The Relative Contribution of Adaptation and Temporal Integration in Forward Masking

• Main Authors: Nagaraj, Naveen K., DiGiovanni, Jeffrey J., Ries, Dennis T.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1939-800X
• DOI: 10.1121/1.3481455

The aim of this study was to demonstrate the relative contribution of adaptation and temporal integration on forward masking. In the first of two experiments, monaural gap-detection, thresholds were measured for broad-band noise markers having different levels on either side of the gap. In the second experiment, subjects matched the gap-duration within comparison noise markers to be perceptually equal to that of standard noise markers. Levels of standard noise markers and the first noise marker level of the comparison stimuli were set constant at 30 dB SL. Gap-duration matches were performed by decreasing the level of the second noise marker by 5 dB SL relative to the first noise marker in the comparison stimuli. The results indicated that gap-detection thresholds increased with a decrease in level of noise after the gap. Subjects required longer gaps in the gap-duration matching task with a decrease in level of the second noise marker. Both results are consistent with the notion that persistence of excitation is the dominate perceptual mechanism that results from forward masking.