Perceptual Development and Auditory Backward Recognition Masking

Three amplitude-discrimination experiments within a backward masking task were carried out to study whether young children have a slower rate of perceptual processing than do adults. Rate of processing was defined within an explicit model of perceptual performance that allows the investigator to determine if rate is responsible for developmental differences in auditory discrimination. A developmental difference in discrimination ability was compensated for by increasing the psychophysical difference between the test tones in the backward masking task. No developmental differences in rate of perceptual processing were observed. A quantitative model of perceptual processing gave similar estimates for the rate of perceptual processing in children and adult subjects. Although there are differences in discrimination ability, there appear to be no differences in rate of perceptual processing for children and adults.