ADULTS LISTEN SELECTIVELY - INFANTS DO NOT

Infants' auditory detection thresholds are higher than adult threshold s. Since adults listen selectively for an expected test tone frequency , and selective listening improves their detection performance, one hy pothesis about why infant thresholds are high is that infants do not l isten selectively. This hypothesis was tested by obtaining listening b ands from adults and from 7- to 9-month-old infants. The results repli cate earlier findings that adults listen selectively but indicate that infants do not. Lack of selective listening likely contributes to inf ants' high thresholds. Further, the finding that infants and adults ha ve different listening strategies has implications for infants' audito ry perception in general.