Normal listeners show a straight-line relation for the quiet-modulated-continuous threshold triad

Evidence

Figure 16.27b presents the three values for the same normally hearing listener who produced the temporal masking patterns. The masker level, L M , is the parameter in the diagram and scaled at the right side. Threshold in quiet, which lies at 2.5 dB for this subject, is the point that is included in all measurements. The values obtained for continuous noise depend on the masker level in a similar form as in the temporal masking pattern. The masked threshold reached for continuous masking noise is plotted on the abscissa at the point called “cont” and linked with the LM values by broken lines. The t.hreshold levels obtained using rectangularly modulated noise as t.he masker are entered under “mod”. These values lie between the levels me&‘lured for the “cont.” - condition and threshold in quiet. For a masker level LM about 40 dB above t.hreshold in quiet, an almost straight. line is seen connect.ing the three measured values: threshold in quiet, modulated noise, and continuous noise. — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 1920

Categorization

• XREF: The straight-line relation at ~40 dB above quiet threshold suggests a scaling/economy in temporal resolution worth probing — connects to ideas about compressive basilar-membrane nonlinearity.