Development of a Frequency Discrimination Test for Children and Adults: A Simple Psychoacoustic Approach

Background The Difference Limen of Frequency (DLF) indicates an individual's threshold for pitch discrimination. Frequency discrimination (FD) abilities improve throughout childhood, are associated with learning and language impairments, and are considered a skill that can be trained. While auditory discrimination is a crucial area of study, there are currently no widely available tests for assessing frequency discrimination in routine clinical practice. Purpose The aim of the present study is the development of a simple behavioral psychoacoustic experiment for evaluating the Difference Limen of Frequency both in children and adults. Methods This study used both an adaptive psychoacoustic method and the method of limits. Pairs of two tones, consisting of a standard 1000 Hz tone and a frequency-varying tone, with eight percentage changes in frequency following a geometric progression, were presented. The method involved both ascending and descending techniques, with participants indicating whether the tones were “same” or “different”. It was tested in 20 children and 20 adults. Results Children exhibited higher (poorer) frequency discrimination thresholds compared to adults, with a Δf difference of 4.446%. Conclusion This study describes the development of a test for evaluation of pitch discrimination threshold as well as its implementation in both children and adults.