Binaural cues provide for a release from informational masking.

Abstract

Informational masking (IM) describes the insensitivity of detecting a change in sound features in a complex acoustical environment when such a change could easily be detected in the absence of distracting sounds. IM occurs because of the similarity between deviant sound and distracting sounds (so-called similarity-based IM) and/or stimulus uncertainty stemming from trial-to-trial variability (so-called uncertainty-based IM). IM can be abolished if similarity-based or uncertainty-based IM are minimized. Here, we modulated similarity-based IM using binaural cues. Standard/deviant tones and distracting tones were presented sequentially, and level-increment thresholds were measured. Deviant tones differed from standard tones by a higher sound level. Distracting tones covered a wide range of levels. Standard/deviant tones and distracting tones were characterized by their interaural time difference (ITD), interaural level difference (ILD), or both ITD and ILD. The larger the ITD or ILD was, the better similarity-based IM was overcome. If both interaural differences were applied to standard/deviant tones, the release from IM was larger than when either interaural difference was used. The results show that binaural cues are potent cues to abolish similarity-based IM and that the auditory system makes use of multiple available cues.