Document Type

Article

Publication Title

The Contribution of Frequency Discrimination Ability to Auditory Temporal Patterning Tests in Children

Abstract

Purpose: The Pitch Patterns Test (PPT) and Duration Patterns Test (DPT) are clinical auditory processing tests that evaluate temporal patterning skills based on pitch (PPT) or duration (DPT) aspects of sound. Although temporal patterning tests are categorized under the temporal processing domain, successful performance on the PPT also relies on accurate pitch discrimination. However, the relationship between pitch discrimination ability and temporal patterning skills have not been thoroughly evaluated. This study examined the contribution of pitch discrimination ability to performance on temporal patterning in children through the use of a pitch discrimination task and the PPT. The DPT was also given as a control measure to assess temporal patterning with no pitch component.

Method: Thirty-two typically developing elementary school-age children (6;11-11;3) with normal hearing were given a series of three counterbalanced tasks: an adaptive psychophysical pitch discrimination task (DLF), the PPT, and the DPT.

Results: Correlational analysis revealed moderate correlations between DLF and PPT scores. After accounting for age, results of a linear regression analysis suggested that pitch discrimination accounts for a significant amount of variance in performance on the PPT. No significant correlation was found between DLF and DPT scores, supporting the hypothesis that the pitch task had no significant temporal patterning component contributing to the overall score.

Discussion: These findings indicate that pitch discrimination contributes significantly to performance on the PPT, but not DPT, in a typically developing pediatric population. This is an important clinical consideration in both assessment and in utilization of targeted therapy techniques for different clinical populations.

Publication Date

2020

Comments

This is the peer-reviewed version of the following article: Flagge, A.G., Davis, T., & Henbest, V.S. (2020). The Contribution of Frequency Discrimination Ability to Auditory Temporal Patterning Tests in Children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 63(12), 4314-4324. It is published in its final form at https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_JSLHR-20-00093. This article may not be used commercially or be enhanced, enriched, or transformed in any way without permission from the authors and publishers.

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