Electrodermal activity to auditory stimuli was compared in 20 autistic children and their matched retarded and normal controls (N=80). The autistic children were virtually indistinguishable in individual features of electrodermal activity from controls when both chronological and mental age comparisons were accounted for. (Author/CL)

Two experiments were conducted to (1) replicate the findings of habituation of behavioral responding to a tactile stimulus assuring state control and (2) demonstrate dishabituation either by reinstatement of responding to the original, habituated stimulus or to novel stimuli either within or between modalities. Subjects were newborn Caucasian…

Five experiments using identical reflex modification procedures on neonates and adults suggest developmental differences in processing auditory stimuli. Neonates failed to exhibit reflex inhibition by either prior acoustic or tactile stimuli. Adults exhibited robust reflex inhibition to these same stimuli. Developmental processes implied by these…

Investigates psychophysiological reactions of 60 women to an infant's cry and to a control sound. The 30-second pain cry evoked greater cardiac and electrodermal activity than did the control stimulus, although selected groups varied in the nature and extent of their reactions. Both maternal state and experience with infants affected reactions.…

Three observers evaluated the responses to sound with 21 mild to severely handicapped children (7 months to 10 years old) on Behavioural Observation Audiometry, an alternative to conditioning paradigms in audiometric assessment. Results showed that inter-observer agreement was high and that responsitivity was not affected by stimulus presentation…

Deaf subjects required about 9 dB greater speech-to-noise ratio for 75 percent correct detection of words than did normal-hearing subjects, suggesting that maximum communication effectiveness may occur for hearing impaired children only at higher speech-to-noise ratios than that required by normal-hearing persons. (Author/KW)

A series of investigations were conducted to determine whether reflexive crying occurs in newborns and to define the parameters that control his behavior. (NH)

Using auditory ensembles of sound that differed in frequency, intensity, and duration, it was found that fifth graders more easily learn stimuli that are unlike speech than those which closely approximate speech. (MH)

This study was undertaken to determine whether context independence (the degree to which the phonetic categorization of a given stimulus is independent of the context in which it occurs) and phonetic mediation (the degree to which discrimination appears to be based on category labels) are independent aspects of categorical perception. (Author/LC)

The experiment investigated the possibility that autistic adolescents may avoid speech communication with the world around them by "tuning out" or perceptually suppressing auditory speech stimuli. The tune out auditory suppression hypothesis was investigated using the S's own speech as the stimulus under three perceptual-motor conditions. (Author)