Development of duration discrimination during adolescence

Temporal processing, which is important for comprehending speech, matures over an extended developmental period. Here we investigated duration discrimination during adolescence. Listeners aged 8–19 years (four age groups) heard three broadband noises on each trial, and indicated which, if any, of the noises was different in length (longer or shorter). The broadband noises were 15, 30, 50, 100, or 200 ms in duration. During each of two sessions on consecutive days, each combination of stimulus durations (e.g., 15 vs. 100 ms) were presented a total of twenty times in pseudo-randomized order, including identical comparisons (e.g., 100 vs. 100 ms) to enable calculation of false alarm rates. All age groups showed a higher (better) sensitivity (d’) for comparisons whose durations were more different from one another (e.g., 15 vs. 200 ms). Nevertheless, duration discrimination abilities continued to develop up to age ~14 years: 8- to 10-year-olds did not differ from 11- to 13-year-olds, but 11- to 13-year-olds had lower sensitivity than 14- to 17-year-olds and young adults, who themselves did not differ from one another. There was no learning between sessions and the interactions were not significant. Thus, even simple duration discrimination abilities may continue to develop into adolescence.Temporal processing, which is important for comprehending speech, matures over an extended developmental period. Here we investigated duration discrimination during adolescence. Listeners aged 8–19 years (four age groups) heard three broadband noises on each trial, and indicated which, if any, of the noises was different in length (longer or shorter). The broadband noises were 15, 30, 50, 100, or 200 ms in duration. During each of two sessions on consecutive days, each combination of stimulus durations (e.g., 15 vs. 100 ms) were presented a total of twenty times in pseudo-randomized order, including identical comparisons (e.g., 100 vs. 100 ms) to enable calculation of false alarm rates. All age groups showed a higher (better) sensitivity (d’) for comparisons whose durations were more different from one another (e.g., 15 vs. 200 ms). Nevertheless, duration discrimination abilities continued to develop up to age ~14 years: 8- to 10-year-olds did not differ from 11- to 13-year-olds, but 11- to 13-year-olds h...