Masking-period patterns reveal how masker phase within its period affects audibility

Evidence

For measurements of masking-period patterns, the masking sound is the timefunction of the masker’s sound pressure itself and not that of its temporal envelope as with temporal masking patterns. In masking-period patterns, the sound pressure level or the sensation level of just-audible triggered sequences of short, high-frequency test-tone bursts are measured as a function of their temporal spacing throughout the period of the masker. … Masking-period patterns seem to be a psychoacoustical equivalent of neurophysiologically measured period histograms. — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 568

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes masking-period patterns (sound-pressure timefunction) from temporal masking patterns (envelope) — a key conceptual distinction.
• XREF: The period-histogram equivalence connects psychoacoustics to auditory nerve firing phase-locking, a core neuroscience concept.