Abstract
The present study was inspired by results of Allen and Wightman [J. Speech Hear. Res. 38, 503–511 (1995)]. The goal of the present study was to explore the effects of uncertainty of a weak tonal masker (or distractor) on the detection of a tone in noise. The thresholds of three listeners were measured for 1-kHz tone burst (350-ms duration) in broadband noise (300–1800 Hz, at 60 dB SPL). A 2IFC tracking procedure (3 down, 1 up) with six interleaved tracks was used. On each trial, the distractor frequency was selected randomly from six frequencies (525, 800, 925, 1075, 1280, and 1600 Hz) outside of the critical band surrounding the signal. The distractor came on simultaneously with the signal in the signal-plus-noise interval and also at the corresponding moment in the noise-alone interval. The preliminary results indicated that thresholds for the signal increased in the presence of distractors by 3–10 dB, depending on the frequency of the distractors and type of noise. Thresholds were higher for distractors close to the signal frequency, more so in intermittent noise than in continuous noise.
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