Effect of contralateral precursor type on the temporal effect in simultaneous masking with tone and noise maskers (L)

摘要

A sound (contralateral precursor) presented to the nontest ear prior to the onset of a masker and probe has been shown to reduce the temporal effect in simultaneous masking with noise maskers but not with tonal maskers. The present study examined this further. The probe was a 4.0-kHz tone. In experiment 1a, the masker was a 4.4-kHz tone and the precursor was a 4.4-kHz tone or an unmodulated (UM) or amplitude-modulated (AM) band of noise (4.4-8.0 kHz). In experiment 1b, the masker was a broadband noise and the precursor was a UM or an AM broadband noise. In both experiments the precursor consistently reduced the temporal effect for only one of the seven or eight subjects, regardless of precursor type. These largely negative results indicate that it may not be possible to use contralateral precursors to gain much insight into the mechanisms underlying temporal effects in simultaneous masking.