Loud maskers can paradoxically improve audibility at condensation peaks.

Evidence

To understand Hall et al.’s results, we must first consider how a fluctuating masker may provide benefits to a listener. A fluctuating masker has “dips” or “valleys” in the waveform. These dips provide brief epochs in time that have high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), compared with the waveform peaks, and a listener with normal hearing can take advantage of these dips to detect a signal (Buus, 1985). Steady maskers do not have pronounced dips and therefore do not provide opportunities for dip listening. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 551 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: A masker raises the audibility threshold of a test sound.; Masking operates on a continuous scale between audible and fully masked.; Normal-hearing listeners exploit temporal dips in fluctuating maskers to detect signals. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 551 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Masker peaks at rarefaction produce maximal masking of short tone bursts #complicates (0.78)
• Normal-hearing listeners exploit temporal dips in fluctuating maskers to detect signals. #complicates (0.75) — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 551
• Adding a matched noise to the opposite ear can lower masking. #complicates (0.72)
• Sound masking extends in time before and after the masker #expands (0.72)