A masker raises the audibility threshold of a test sound.

Evidence

Masking-period patterns produced by these maskers and test tones are indicated in Fig. 4.32c with masker level as the parameter. Below 75 dB of the 100-Hz masker, no masking occurs. For 85 dB, masking is larger for that part of the period of the masker during which rarefaction occurs. … It is interesting to note that in the region of the condensation maximum, which is in the middle of the pattern, masked threshold becomes even lower than the threshold in quiet indicated by the arrow on the right ordinate of Fig. 4.32c. — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 570 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Reducing audible fluctuations in a masker lowers post-masked thresholds by up to 24 dB — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 570; Loud maskers can paradoxically improve audibility at condensation peaks.; Short test tones are masked up to 10 dB more right after masker onset (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Masking is quantified as the threshold elevation a masker produces. #expands (0.85)
• Reducing audible fluctuations in a masker lowers post-masked thresholds by up to 24 dB #complicates (0.82) — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 570
• Short test tones are masked up to 10 dB more right after masker onset #expands (0.80)
• Masker peaks at rarefaction produce maximal masking of short tone bursts #expands (0.78)
• Loud maskers can paradoxically improve audibility at condensation peaks. #complicates (0.75)
• Beats between masker and test tone audibly interfere with masked-threshold measurement #exemplifies (0.75)
• Masking experiments infer auditory representation from masker effects on signals. #expands (0.75) — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 441
• Sounds can mask both slightly earlier and later probe sounds #expands (0.75)
• The excitation-level model of masking reproduces measured thresholds at both low and high frequencies #exemplifies (0.72)
• Increasing stimulus level broadens auditory filters and causes upward spread of masking #expands (0.72)
• Loud speech can mask its own high-frequency components via upward spread of masking #exemplifies (0.72) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2480
• Sound masking extends in time before and after the masker #expands (0.70)
• Normal-hearing listeners exploit temporal dips in fluctuating maskers to detect signals. #exemplifies (0.70) — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 551