Even steady-state masking noise varies meaningfully over 100-ms timescales for consonant perception.

Evidence

Most remarkably, even a 100-ms time shift in the white masking-noise waveform induced significant perceptual variability, indicating that “steady-state” masking noise should not be considered steady over time in the context of consonant cues. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5575 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Recent work has suggested that it is not so much the overall noise energy that limits speech perception in noise, as suggested by earlier work (French and Steinberg 1947 ; Kryter 1962 ; George et al. 2008 ), but rather the energy in the inherent temporal-envelope modulations in noise (Dubbelboer and Houtgast 2008 ; Jorgensen and Dau 2011 ; Stone et al. 2011 , 2012 ; Jorgensen et al. 2013 ; Stone and Moore 2014 ). In a recent study (Oxenham and Kreft 2014 ) we examined the effects of inherent noise fluctuations in CI users. In contrast to the results from normal-hearing (NH) listeners, we found that CI users exhibited no benefit of maskers without inherent fluctuations. Further experiments suggested that the effective inherent noise envelope fluctuations were reduced in the CI users, due to the effects of current spread, or interactions between adjacent electrodes, leading to smoother temporal envelopes. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2166 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Listeners vary widely in how long masking persists across time. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1606; Time-shifting an identical noise masker changes consonant perception measurably.; Steady-state masking noise varies perceptually even with a 100-ms time shift. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5575 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Steady-state masking noise varies perceptually even with a 100-ms time shift. #corroborates (0.97) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5575
• Inherent noise fluctuations do not universally limit speech perception across hearing conditions #complicates (0.78) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2166