Infants were tested for their discrimination of changes in the melodic contour (direction of successive pitch changes) of brief melodies in the context of discernible variations in key or interval size. (PCB)

Assessed auditory temporal acuity among infants of 3, 6, and 12 months of age and adults. Gap detection thresholds were quite poor in infants. Effects of restricting the range of frequencies available for detecting gaps were qualitatively similar for infants and adults. (GLR)

One experiment determined that the minimum angle at which infants can discriminate 2 sound presentations decreases substantially toward 48 weeks of age. In 3 succeeding experiments, infants aged 16, 20, and 28 weeks were able to discriminate sounds presented to each ear between 50 and 75 microseconds apart. (BC)

The results fail to support the hypothesis that intersensory integration is the sole or even the primary developmental skill accounting for matching task improvement with increasing age. The hypothesis that retarded readers fail to develop skills in intersensory integration is also not supported. (Authors)