Auditory acuity to vowels is more refined in adulthood compared to childhood
Auditory-perceptual sensitivity to acoustic variation, referred to as auditory acuity, plays a central role in children's speech development. In speech perception, auditory acuity determines the acceptable phonetic variation of a given speech sound. In speech production, auditory acuity determines whether a speech sound is produced as intended and guides error-based motor learning. This study investigated how auditory acuity differs between children (6-11 years old) and adults (20-36 years old). Participants discriminated between recordings of their own speech modified in the first vowel formant (F1). On average, children showed lower F1 acuity but similar interindividual variability compared to adults.
Authors
- Frank Tsiwah (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7630-4946)
- Wietse de Vries (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0433-090X)
- Defne Abur
- Teja Rebernik (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1986-8470)
- Hedwig Sekeres (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0213-0805)
- Katharina Polsterer
- Nikki Hoekzema
- Reihaneh Amooie
- Thomas B Tienkamp
- Martijn B Wieling
- Raoul S S J Buurke
Institutions
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- University Medical Center Groningen (NL)
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel (BE)
- University of Groningen (NL)
- Université Sorbonne Nouvelle (FR)
- Acoustics Research Institute (AT)
- Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie (FR)
- University Hospital Cologne (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- JASA Express Letters
- Published
- 2026-05-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0043710
- Primary Topic
- Neuroscience and Music Perception
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek