Infant Behavioral Speech Discrimination Procedures: A Systematic Review
type: CreativeWork
description: Objective: The purpose of this capstone project was to conduct a systematic review of literature relating to two behavioral infant speech discrimination procedures to evaluate their potential clinical utility. The two procedures examined were the Observer-based Psychoacoustic Procedure (OPP) and the Visual Reinforcement of Infant Speech Discrimination (VRISD) method. The methodology utilized and the results obtained are examined for normal hearing infants and infants with hearing loss. The procedures are compared and contrasted in terms of potential clinical feasibility and modifications for potential clinical use are considered. Methods: A comprehensive search was performed using Pubmed and EBSCO Academic Search Complete databases accessible through the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center library to identify studies utilizing OPP or VRISD in infants under the age of 36 months. Inclusion criteria consisted subject age (under 36 months), use of speech stimuli or assessment of auditory abilities closely relating to speech perception, such as frequency and intensity discrimination, gap detection, and localization. Results: Twenty-four studies met the inclusion criteria for this systematic review. Findings indicated that VRISD studies generally required fewer trials than OPP studies to obtain discrimination results; however, OPP allows for testing of younger infants. The amount of time required for testers to be adequately trained was longer for OPP compared to VRISD. Sample sizes differed for the 2 procedures. Both procedures controlled for observer and response bias; however, this was more consistent for OPP studies. Some differences in discrimination ability between infants with normal hearing compared to infants with hearing loss were noted, as would be expected. VRISD studies consistently used phonemic stimuli and produced repeatable results in infants with and without hearing loss. OPP studies utilized speech stimuli and other psychoacoustic stimuli…
abstract: Objective: The purpose of this capstone project was to conduct a systematic review of literature relating to two behavioral infant speech discrimination procedures to evaluate their potential clinical utility. The two procedures examined were the Observer-based Psychoacoustic Procedure (OPP) and the Visual Reinforcement of Infant Speech Discrimination (VRISD) method. The methodology utilized and the results obtained are examined for normal hearing infants and infants with hearing loss. The procedures are compared and contrasted in terms of potential clinical feasibility and modifications for potential clinical use are considered. Methods: A comprehensive search was performed using Pubmed and EBSCO Academic Search Complete databases accessible through the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center library to identify studies utilizing OPP or VRISD in infants under the age of 36 months. Inclusion criteria consisted subject age (under 36 months), use of speech stimuli or assessment of auditory abilities closely relating to speech perception, such as frequency and intensity discrimination, gap detection, and localization. Results: Twenty-four studies met the inclusion criteria for this systematic review. Findings indicated that VRISD studies generally required fewer trials than OPP studies to obtain discrimination results; however, OPP allows for testing of younger infants. The amount of time required for testers to be adequately trained was longer for OPP compared to VRISD. Sample sizes differed for the 2 procedures. Both procedures controlled for observer and response bias; however, this was more consistent for OPP studies. Some differences in discrimination ability between infants with normal hearing compared to infants with hearing loss were noted, as would be expected. VRISD studies consistently used phonemic stimuli and produced repeatable results in infants with and without hearing loss. OPP studies utilized speech stimuli and other psychoacoustic stimuli…
author: Mazzella, Allison L
keywords: Speech and Hearing Science, Speech Pathology and Audiology, infant speech perception, visual reinforcement, hearing loss in infancy, auditory development
date published: 2021-06-01T07:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:59:21Z
provider: City University of New York - Graduate Center
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York