Abstract
Susceptibility to remote-frequency masking in children and adults was evaluated with respect to three stimulus features: (1) masker bandwidth, (2) spectral separation of the signal and masker, and (3) gated versus continuous masker presentation. Listeners were 4- to 6-year-olds, 7- to 10-year-olds, and adults. Detection thresholds for a 500-ms, 2000-Hz signal were estimated in quiet or presented with a band of noise in one of four frequency regions: 425–500 Hz, 4000–4075 Hz, 8000–8075 Hz, or 4000–10 000 Hz. In experiment 1, maskers were gated on in each 500-ms interval of a three-interval, forced-choice adaptive procedure. Masking was observed for all ages in all maskers, but the greatest masking was observed for the 4000–4075 Hz masker. These findings suggest that signal/masker spectral proximity plays an important role in remote-frequency masking, even when peripheral excitation associated with the signal and masker does not overlap. Younger children tended to have more masking than older children or adults, consistent with a reduced ability to segregate simultaneous sounds and/or listen in a frequency-selective manner. In experiment 2, detection thresholds were estimated in the same noises, but maskers were presented continuously. Masking was reduced for all ages relative to gated conditions, suggesting improved segregation and/or frequency-selective listening.
Highlights
When adults are asked to detect a tone at a predictable frequency, they tend to direct their attention to that spectral region, weighting energy in that region more highly than energy in neighboring frequency regions (e.g., Scharf et al, 1987; Dai et al, 1991; Schlauch and Hafter, 1991)
Adults detected the 1000-Hz tone better than they detected tones at the unexpected frequencies, but infants detected tones at expected and unexpected frequencies well. These findings are consistent with the idea that adults listen selectively in the frequency domain, but infants listen over a broad range of frequencies
Consistent with the results reported by Werner and Bargones (1991) for infants, no difference in masking was observed between 40- and 60-dB-sound pressure level (SPL) maskers
Summary
When adults are asked to detect a tone at a predictable frequency, they tend to direct their attention to that spectral region, weighting energy in that region more highly than energy in neighboring frequency regions (e.g., Scharf et al, 1987; Dai et al, 1991; Schlauch and Hafter, 1991). Consistent with the results reported by Werner and Bargones (1991) for infants, no difference in masking was observed between 40- and 60-dB-SPL maskers These results suggest that the ability to segregate and selectively attend to a pure tone in the presence of remotefrequency noise remains immature into the early school-age years. Masking effects were expected to be similar across the three narrowband maskers This prediction was based on the hypothesis that children younger than 7 years of age listen unselectively in the frequency domain during detection (e.g., Leibold and Neff, 2011; Lutfi et al, 2003), and on observations that children older than 7 years of age and adults show little or no masking in the presence of remote-frequency bands of noise (Leibold and Neff, 2011). The expectation was that masking, when present, would be reduced for all listeners in the continuous relative to the simultaneously gated masker conditions, consistent with improved signal/masker segregation and frequency-selective listening
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