Premasking arises from the buildup time of sensation, not foreknowledge

Evidence

The effect of post masking corresponds to a decay in the effect of the masker and is more or less expected. Premasking, however, represents an effect that is unforeseen because it appears during a time before the masker is switched on. This does not mean, of course, that our hearing system is able to listen into the future. Rather, the effect is understandable if one realizes that each sensation - including premasking - does not exist instantaneously, but requires a build-up time to be perceived. If we assume a quick build-up time for loud maskers and a slower build-up time for faint test sounds, then we can understand why premasking exists. The time during which premasking can be measured is relatively short and lasts only about 20 ms. Post masking, on the other hand, can last longer than 100 ms and ends after about a 200- ms delay. Therefore, post masking is the dominant non-simultaneous temporal masking effect. — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 487

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: The distinction between premasking (20 ms) and postmasking (100-200 ms) parallels forward vs. backward masking asymmetry found in visual perception research — same asymmetry, two sensory modalities.
• SEED: Article angle: the logic of ‘backward masking’ — perception that looks like clairvoyance but is really explained by integration-time asymmetry in sensory systems.

Related

• A masker can mask sounds occurring before it is switched on. (similarity 0.94)
• Hearing masks sounds before they occur via slower and faster sensory build-up times (similarity 0.94)
• Masking occurs before, during, and after a masker is present. (similarity 0.87)
• Postmasking can last up to 200 milliseconds after a masker ends (similarity 0.87)
• Post masking outlasts premasking and can skew frequency-modulation measurements by nearly 20 dB. (similarity 0.86)
• Post masking outlasts premasking and asymmetrically distorts threshold patterns. (similarity 0.86)
• Masking can occur even when the masker follows the test sound in time. (similarity 0.86)
• Temporal masking patterns comprise simultaneous, post, and premasking effects (similarity 0.86)
• Postmasking decay needs two separate time constants depending on masker duration (similarity 0.85)
• Asymmetric pre- and post-masking durations distort symmetric reversals in FM masking patterns. (similarity 0.85)
• Non-simultaneous masking lets sounds mask others at temporal offsets, not only together (similarity 0.84)
• A following loud sound reduces the loudness of an earlier short sound (similarity 0.84)
• Sounds mask both preceding and following sounds but forward masking dominates. (similarity 0.83)
• Forward masking follows masker termination and is also called post masking (similarity 0.83)
• Forward masking reveals how the ear’s perceptual representation of sound decays over time (similarity 0.83)