitions between the two ears, benefitting from more signal information, but not in a hemisphere-specific manner. After accounting for potential ceiling effects, learning was greatest when both bands were presented dichotically. These results do not support the idea that cochlear implants could be improved by providing differentially filtered information to each ear. Listeners who started with poorer performance learned more, a factor which could contribute to the positive cochlear implant outcomes typically seen in younger children.