ABILITY OF CHILDREN AND ADULTS TO DISCRIM INATE TIME INTERVALS OF SHORT-DURATION

Two groups of children (5-6-year-old and 7-8-year-old) were presented with pairs of sound signals of the same or different durations. Sound signal durations in pairs could be 1.0, 1.2, 1.5, and 2.0 sec, The chi ldren had to detect the difference between the sounds in a pair, The o btained data were compared to the analogous results shown by the 18-39 -year-old subjects. It was found out that the ability to discriminate intervals of short duration substantially improved with age, This phen omenon is presumably connected with perfection of the short-term memor y, Independently of the subject's age, the order of presentation of si gnals in a pair influences the ability to discriminate between their d urations.