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P50 Sensory Gating in Infants
Published on: December 26, 2013
Examining the role of auditory sensitivity in the developmental weighting shift
1Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, NE 68131, USA. nittrouer@boystown.org
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research : JSLHR
|August 26, 1998
Summary
Children’s speech perception relies more on formant transitions than adults’. This study tested if auditory sensitivity, not developmental weighting shifts, explains this difference, finding neither hypothesis fully supported.
Area of Science:
- Speech Perception
- Developmental Psychology
- Auditory Neuroscience
Background:
- Children's speech perception differs from adults', with children weighting formant transitions more heavily.
- The Developmental Weighting Shift model proposes children initially focus on transitions to identify words, later refining strategies with language experience.
- An alternative hypothesis suggests age-related differences in auditory sensitivity, not weighting strategies, underlie these perceptual differences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether age-related differences in auditory sensitivity explain children's distinct speech perception strategies.
- To test hypotheses that labeling differences stem from absolute or relative auditory sensitivity variations between children and adults.
Main Methods:
- Obtained difference limens (DLs) for dynamic-spectral, static-spectral, and temporal acoustic properties from children (5 and 7 years) and adults.
- Compared auditory sensitivity across age groups for different acoustic properties.
Main Results:
- Results contradicted both hypotheses predicting that differences in labeling reflect absolute or relative auditory sensitivity.
- Auditory sensitivity differences between children and adults did not fully account for the observed variations in speech perception strategies.
Conclusions:
- The findings challenge the auditory sensitivity explanation for developmental differences in speech perception.
- The results support the notion that children's perceptual weighting strategies for speech acoustics evolve with language acquisition and experience.
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