Behavioral Assessment of Basic Auditory Abilities

Abstract

Until very recently, little was known about the development of basic auditory abilities in infancy despite the acknowledged importance of these abilities for the perception of complex auditory patterns such as speech (see Schneider, Trehub, & Bull, 1979; Trehub, Bull, & Schneider, 1981a). The research in infant audition focused primarily on the neonatal period, with little or no attention to subsequent development. This research direction was motivated largely by clinical concerns, such as devising procedures for early identification of hearing loss, and, consequently, led to the use of a variety of response measures (e.g., auropalpebral reflex, acoustic reflex, Moro reflex, nonnutritive sucking, changes in general activity, heart rate, skin resistance changes, and evoked responses). In each of the various response systems there is a function that relates response magnitude to sound intensity. These response—intensity functions, however, tend to differ and to yield, therefore, conflicting estimates of auditory sensitivity (Schneider et al., 1979, Schneider & Trehub, 1984).