Compression’s masking-growth effect extends from pure tones to broadband speech

Evidence

This is like the description of the growth of masking by Moore ( 2012 ), where the growth of masking in a compressive system is observed to be slower than in a non-compressive system. Moore was describing experiments where both the signal and the masker were isolated sinusoids. The results of the current study show that the effect generalizes to speech perception where both the target and the interference are broadband, time-vary sounds. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4088

When the compression is cancelled, the level difference in the peripheral output for syllable 2 is greater in the dip conditions. If the central masking is constant, independent of the auditory representation, the reduction of the output level for syllable 2 should be reflected in the amount of masking, i.e. ΔSRT. This is like the description of the growth of masking by Moore ( 2012 ), where the growth of masking in a compressive system is observed to be slower than in a non-compressive system. Moore was describing experiments where both the signal and the masker were isolated sinusoids. The results of the current study show that the effect generalizes to speech perception where both the target and the interference are broadband, time-vary sounds. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4088

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Moore’s classical psychoacoustic finding on masking growth in compressive systems, generalizing a pure-tone result to realistic stimuli.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how far does the compression-masking-growth generalization extend, and does it hold for other complex stimuli like music?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4088