We examined the effect of perceptual training on a well-established hemispheric asymmetry in speech processing. Eighteen listeners were trained to use a within-category difference in voice onset time (VOT) to cue talker identity. Successful learners (n = 8) showed faster response times for stimuli presented only to the left ear than for those…

Infants' early phonetic perception is hypothesized to play an important role in language development. Previous studies have not assessed this potential link in the first 2 years of life. In this study, speech discrimination was measured in 6-month-old infants using a conditioned head-turn task. At 13, 16, and 24 months of age, language development…

In a cross-modal matching task, participants were asked to match visual and auditory displays of speech based on the identity of the speaker. The present investigation used this task with acoustically transformed speech to examine the properties of sound that can convey cross-modal information. Word recognition performance was also measured under…

To test the hypothesis that level of neural complexity explain the relative level of performance and brain activity in autistic individuals, available behavioural, ERP and imaging findings related to the perception of increasingly complex auditory material under various processing tasks in autism were reviewed. Tasks involving simple material…

This study determined whether listeners with hearing loss received reduced benefits due to an onset asynchrony between sounds. Seven normal-hearing listeners and 7 listeners with hearing impairment (HI) were presented with 2 synthetic, steady-state vowels. One vowel (the late-arriving vowel) was 250 ms in duration, and the other (the…

The role of central auditory processing in reading skill development and reading disorders is unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine whether individuals with specific reading disabilities (SRD) have deficits in processing rapidly presented, serially ordered non-speech auditory signals. To this end, we compared 12 children with SRD and…

Evoked potential studies have demonstrated that musicians have the ability to distinguish musical sounds preattentively and automatically at the temporal, spectral, and spatial levels in more detail. It is however not known whether there is a difference in the early processes of auditory data processing of musicians. The most emphasized and…

This study examined word identification skills between two groups of college students with different first language (L1) backgrounds (Chinese and Korean) learning to read English as a second language (ESL). Word identification skills were tested in a naming experiment and an auditory category judgment task. Both groups of ESL learners demonstrated…

Auditory visual information equivalence in 15 mentally retarded and 15 intellectually average 12- to 13-year-olds found retarded subjects were more accurate on intra- than on intersensory tasks, whereas there was no such difference for average subjects. Tasks involving transposition were more difficult than others for the retarded children.…

The London Procedure, a diagnostic/prescriptive instrument for adult basic education, is found to lack content validity, to make arbitrary interpretations of results, and not to reflect current research in literacy acquisition and learning disabilities. (SK)

Seventy-two junior high general music students were taught to identify primary harmonic functions by using either a scalar or root harmonic aural perception technique. Students were then tested with an aural identification battery. The scalar technique appeared to be the more effective procedure for teaching primary harmonic functions. (Author/SJL)

The role of hearing, although invisible, is critical to the development of language and literacy skills across key stage 1. Yet, Foundation stage and key stage 1 pupils are the most likely of all children to experience reduced hearing sensitivity, under developed listening skills and a less than ideal acoustic learning environment. The paper…

Compares the music-teaching methods of Maurice Martenot and Edgar Willems, used widely in Spain and Portugal, by applying a revised comparative model to both methods. Concludes that both methods have solid values relating to the development of aural perception. Suggests areas for further research. (DSK)

Critiques scholars who argue that theories of music and theories of musical perception are, and should be, fundamentally different. Reviews research on music perception and how it is used in aural training programs. Makes suggestions for improving the field of aural training and music-education research. (DSK)

This study is an investigation of the effects of multiple listenings on error-detection identification and labeling accuracy among brass and woodwind instrumentalists. Examples derived from band music used balanced four-voice incipits performed with differing timbres, and errors that occurred in one or multiple voices. Response rates for correct…