Suppressor levels are set just below masker threshold to avoid contaminating forward masking

Evidence

Suppression was measured in a forward-masking paradigm (see Fig. 1 ). Suppressor levels were chosen that were below the thresholds obtained in Experiment 1 to ensure that the suppressor did not produce any forward masking of the signal. For each participant, several suppressor levels were presented, and the level producing the greatest amount of suppression was used for analysis. The suppressor was an average of 4 dB below the off-frequency masker threshold obtained in Experiment 1 [SD = 1.60]. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 950

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the experimental logic distinguishing suppression from forward masking, a key methodological distinction in psychoacoustics.