Adults Listen Selectively; Infants Do Not

Abstract

Infants' auditory detection thresholds are higher than adult thresholds. Since adults listen selectively for an expected test tone frequency, and selective listening improves their detection performance, one hypothesis about why infant thresholds are high is that infants do not listen selectively. This hypothesis was tested by obtaining listening bands from adults and from 7- to 9-month-old infants. The results replicate earlier findings that adults listen selectively but indicate that infants do not. Lack of selective listening likely contributes to infants' high thresholds. Further, the finding that infants and adults have different listening strategies has implications for infants' auditory perception in general.