Complex real-world maskers are less effective than simple energetic ones predict

Evidence

In some cases the masking effect is reduced and cannot be explained with the masking effects discussed in the previous sections, which have been measured using simple sinusoids, noise, or transient sounds – types of masking called energetic masking (Watson, 2005). When the maskers and signals are more complex, reduced masking effects may be obtained, such as in speech-in-speech masking (Brungart, 2001). Such masking effects are called informational masking and can be thought to be caused by the ability of the human listener to segregate the signal and masker at a higher processing level. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1014

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the energetic-vs-informational masking distinction, a core concept.
• XREF: Informational masking is why real speech is easier to hear out of a babble than lab tones predict — directly relevant to cocktail party effect and hearing-aid design applications.