Growth of Masking for 1-kHz Tone with Normal-hearing Listeners: Effects of Signal Duration and Noise Frequency

摘要

The goal of this study was to examine effects of two acoustic features, signal duration and noise frequency, on growth of masking (GOM). A 1-kHz pure tone was present in four types of noise simultaneously, low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, and notched noise. Results showed that GOM functions were significantly affected by signal duration, noise frequency, and their interaction. In band-pass noise, short-term signal increased thresholds with medium noise levels at a significantly greater rate (1.6 dB/dB) than long-term signals. For the other three types of noise, signal thresholds were elevated at a rate of 1 dB/dB with noise level independent of signal duration. These results suggested that the cochlear compressive nonlinearity was critical in signal detection in noise.