Binaural Masking: Backward, Forward, and Simultaneous Effects

Deatherage, Bruce H.; Evans, Thomas Rhys

doi:10.1121/1.1911698

Cited by 43 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…However, there is considerable room for doubt that masking in fact occurred in Experiments 1-3, because, in general, for auditory masking effects to occur, the mask must be longer or more intense than the target (e.g., Deatherage & Evans, 1969;Massaro, 1972;Massaro, Cohen, & Idson, 1976). These basic requirements, however, were not met by the markers used in Experiments 1-3, because within each experimental condition, onset and offset markers were identical with regard to intensity and duration parameters.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Temporal discrimination as a function of marker duration

Rammsayer¹,

Leutner

1996

Perception & Psychophysics

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In a series of three experiments, the effect of marker duration on temporal discrimination was evaluated with empty auditory intervals bounded by markers ranging from 3 to 300 msec or presented as a gap within a continuous tone. As a measure of performance, difference thresholds in relation to a base duration of 50 msec were computed. Performance on temporal discrimination was significantly better with markers ranging from 3 to 150msec than with markers ranging from 225 to 300 msec or under the gap condition. However, within each range of marker duration (3-150 msec; 225-300 msec or gap) performance did not differ significantly. A fourth experiment provided evidence that the effect of marker duration cannot be explained in terms of marker-induced masking. Agood approximation of the relationship between marker duration and temporal discrimination performance in the present experiments is a smooth step function, which can account for 99.3% of the variance of mean discrimination performance. Thus, the findings of the present study point to the conclusion that two different mechanisms are used in the processing of temporal information, depending on the duration of the auditory markers. The tradeoff point for the hypothetical shift from one timing mechanism to the other may be found at a marker duration of approximately 200 msec.Because the auditory system has the finest temporal resolution of all the senses, auditory stimuli have been used in many studies on the processing of temporal information. Two types of stimuli can be applied in timing experiments: the filled interval, and the empty interval. In filled auditory intervals, a tone or noise burst is presented continuously throughout the interval, whereas in empty intervals, only the onset and the offset of the interval are marked. In empty intervals, no auditory stimulus is presented during the interval itself, and differences in stimulus characteristics of empty intervals are therefore limited to features of the markers used. The purpose of the following series of experiments was to investigate the effects of marker duration on the timing of brief empty auditory intervals.With empty intervals, a conditio sine qua non for the perception of duration is that the onset and the offset markers be perceived as two distinct events: an interval has to appear to be between the two markers for the duration of the interval to be judged. In order to be perceived as two events, the markers must be separated by a minimal time interval, referred to as the auditory fusion

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Temporal discrimination as a function of marker duration

Rammsayer¹,

Leutner

1996

Perception & Psychophysics

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“…There should be no appreciable masking effects in the filled-interval comparisons, since the second interval within a trial was presented 900 msec after the offset of the first interval. It has been shown that masking is not effective beyond approximately 200-250 msec (see, e.g., Deatherage & Evans, 1969;Massaro, 1972).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The delay between the offset of the interval and the onset of the mask was 10 msec. These values were chosen to maximize any effects of the backward masking manipulation (Deatherage & Evans, 1969;Massaro, 1972;Massaro, Cohen, & Idson, 1976): the mask was of longer duration, different frequency, and greater subjective loudness~we~e the. stimuli representing the intervals (although of less physical intensity than the clicks marking the empty intervals), and the mask followed each interval very closely in time, The four conditions in the design were empty interval, no masking; empty interv~, masking; filled~~ter val, no masking; and filled interval, masking.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Duration discrimination of filled and empty auditory intervals: Cognitive and perceptual factors

Rammsayer

Lima

1991

Perception & Psychophysics

240

213

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Adult subjects were presented with two auditory stimuli per trial, and their task was to decide which ofthe two was longer in duration. An adaptive psychophysical procedure was used. In Experiments 1, 2, and 4, the base duration was 50 msec, whereas in Experiment 3, the base duration was 1 sec. In Experiments 1,2, and 4, it was found that filled intervals (continuous tones) were discriminated more accurately than empty intervals (with onset and offset marked by clicks). It was concluded that this difference was perceptual rather than cognitive in nature, since performance on filled and empty intervals was not affected by increasing cognitive load in a dual-task procedure (Experiment 2) but was affected by backward masking (Experiment 4). In contrast, the results of Experiment 3 showed that duration discrimination of filled auditory intervals oflonger duration was cognitively influenced, since performance was impaired by increasing cognitive load. Implications for notions of perceptual processing and timing mechanisms underlying differences in duration discrimination with filled and empty intervals are discussed.There are two types of stimuli used in time perception studies. One type is the empty (silent) interval and the other type is the filled interval. In auditorily marked empty intervals, for example, only the onset and the offset of the interval are marked by clicks, whereas in filled intervals, a tone or noise burst is presented continuously throughout the interval. Thus, in empty intervals, there is no auditory stimulus presented during the interval itself. Surprisingly, there are very few published studies on the influence of filled versus empty intervals on performance in time perception experiments involving brief intervals (i.e., intervals less than 1 sec in duration).In her review article, Allan (1979) suggested that given the results of two duration-discrimination studies reported by Abel (1972aAbel ( , 1972b, one can conclude that performance with filled intervals appears to be more accurate than performance with empty intervals. However, this comparison was not the focus of Abel's studies. In a study by Craig (1973), subjects had to adjust the time between two lOOO-Hz tones until it appeared equal in duration to the first tone. Craig found a constant error in the percepPortions of this research were presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association, in San Francisco, August 1991. Preparation of this article was supported by NIH Grant AG09130-01 to Susan O. Lima. We thank Lester Krueger, Lorraine Allan, and Lloyd Avant for helpful comments. Correspondence may be addressed to Thomas H. Rammsayer, Department of Psychology, University of Giessen, Otto-Behaghel Str. lOF, 0-6300 Giessen, Germany (e-mail: Thoram@DGIHRZOI.bitnet).tion of empty intervals relative to filled intervals. This finding joins those of Abel (1972aAbel ( , 1972b in suggesting that performance on filled intervals is more accurate than performance on empty intervals. Although Craig concluded that different ...

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“…If, instead, forward masking or some other level-dependent factor rendered correlation in the dips a less effective cue, the result would be an underestimate of thresholds in the dip condition. Using wider stimulus bandwidths than those employed here, forward masking has been shown to play a role in the MLD, with NoSπ thresholds following the same decline as a function of temporal separation for masker offset as NoSo thresholds (Deatherage and Evans, 1969;Yama, 1992). Further investigations are currently underway to explore the possible role of forward masking on the ability to make use of binaural information in the dips of narrowband maskers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual differences in the masking level difference with a narrowband masker at 500 or 2000Hz

Buss

Hall

Grose

2007

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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The masking level difference (MLD) for a narrowband noise masker is associated with marked individual differences. This pair of studies examines factors that might account for these individual differences. Experiment 1 estimated the MLD for a 50 Hz wide band of masking noise centered at 500 or 2000 Hz, gated on for 400 ms. Tonal signals were either brief (15 ms) or long (200 ms), and brief signals were coincident with either a dip or peak in the masker envelope. Experiment 2 estimated the MLD for both signal and masker consisting of a 50 Hz wide bandpass noise centered on 500 Hz. Signals were generated to provide only interaural phase cues, only interaural level cues, or both. The pattern of individual differences was dominated by variability in NoSπ thresholds, and NoSπ thresholds were highly correlated across all conditions. Results suggest that the individual differences observed in Experiment 1 were not primarily driven by differences in the use of binaural fine structure cues or in binaural temporal resolution. The range of thresholds obtained for a brief NoSπ tonal signal at 500 Hz was consistent with a model based on normalized interaural correlation. This model was not consistent for analogous conditions at 2000 Hz.

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Binaural Masking: Backward, Forward, and Simultaneous Effects

Cited by 43 publications

References 5 publications

Temporal discrimination as a function of marker duration

Temporal discrimination as a function of marker duration

Duration discrimination of filled and empty auditory intervals: Cognitive and perceptual factors

Individual differences in the masking level difference with a narrowband masker at 500 or 2000Hz

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