Agrawal Tanushree, Schachner Adena
Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, California, USA.
Dev Sci. 2023 May;26(3):e13321. doi: 10.1111/desc.13321. Epub 2022 Sep 23.
Without conscious thought, listeners link events in the world to sounds they hear. We study one surprising example: Adults can judge the temperature of water simply from hearing it being poured. We test the development of the ability to hear water temperature, with the goal of informing developmental theories regarding the origins and cognitive bases of nuanced sound source judgments. We first confirmed that adults accurately distinguished the sounds of hot and cold water (pre-registered Experiments. 1, 2; total N = 384), even though many were unaware or uncertain of this ability. By contrast, children showed protracted development of this skill over the course of middle childhood (Experiments. 2, 3; total N = 178). In spite of accurately identifying other sounds and hot/cold images, older children (7-11 years) but not younger children (3-6 years) reliably distinguished the sounds of hot and cold water. Accuracy increased with age; 11-year old's performance was similar to adults. Adults also showed individual differences in accuracy that were predicted by their amount of prior relevant experience (Experiment 1). Experience may similarly play a role in children's performance; differences in auditory sensitivity and multimodal integration may also contribute to young children's failures. The ability to hear water temperature develops slowly over childhood, such that nuanced auditory information that is easily and quickly accessible to adults is not available to guide young children's behavior. HIGHLIGHTS: Adults can make nuanced judgments from sound, including accurately judging the temperature of water from the sound of it being poured. Children showed protracted development of this skill over the course of middle childhood, such that 7-11-year-olds reliably succeeded while 3-6-year-olds performed at chance. Developmental changes may be due to experience (adults with greater relevant experience showed higher accuracy) and the development of multimodal integration and auditory sensitivity. Young children may not detect subtle auditory information that adults easily perceive.
无需有意识思考，听众就能将世界上的事件与他们听到的声音联系起来。我们研究了一个惊人的例子：成年人仅凭听到倒水的声音就能判断水的温度。我们测试了感知水温能力的发展情况，目的是为有关细微声源判断的起源和认知基础的发展理论提供依据。我们首先证实，成年人能够准确区分热水和冷水的声音（预注册实验1、2；总样本量N = 384），尽管许多人并未意识到或不确定自己有这种能力。相比之下，儿童在童年中期这项技能的发展较为缓慢（实验2、3；总样本量N = 178）。尽管年龄较大的儿童（7至11岁）能够准确识别其他声音以及热/冷图像，但年龄较小的儿童（3至6岁）却不能可靠地区分热水和冷水的声音。准确性随着年龄增长而提高；11岁儿童的表现与成年人相似。成年人在准确性方面也存在个体差异，这种差异可由他们先前相关经验的多少来预测（实验1）。经验可能同样会影响儿童的表现；听觉敏感度和多模态整合方面的差异也可能导致幼儿判断失误。感知水温的能力在儿童时期发展缓慢，以至于成年人能够轻松快速获取的细微听觉信息无法指导幼儿的行为。要点：成年人能够从声音中做出细微判断，包括仅凭倒水的声音准确判断水温。儿童在童年中期这项技能的发展较为缓慢，以至于7至11岁的儿童能够可靠地成功判断，而3至6岁的儿童则表现随机。发展变化可能归因于经验（相关经验较多的成年人表现出更高的准确性）以及多模态整合和听觉敏感度的发展。幼儿可能无法察觉到成年人容易感知到的细微听觉信息。
