This study tested the hypothesis that there is a developmental shift in the perceptual weighting of acoustic parameters that results from experience with a native language. Comparison of 17 3-year olds and 16 adults found that age-related differences in auditory sensitivity did not fully account for age-related differences in perceptual weighting…

Children (N=110, ages 8 to 10) with either normal or poor reading ability were tested on (1) ability to recall sequences of nonspeech tones presented at various rates, and (2) ability to make phonetic decisions using brief and transitional properties of the speech signal. Results did not support the hypothesis that temporal-processing deficits…