Auditory perceptual tasks involving the discrimination of fine differences in frequency, duration, or rhythmic pattern were given to a group of sixth form schoolboys. The results indicate that there is a wide range of auditory skills for different individuals, even within a relatively homogeneous group. There are also differences in a person's ability to carry out distinct tasks; there does not necessarily appear to be any correlation between his ability for each task.The findings support observations arising out of consideration of hearing problems in children and adults that pure tone threshold audiometry and its derivatives give an inadequate definition of hearing disorder and a limited understanding of the nature of hearing.