Syllable identification by children and adults for two task conditions

Abstract

Both 6-year-old children and adults showed as good performance on a syllable identification task for a test condition having more trials per test run and a lower overall level of positive reinforcement as they did for a condition with fewer trials per test run and a higher, overall level of positive reinforcement. Differences between identification thresholds of children and adults are interpreted as reflecting age-related differences in speech processing rather than differences in responding to the test situation.

Adult–child differences in acoustic cue weighting are influenced by segmental context: Children are not always perceptually biased toward transitions

“…The studies suggest that adult-child differences in cue weighting may change both with the segmental context of the contrast, and with the acoustic characteristics of the cues available to signal the contrast. Based on evidence such as this, a number of researchers have suggested alternatives to the DWS, most notably an account based on general auditory processing differences between adults and children ͑e.g., Elliott et al, 1981;Elliott and Busse, 1984;Eisenberg et al, 2000;Sussman, 1993. This type of explanation generally proposes that because children have less well developed auditory systems than do adults, they will have trouble processing acoustic cues that are not physically distinct.…”