Are faster habituators better discriminators: The decrement of habituation as a predictor of speech sound discrimination

Abstract

The main goal of this study was to investigate whether there is a relation between the habituation decrement, i.e. the percentage of decrease in listening time during the habituation phase, and the effect of condition measured during test phase. Based on Sokolov’s model (1963), it was expected that the higher the percentage of decrease of habituation, the bigger the effect of condition measured during test. Data of 38 6-month-olds were analyzed from de Klerk, de Bree, Kerkhoff & Wijnen (under revision), who used the hybrid visual fixation paradigm (designed by Houston, Horn, Qi, Ting & Gao, 2007) to assess speech sound discrimination skills. Our results showed no correlation between the percentage of decrease of habituation and the absolute nor the relative mean difference between listening time to alternating and non-alternating trials. This is not directly in line with the expectations based on the theory and therefore needs further research.