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)

Relationships among tone height, melodic contour, tone chroma, and recognition of recently learned melodies were investigated. Results replicated previous studies using familiar folk songs, providing evidence that melodic contour, tone chroma, and tone height contribute to recognition of both highly familiar and recently learned melodies.…

Research demonstrated successful discrimination in twenty 6-week-old infants when cardiac rate responses were employed in a no-delay rather than in the conventional discrete trials paradigm. (Author/SB)

Three experiments were undertaken involving three users of multi-electrode cochlear prostheses. The experiments established a scale of stimulus loudness; measured minimum-detectable gaps for sinusoidal stimuli as functions of stimulus level, frequency, and electrode place within the cochlea; and assessed independence of the electrodes using a…

Examined rate-based intersensory matching in infants by habituating them to concordant or discordant auditory-visual stimuli. Found a preference for the visual stimulus that moved at a novel velocity, indicating that the temporal attributes of the visual component dominated responsiveness. Found only limited evidence of intersensory matching. (WP)

Uses a nonsimultaneous pulsation threshold technique to examine the development of frequency resolutions in infants of three to six months. (PCB)

Investigated the effects of of distance on perception of unimodal visual speech and congruent and incongruent forms of the syllables /ba/, /bi/, /ga/, and /gi/. Identification of unimodal visual speech was unaffected by increasing distance to 10m, but was impaired at 20 and 30m. (Author/VWL)

In 2 experiments, 9- and 12-month-old infants were shown pictures of males and females with a female or male voice presented simultaneously. Found that infants spent more time looking at pictures of females presented with a female voice than at other stimuli pictures. (BC)

Assessed the relative contribution of dynamic and summary features of vocal frequency to the discrimination of pragmatic categories in infant-directed speech. Forty-nine mothers were instructed to use their voice to get their infant's attention, show approval, and provide comfort. Findings suggest that both dynamic and summary features are…