Variable-frequency experiments reveal frequency effects that fixed-frequency masking hides.

Evidence

In contrast, it was found that CI users showed no difference in speech intelligibility between maskers with and without inherent envelope fluctuations. Here, these initial findings in CI users were extended to listeners with cochlear hearing loss and the results were compared with those from normal-hearing listeners at either equal sensation level or equal sound pressure level. The results from hearing-impaired listeners (and in normal-hearing listeners at high sound levels) are consistent with a relative reduction in low-frequency inherent noise fluctuations due to broader cochlear filtering. The reduced effect of inherent temporal fluctuations in noise, due to either current spread (in CI users) or broader cochlear filters (in hearing-impaired listeners), provides a new way to explain the loss of masking release experienced in CI users and hearing-impaired listeners when additional amplitude fluctuations are introduced in noise maskers. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2161 (#expands, via linked claim)

The change in critical bandwidth with frequency can be demonstrated if the fixed frequency F1 in Figure 2.7 is altered to a new value and the new position of CB is found. In practice, critical bandwidth is usually measured by an effect known as “masking” (see Chapter 5), in which the “rather abrupt change” is more clearly perceived by listeners. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 585 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Literature conflating frequency discrimination and FM detection data produces serious confusion; Perceptual masking hides large LP distortions that measurements reveal — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 155; Low-frequency exposure makes quadratic distortion products oscillate for minutes — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3711 (+5 more)

Related

• Reduced frequency selectivity partly explains diminished sensitivity to inherent masker fluctuations (similarity 0.91)
• Broader cochlear filtering reduces low-frequency noise fluctuations, explaining lost masking release (similarity 0.90)
• Frequency-specific hearing loss drives multi-band hearing aid processing (similarity 0.88)
• Wider peripheral tuning from hearing loss suppresses low-frequency fluctuation amplitude (similarity 0.88)
• Psychophysical tuning curves map masker level needed to just mask a fixed tone. (similarity 0.88)
• Critical bandwidth is measured through masking effects rather than direct perception (similarity 0.87)
• The speech-masking potency of inherent noise fluctuations depends on listener frequency selectivity and level (similarity 0.87)
• Reducing audible fluctuations in a masker lowers post-masked thresholds by up to 24 dB (similarity 0.86)
• Narrow critical bandwidths at low frequencies reduce hearing sensitivity via noise fluctuations (similarity 0.86)
• Hearing-impaired listeners retain partial sensitivity to inherent noise fluctuations, unlike CI users (similarity 0.86)
• Masking acts within critical bandwidths, leaving distant-frequency sounds unaffected (similarity 0.85)
• Cochlear-implant users show no sensitivity to inherent noise envelope fluctuations (similarity 0.85)
• Low-frequency maskers mask high-frequency signals more than the reverse, and this worsens with intensity. (similarity 0.85)
• Fluctuating maskers produce masking release that Fletcher’s power spectrum model cannot explain. (similarity 0.85)
• Masking operates on a continuous scale between audible and fully masked. (similarity 0.85)

Broader Connections

• Broader cochlear filtering reduces low-frequency noise fluctuations, explaining lost masking release #expands (0.80) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2161
• Masking noise prevents listeners from using unintended spectral cues #complicates (0.72)
• Critical bandwidth is measured through masking effects rather than direct perception #corroborates (0.70) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 585