Schneider B A, Trehub S E, Thorpe L
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
Percept Psychophys. 1991 Jan;49(1):10-20. doi: 10.3758/bf03211611.
Responsiveness of 1-, 3-, and 5-year-old children and adults to octave-band noises at .4 and 10 kHz was assessed with a go/no-go version of visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA) (Moore, Thompson, & Thompson, 1975) and a two-alternative, forced-choice version (Suzuki & Ogiba, 1961; Trehub, Schneider, & Endman, 1980). Infants performed better on the two-alternative, forced-choice version in quiet and in noisy backgrounds, and adults performed better on the two-alternative, forced-choice version in quiet but not in noisy backgrounds. Performance on the two tasks was essentially equivalent for 3- and 5-year-old children. Superior performance on two-alternative VRA over go/no-go may be due to lesser cognitive demands in the case of infants and to the engagement of superior decision strategies in the case of adults.
