Estimates of effective frequency selectivity based on the detection of a tone added to complex maskers

Abstract

In Experiment 1, the validity of parameters associated with the roex(p, r) auditory filter shape was examined for three different types of maskers: (a) A noise masker, (b) a random 12-tone masker whose frequencies varied on a burst-by-burst basis [multiple-burst different (MBD)], and (c) a random 12-tone masker whose frequencies were the same across bursts [multiple-burst same (MBS)]. First, the power spectrum model of masking was used to estimate auditory filter shapes for four observers. Second, the resulting auditory filter shapes were used in a computer simulation that provided an estimate of internal noise for each observer. Third, relative weights across frequency were estimated for each observer and each masker type. For the noise masker, these analyses provided predictions and relative weights that were consistent across the three analyses. For the MBD and MBS maskers, there was little consistency; neither the estimated internal noise nor the estimated relative weights reliably supported a single-filter model of detection. In Experiment 2, the time course for the detection of a tone added to an MBD masker was evaluated by estimating relative weights jointly in time and frequency. The relative weights at the signal frequency formed a rough inverse "U" across time.