A portion of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulty acquiring conditional discrimination. However, previous researchers suggested that the discrimination of nonverbal auditory stimuli may be acquired more efficiently (Eikeseth & Hayward, 2009; Uwer, et al., 2002). For example, a child may learn to touch a…

Purpose: Published data indicate nearly adultlike frequency discrimination in infants but large child -adult differences for school-age children. This study evaluated the role that differences in measurement procedures and stimuli may have played in the apparent nonmonotonicity. Frequency discrimination was assessed in preschoolers, young…

Frequency difference thresholds were determined for fourteen 4- to 9-month-old infants (mean age, 6 months 10 days) using a discrimination learning paradigm, following a one-up, two-down staircase procedure. The subject heard 500 msec tone bursts repeated at a rate of one per sec, with a fixed standard frequency. At various points in this pulse…

Determines whether an averaged evoked potential technique using a random-v-repetitive presentation mode could be used to study infant auditory discrimination. Results showed a main effect of presentation mode with shorter latency for random v repetitive. The shortest onset latency was for random stimulus at the fast rate. (Author/DB)

Fifty-three children (ages 5-9) were individually tested on their ability to select pictures of monosyllabic words presented diotically via headphones. Tasks were presented in quiet and under three noise (distractor) conditions: white noise, speech backwards, and speech forward. Age and type of distractor significantly influenced test scores.…

Examines whether age-related differences would be observed between young children and adults for discrimination of synthesized, five-format consonant-vowel syllables that differed in voicing onset time of the initial consonants. (HOD)

A review of the literature indicated that conventional tests are inadequate for accurate assessment of phonological discrimination ability in children. Higher error rates on discrimination tests than those which would be predicted from articulation measures seemed to implicate task variables. To reduce task difficulty, repeated contrast test…

In two studies with 50 male and 50 female undergraduates, differences in learning highly interfering paired-associate discrimination tasks were compared with or without visual mediational cues and with aural cues only. Visual mediational instruction reduced interference between similar signals and facilitated their association with the correct…

We investigated learning-related changes in amplitude, scalp topography, and source localization of the mismatch negativity (MMN), a neurophysiological response correlated with auditory discrimination ability. Participants (n = 32) underwent two EEG recordings while they watched silent films and ignored auditory stimuli. Stimuli were a standard…

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the validity of the assumption that auditory discrimination and pronunciation in a foreign language are closely related. If the assumption were to be well-founded, then it might be possible for foreign language students with high auditory discrimination ability to work alone in the language…

This monograph is a collection of papers describing a series of loosely related studies of visual attention, auditory stimulation, and language discrimination in young infants. Titles include: (1) Infant Attention and Discrimination: Methodological and Substantive Issues; (2) The Addition of Auditory Stimulation (Music) and an Interspersed…