A Comparison of Predicted and Observed Auditory Responses in Six Month Old Infants

Abstract

Predicted auditory responses were compared with observed videotaped responses for a group of 11 six month old babies. The stimuli were those often used in the clinic: 2kHz pure tones at 40 and 70dB SPL, and a female voice saying ‘baby’ (a taped recording) at 65dB SPL. The predictions of a group of 7 clinicians were that responses would occur on 92% of presentations to the 70dB pure tone, on 82% of occasions tothe40dB pure tone, and on 64% of occasions to a female voice. When observing the videorecord, 5 of these clinicians judged that responses occurred on 79% of presentations to the female voice, on 45% of presentations to the 70dB tone, and on 26% of presentations to the 40dB tone. The response to the female voice was more frequently judged (on a confidence rating scale) with highly confident ratings, i.e. response certainly present or absent. The responses to the tones were more frequently judged using low confidence ratings. The finding that the female voice elicited the most responses, although at co...