Energetic and informational masking operate through distinct peripheral and central mechanisms
Evidence
Two major types of masking are relevant to the perception of sound: energetic masking, which occurs when the energy in a masker competes directly with the energy in a signal, and informational masking, which occurs when the masker perceptually competes with the signal. Informational masking can be caused from many sources: temporal variations in a stimulus, uncertainty about a stimulus, or even linguistic content. The mechanisms responsible for both types of masking are very different, with energetic masking being traced to a primarily peripheral representation and informational masking typically mediated by central processes. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 393
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines the energetic/informational masking dichotomy, a foundational conceptual framework for the whole field.
- QUESTION: The boundary between peripheral energetic and central informational masking is worth probing later — where exactly does the mechanism split?
- corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 393
- XREF: connects to: Efferent inhibition combines with head-shadow ILDs to drive cocktail-party segregation; Complex listening relies on higher-level signal segregation beyond energetic masking