Auditory Pattern Perception in Infancy

Abstract

The study of auditory perception has been primarily the study of single sounds, and the study of pattern perception, that of visual patterns. Consider, instead, sequences of sounds as well as sets of single sounds, focusing not on acuity but on the perception of structure in these complex auditory patterns. For the present purposes, structure will refer to the relations between elements of a sound pattern or the relations between different members of a set of sounds. In this context, I will review the very limited research on auditory pattern perception in infancy and present some findings from our own laboratory.