ABSTRACT
Human absolute sensitivity, frequency resolution, intensity resolution, and temporal resolution all undergo age-related improvement postnatally. Binaural processing becomes more accurate, and speech discrimination becomes more accurate and more language-specific. Thus, one principle developed from data on nonhuman development seems to hold for humans. Many processes that could contribute to auditory development mature concurrently, making it difficult to estimate their independent effects. In nonhumans, conductive, cochlear, and neural processes mature in a highly correlated way. In humans, cochlear contributions can often be eliminated in the postnatal period, but it is difficult to separate the effects of primary auditory neural maturation from those of maturation of attention or memory. Age-related changes in the structures and functions underlying perception depend on interactions between cells and their environment. The effects of experience are difficult to manipulate in human subjects. Researchers are limited to observing the results of "natural experiments.".
