Abstract
A visually reinforced operant procedure was employed to determine the behavioral thresholds of 6- to 7-month-old infants and adults for stimuli of various bandwidths and durations. Experiment 1 compared absolute thresholds for broadband and 1/3-octavefiltered clicks and 300-msec noise bursts. For adult subjects, the difference in threshold for clicks and noise bursts was -quite comparable in the two bandwidth conditions, but infants’ click-noise threshold differences were significantly larger for broadband than for 1/3-octave stimuli. In Experiment 2, 2-point threshold-duration functions were compared for 4-kHz tones and octave-band noise bursts presented in backgrounds of quiet and continuous noise. Infants’ threshold-duration function for octave-band noise bursts was significantly steeper than the comparable adult function in quiet, but not in masking noise. These results suggest that young infants may have particular difficulty detecting low intensity broadband sounds when durations are very short.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bacon, S. P. (1990). Effect of masker level on overshoot.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,88, 698–702.
Barry, S. J., &Larson, V. D. (1974). Brief-tone audiometry with normal and deaf school-age children.Journal of Speech & Hearing Disorders,39, 457–464.
Buus, S., Schorer, E., Florentine, M., &Zwicker, E. (1988). Decision rules in detection of simple and complex tones.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,80, 1646–1657.
Carlier, E., &Pujol, R. (1978). Role of inner and outer hair cells in coding sound intensity: An ontogenetic approach.Brain Research,147, 174–176.
Carlyon, R. P., &Moore, B. C. J. (1984). Intensity discrimination: A severe departure from Weber’s law.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,76, 1369–1376.
Carlyon, R. P., &Moore, B. C. J. (1986). Detection of tones in noise and the “severe departure” from Weber’s law.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,79, 461–464.
Collins, M. J., &Cullen, J. K., Jr. (1984). Effects of background noise level on detection of tone glides.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,76, 1696–1698.
Dempsey, J. J., &Maxon, A. B. (1982). Temporal integration functions in hearing-impaired children.Ear & Hearing,3, 271–273.
Dixon, W. J. (1988).BMDP statistical software manual. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Fay, R. R., &Coombs, S. (1983). Neural mechanisms in sound detection and temporal summation.Hearing Research,10, 69–92.
Florentine, M., Fastl, H., &Buus, S. (1988). Temporal integration in normal hearing, cochlear impairment, and impairment simulated by masking.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,84, 195–203.
Garner, W. R. (1947). The effect of frequency spectrum on temporal integration of energy in the ear.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,19, 808–815.
Gerner, W. M., Bhat, V. K. H., &Hutchison-Clutter, M. (1990). Auditory temporal integration and the power function model.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,88, 767–778.
Gersuni, G., Baru, A., Karaseva, T., &Tonkonogii, I. (1971). Effects of temporal lobe lesions on perception of sounds of short duration. In G. V. Gersuni (Ed.),Sensory processes as the neuronal and behavioral levels (pp. 287–300). New York: Academic Press.
Green, D. M. (1960). Auditory detection of a noise signal.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,32, 121–131.
Jerger, J. (1955). Influence of stimulus duration on the pure-tone threshold during recovery from auditory fatigue.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,27, 121–124.
Jerger, J., Lovering, L., &Wertz, M. (1972). Auditory disorder following bilateral temporal lobe insult: Report of a case.Journal of Speech & Hearing Disorders,37, 523–535.
Levitt, H. (1971). Transformed up-down methods in psychoacoustics.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,49, 467–477.
Maxon, A. B., &Hochberg, I. (1982). Development of psychoacoustic behavior: Sensitivity and discrimination.Ear & Hearing,3, 301–308.
Mills, J. H., Gengel, R. W., Watson, C. S., &Miller, J. D. (1970). Temporary changes of the auditory system due to exposure to noise for one or two days.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,48, 524–530.
Nozza, R. J., &Wilson, W. R. (1984). Masked and unmasked pure-tone thresholds of infants and adults: Development of auditory frequency selectivity and sensitivity.Journal of Speech & Hearing Research,27, 613–622.
Olsen, C. C., &Buckles, K. M. (1979). The effect of age in brief-tone audiometry.Journal of Auditory Research,19, 117–122.
Olsho, L. W., Koch, E. G., Carter, E. A., Halpin, C. F., &Spetner, N. B. (1988). Pure-tone sensitivity of human infants.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,84, 1316–1324.
Olsho, L. W., &Marean, G. C. (1988). Infant thresholds for short duration tone bursts.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,84, S144.
Plomp, R.,&Bouman, M. A. (1959). Relation between hearing threshold and duration for tone pulses.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,31, 749–758.
Rhode, W. S., &Smith, P. H. (1985). Characteristics of tone-pip response patterns in relationship to spontaneous rate in cat auditory nerve fibers.Hearing Research,18, 159–168.
Romand, R. (1983). Development of the cochlea. In R. Romand (Ed.),Development of auditory and vestibular systems (pp. 47–88). New York: Academic Press.
Scharf, B. (1978). Loudness. In E. C. Carterette & M. P. Friedman (Eds.),Handbook of perception: Vol. IV. Hearing (pp. 187–242). New York: Academic Press.
Sinnott, J. M., &Aslin, R. N. (1985). Frequency and intensity discrimination in human infants and adults.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,78, 1986–1992.
Stephens, S. D. G. (1976). Auditory temporal summation in patients with central nervous system lesions. In S. D. G. Stephens (Ed.),Disorders of auditory function II (pp. 231–241). New York: Academic Press.
Stephens, S. D. G. (1973). Auditory temporal integration as a function of intensity.Journal of Sound & Vibration,30, 109–126.
Swets, J. A. (1963). Central factors in auditory frequency selectivity.Psychological Bulletin,60, 429–440.
Thorpe, L. A., & Schneider, B. A. (1987, April).Temporal integration in infant audition. Paper presented at the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, MD.
Trehub, S. E., Schneider, B. A., &Endman, M. (1980). Developmental changes in infants’ sensitivity to octave-band noises.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology,29, 282–293.
Tucker, A., Williams, P. I., &Jeffress, L. A. (1968). Effect of signal duration on detection for gated and for continuous noise.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,44, 813–816.
Van den Brink, W. A. C., &Houtgast, T. (1990). Efficient across-frequency integration in short-signal detection.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,87, 284–291.
Watson, C. S., &Gengel, R. W. (1969). Signal duration and signal frequency in relation to auditory sensitivity.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,46, 989–997.
Wright, H. N. (1978). Brief tone audiometry. In J. Katz (Ed.),Handbook of clinical audiology (pp. 218–232). Baltimore, MD.: Williams & Wilkins.
Wright, H. N., &Canella, F. (1969). Differential effect of conductive hearing loss on the threshold-duration function.Journal of Speech & Hearing Research,12, 607–615.
Zwislocki, J. J. (1978). Masking: Experimental and theoretical aspects of simultaneous, forward, backward, and central masking. In E. C. Carterette & M. P. Friedman (Eds.),Handbook of perception: Vol. IV. Hearing (pp. 283–336). New York: Academic Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This work was supported in part by a grant from the March of Dimes Foundation and by NIH Grant RO1-DC00017.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Berg, K.M. Auditory temporal summation in infants and adults: Effects of stimulus bandwidth and masking noise. Perception & Psychophysics 50, 314–320 (1991). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03212223
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03212223