Pitch perception in school-aged children: Pure tones, resolved and unresolved harmonics.

Abstract

Pitch perception affects children's ability to perceive speech, appreciate music, and learn in noisy environments, such as their classrooms. Here, we investigated pitch perception for pure tones as well as resolved and unresolved complex tones with a fundamental frequency of 400 Hz in 8- to 11-year-old children and adults. Pitch perception in children was better for resolved relative to unresolved complex tones, consistent with adults. The younger 8- to 9-year-old children had elevated thresholds across all conditions, while the 10- to 11-year-old children had comparable thresholds to adults.