Abstract
The analysis of the auditory scene begins from the moment we hear sounds, making it possible for the infant to distinguish the mother's voice from other sounds in the environment. The purpose of the study was to determine, in two experiments, whether the frequency separation threshold, at which the perception of a mixture of sounds turns from being perceived as one stream to two streams, differs between two groups of school-aged children (ages 5-8 and 9-11 years) and adults. The results show a developmental course for the perception of auditory streams that is not simply dependent upon frequency discrimination. This suggests that maturation of the stream segregation process follows a longer developmental course than maturation of simple feature discrimination. The data indicate that the ability to hear distinct sound streams in the environment takes time to develop and becomes sharpened with experience and maturity.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 117-127 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Hearing Research |
Volume | 225 |
Issue number | 1-2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2007 |
Keywords
- Auditory stream segregation
- Children
- Development
- Frequency discrimination
- Perception
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Sensory Systems