High functioning children with autism and age and intelligence matched controls participated in experiments testing perception of pitch intervals and musical contours. The finding from the interval study showed superior detection of pitch direction over small pitch distances in the autism group. On the test of contour discrimination no group…

It has been proposed that specific language impairment (SLI) is caused by an impairment of auditory processing, but it is unclear whether this problem affects temporal processing, frequency discrimination (FD), or both. Furthermore, there are few longitudinal studies in this area, making it hard to establish whether any deficit represents a…

The present experiments tested the claim that phonological recoding occurs "automatically" by assessing whether it uses central attention in the context of the psychological refractory period paradigm. Task 1 was a tone discrimination task and Task 2 was reading aloud. The joint effects of long-lag word repetition priming and stimulus onset…

Although it is commonly accepted that dyslexic children have auditory phonological deficits, the precise nature of these deficits remains unclear. This study examines potential pitch processing deficit in dyslexic children, and recovery after specific training, by measuring event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and behavioural responses to pitch…

Dodson, in "Language Teaching and the Bilingual Method" (London; Pitman 1967, 1972), described a controversial, new bilingual method that involves the use of the mother tongue and introduction of the printed word along with the first auditory presentation. Dodson is interviewed about certain controversial points. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Earplugs are sold in most pharmacies. Because I teach at a college of pharmacy, I want my students to understand a particular feature of earplugs called the Noise Reduction Rating, or NRR. The NRR is a rating of the effectiveness of earplugs at decreasing the amount of sound (or noise) entering the ear. Typical values range from 12 dB to 33 dB;…

A Russian method of teaching beginning reading using auditory discrimination of phonemes training was shown to be superior to two American methods. (JH)

The paper examines the problem of auditory figure ground confusion, usually indicated by distractibility, inability to follow directions, and/or inability to comprehend word meanings. A practicum was designed to teach kindergarten and first grade teachers to alleviate the auditory figure-ground disability. Author-produced cassette tapes…

Event-related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded to both auditory and visual stimuli from the scalps of nine autistic males and nine normal controls (all Ss between 12 and 22 years of age) to examine the differences in information processing strategies. Ss were tested on three different tasks: an auditory missing stimulus paradigm, a visual color…

This paper describes three experiments which demonstrated the presence of binaural perception abilities (the ability to use both ears) in 4-month-old but not in 2-month-old infants. All of the experiments employed a visual fixation habituation-dishabituation paradigm in which infants were given a series of visual fixation trials while binaural…