It was concluded that children who are exposed to varying and unpredictable auditory distractions in their classroom environments are better able to perform on a task requiring auditory vigilance skills in the presence of distracting background noise. (Author/SW)

Argues that knowing how infants process speech is a prerequisite to any definition of linguistic experience and therefore, the discrimination paradigm does not provide a test for the effect of experience on infants' speech discrimination. Outlines conditions to be met in order to conclude an effect of experience. (EKN)

Three experiments studied the perception of tone sequences. Ratings of perceived structure and ease of recognition in transposition were both influenced by harmonic progression, the contour, and the excursion or repetition pattern within the sequence. Results are described in terms of the abstraction and analysis of levels of pitch relations.…

Three experiments demonstrated (1) habituation and long-term retention of habituation to a tone stimulus in third-grade children, (2) specificity of habituation to an auditory stimulus in first- but not fifth-grade children, and (3) specificity of habituation in fifth-grade children in response suppression when a cross-modality stimulus change was…

In the impress method, the teacher sits behind the student, reads a selection of material, and points to each word as s/he reads it. The student repeats what the teacher says and follows the teacher's finger. The objective is to cover as much material as possible at a normal pace. Comprehension is not required. Research studies are reviewed. (JN)

The author proposes that the entire history of Western, serious, classical music can be seen as a coherent, single development with a single evolving characteristic--that of aurally perceptible clarity and order. (Author/SJL)

The article reviews the empirical evidence implicating conductive hearing impairments as causal agents in learning disability, language dysfunction, and central auditory problems. It is concluded that there are few, if any, valid data linking conductive hearing impairment to any of these problems. (Author/DLS)

Tests of intelligence, music audiation, auditory conservation, and visual conservation were administered to two first-grade classes. Data revealed that auditory conservation isn't significantly related to visual conservation but is significantly related to music aptitude, to IQ, and to the interaction of music aptitude and IQ. Instructional…

The ability of neonates to integrate auditory and visual information into a single percept was investigated using a signal detection methodology. Thirty-two infants ranging in age from 2 to 11 days served as subjects. (Author/MP)

Localization responses to octave-band noises with center frequencies at 200, 400, 1000, 2000, 4000, and 10,000 Hz were obtained from infants 6, 12, and 18 months old in order to investigate infants' auditory sensitivity. (MP)

Experiments related to studying innate responsiveness to auditory stimuli in various infant organisms establish that animals have innate perceptual knowledge. (SA)

Demonstrates that categorization of speech sounds can be influenced by the phonetic structure of connected speech. (Editor/RK)

If the N1 wave (amplitude component between 80-130 msec) does not serve as an index of an initial stimulus set stage of selection, the N1 amplitudes should be differentiated between channels whether the selection is based on pitch, spatial position, intensity, or cues that lead to an efficient rejection of unwanted information. This study…