The Effect of Pretraining Conditions and Age on Pitch Discrimination Ability of Preschool Children

Background: There is a critical need for tests of auditory discrimination for young children as this skill plays a fundamental role in the development of speaking, prereading, reading, language, and more complex auditory processes. Frequency discrimination is important with regard to basic sensory processing affecting phonological processing, dyslexia, measurements of intelligence, auditory memory, Asperger syndrome, and specific language impairment. Purpose: This study was performed to determine the clinical feasibility of the Pitch Discrimination Test (PDT) to screen the preschool child’s ability to discriminate some of the acoustic demands of speech perception, primarily pitch discrimination, without linguistic content. The PDT used brief speech frequency tones to gather normative data from preschool children aged 3 to 5 yrs. Research Design: A cross-sectional study was used to gather data regarding the pitch discrimination abilities of a sample of typically developing preschool children, between 3 and 5 yrs of age. The PDT consists of ten trials using two pure tones of 100-msec duration each, and was administered in an AA or AB forced-choice response format. Study Sample: Data from 90 typically developing preschool children between the ages of 3 and 5 yrs were used to provide normative data. Data Analysis: Nonparametric Mann–Whitney U-testing was used to examine the effects of age as a continuous variable on pitch discrimination. The Kruskal–Wallis test was used to determine the significance of age on performance on the PDT. Spearman rank was used to determine the correlation of age and performance on the PDT. Results: Pitch discrimination of brief tones improved significantly from age 3 yrs to age 4 yrs, as well as from age 3 yrs to the age 4- and 5-yrs group. Results indicated that between ages 3 and 4 yrs, children’s auditory discrimination of pitch improved on the PDT. The data showed that children can be screened for auditory discrimination of pitch beginning with age 4 yrs. Conclusions: The PDT proved to be a time efficient, feasible tool for a simple form of frequency discrimination screening in the preschool population before the age where other diagnostic tests of auditory processing disorders can be used.

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The Influence of the Psychophysical Assessment Paradigm on Pitch Discrimination for Adults (and a Pilot Sample of Children)

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.1177/00315125211044063 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 003151252110440

Author(s):

Ashley G. Flagge ◽

Lucile Puranen ◽

Madhuri S. Mulekar

Keyword(s):

Discrimination Performance ◽

Assessment Method ◽

Pitch Discrimination ◽

Adult Women ◽

Language And Literacy ◽

Discrimination Accuracy ◽

Discrimination Ability ◽

Research Paradigms ◽

Pilot Sample ◽

Pattern Of Performance

Pitch discrimination ability has been of research interest due to its potential relationship to language and literacy. However, assessment protocols for pitch discrimination have varied widely. Prior studies with both children and adults have produced conflicting performance findings across different pitch discrimination research paradigms, though they have consistently shown that discrimination accuracy is based on the psychophysical assessment method applied. In the present study, we examined pitch discrimination performance among convenience samples of 19 adult women and ten female children across six different adaptive psychophysical measurement conditions. We found pitch discrimination performance in both groups to be impacted by the measurement paradigm such that, while adults exhibited significantly better discrimination thresholds than did children, the pattern of performance across the six conditions was similar for both the adults and the children.

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The relationship between pitch discrimination and Romanian students’ spelling performance

Psychology of Language and Communication ◽

10.2478/plc-2013-0015 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 17 (3) ◽

pp. 233-240

Author(s):

Dacian Dorin Dolean

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Musical Instrument ◽

Pitch Discrimination ◽

Discrimination Ability ◽

Spelling Performance ◽

Foreign Language Acquisition ◽

Spelling Ability ◽

Performance Ability

Abstract Previous studies have shown that music can have a positive impact on phonological awareness and on foreign language acquisition. The present research investigates specifically the role of pitch discrimination ability in native and foreign language spelling performance. Two groups of elementary school children were selected based on their pitch discrimination abilities (high and low). Their spelling performance in their native and a foreign (fictional) language was assessed. The results indicate that pitch discrimination ability can be linked to spelling ability in both the native and a foreign language. They also suggest that studying a musical instrument might predict enhanced spelling performance ability

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The Assessment of Pitch Discrimination Ability in Young Children

Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders ◽

10.1044/jshd.4202.279 ◽

1977 ◽

Vol 42 (2) ◽

pp. 279-286 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Moya L. Andrews ◽

Shelley S. Madeira

Keyword(s):

Motor Response ◽

Age Groups ◽

Spatial Relations ◽

Pitch Discrimination ◽

Training Procedure ◽

Normal Children ◽

Discrimination Ability ◽

Simple Motor ◽

First Results ◽

Age Range

This study tested the hypothesis that some tasks used in assessing pitch discrimination ability may instead be assessing children’s ability to deal with relational language. Five tasks were given to 36 normal children who were equally divided into three age groups, six to six and one-half years, seven to seven and one-half years, and eight to eight and one-half years of age. Task 1 involved a training procedure to assess the children’s ability to hear the differences in the pitch of two tones, which were an octave apart. A simple motor response was required. Task 2 assessed the children’s ability to label these tones as high or low. Task 3 assessed their ability to compare two tones and label the second as higher or lower than the first. Task 4 examined their ability to label as high or low the position of a man on a ladder. Task 5 examined their ability to compare the positions of two men on two ladders and say whether the second man was higher or lower than the first. Results indicated that children who make pitch discriminations as demonstrated by nearly perfect scores on Task 1 often fail to demonstrate those discriminations on tasks requiring relational language. A comparison of Tasks 2 and 3 to Tasks 4 and 5 suggests that children in the age range studied are less proficient in applying high-low and higher-lower to pitch than to spatial relations.

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Same or different pitch? Effects of musical expertise, pitch difference, and auditory task on the pitch discrimination ability of musicians and non-musicians

Experimental Brain Research ◽

10.1007/s00221-019-05707-8 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 238 (1) ◽

pp. 247-258

Author(s):

Christin Arndt ◽

Kathrin Schlemmer ◽

Elke van der Meer

Keyword(s):

Auditory Task ◽

Pitch Discrimination ◽

Discrimination Ability ◽

Musical Expertise ◽

Pitch Difference

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The Contribution of Frequency Discrimination Ability to Auditory Temporal Patterning Tests in Children

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2020_jslhr-20-00093 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 63 (12) ◽

pp. 4314-4324

Author(s):

Ashley G. Flagge ◽

Tara Davis ◽

Victoria S. Henbest

Keyword(s):

Auditory Processing ◽

Discrimination Task ◽

Control Measure ◽

Pediatric Population ◽

Linear Regression Analysis ◽

School Age Children ◽

Pitch Discrimination ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Temporal Patterning ◽

Discrimination Ability

Purpose The Pitch Patterns Test (PPT) and the Duration Patterns Test (DPT) are clinical auditory processing tests that evaluate temporal patterning skills based on pitch (PPT) or duration (DPT) aspects of sound. Although temporal patterning tests are categorized under the temporal processing domain, successful performance on the PPT also relies on accurate pitch discrimination. However, the relationship between pitch discrimination ability and temporal patterning skills has not been thoroughly evaluated. This study examined the contribution of pitch discrimination ability to performance on temporal patterning in children through the use of a pitch discrimination task and the PPT. The DPT was also given as a control measure to assess temporal patterning with no pitch component. Method Thirty-two typically developing elementary school–age children (6;11–11;3 [years;months]) with normal hearing were given a series of three counterbalanced tasks: an adaptive psychophysical pitch discrimination task (difference limen for frequency [DLF]), the PPT, and the DPT. Results Correlational analysis revealed moderate correlations between DLF and PPT scores. After accounting for age, results of a linear regression analysis suggested that pitch discrimination accounts for a significant amount of variance in performance on the PPT. No significant correlation was found between DLF and DPT scores, supporting the hypothesis that the pitch task had no significant temporal patterning component contributing to the overall score. Discussion These findings indicate that pitch discrimination contributes significantly to performance on the PPT, but not the DPT, in a typically developing pediatric population. This is an important clinical consideration in both assessment and utilization of targeted therapy techniques for different clinical populations.

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Place pitch discrimination and speech recognition in cochlear implants users

South African Journal of Communication Disorders ◽

10.4102/sajcd.v43i1.236 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 43 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Johan J. Hanekom ◽

Robert V. Shannon

Keyword(s):

Speech Perception ◽

Cochlear Implants ◽

Speech Processing ◽

Patient Specific ◽

Pitch Discrimination ◽

Discrimination Ability ◽

Processing Strategies ◽

Place Pitch ◽

Pitch Distance ◽

The Relationship

The considerable variability in speech perception performance among cochlear implant patients makes it difficult to compare the effectiveness of different speech processing strategies. One result is that optimal individualized processor parameter setting is not always achieved. This paper investigates the relationship between place pitch discrimination ability and speech perception to establish whether pitch ranking could be used as an aid in better patient-specific fitting of processors. Three subjects participated in this study. Place pitch discrimination ability was measured and this information was used to design new channel to electrode allocations for each subject. Several allocations were evaluated with speech tests with consonant, vowel and sentence material. It is shown that there is correlation between the perceptual pitch distance between electrodes and speech perception performance. The results indicate that pitch ranking ability might be used both as an indicator of the speech perception potential of an implant user and in the choice of better electrode configurations.

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Auditory Discrimination among Economically Disadvantaged and Nondisadvantaged Preschool Children

Council review ◽

10.1177/001440296603300407 ◽

1966 ◽

Vol 33 (4) ◽

pp. 259-262 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

Ann D. Clark ◽

Charlotte J. Richards

Keyword(s):

Preschool Children ◽

Economically Disadvantaged ◽

Auditory Discrimination ◽

Disadvantaged Group ◽

Discrimination Ability

Assessment of auditory discrimination ability in economically disadvantaged and nondisadvantaged preschool children using the Wepman Test of Auditory Discrimination was made. The results indicated a significant deficiency in auditory discrimination in the economically disadvantaged group, suggesting the need for further research, as well as a modified curriculum in the education of this group.

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