| Abstract: | Using a habituation/test procedure, the author investigated adults' and infants' perception of auditory–visual temporal synchrony. Participants were familiarized with a bouncing green disk and a sound that occurred each time the disk bounced. Then, they were given a series of asynchrony test trials where the sound occurred either before or after the disk bounced. The magnitude of the auditory visual temporal asynchrony threshold differed markedly in adults and infants. The threshold for the detection of asynchrony created by a sound preceding a visible event was 65 ms in adults and 350 ms in infants and for the detection of asynchrony created by a sound following a visible event was 112 ms in adults and 450 ms in infants. Also, infants did not respond to asynchronies that exceeded intervals that yielded reliable discrimination. Infants' perception of auditory–visual temporal unity is guided by a synchrony and an asynchrony window, both of which become narrower in development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) |
