Children's perception of speech in multitalker babble

Children 5, 9, and 11 years of age and young adults attempted to identify t he final word of sentences recorded by a female speaker. The sentences were presented in two levels of multitalker babble, and participants responded by selecting one of four pictures. In a low-noise condition, the signal-to- noise ratio (SNR) was adjusted for each age group to yield 85% correct perf ormance. In a high-noise condition, the SNR was set 7 dB lower than the low -noise condition. Although children required more favorable SNRs than adult s to achieve comparable performance in low noise, an equivalent decrease in SNR had comparable consequences for all age groups. Thus age-related diffe rences on this task can be attributed primarily to sensory factors. (C) 200 0 Acoustical Society of America, [S0001-4966(00)02812-5].