Pitch and Tonal Masking

Abstract

Ordinarily the criterion of the masked threshold is the detection of any signal besides the masking tone. This criterion is perhaps satisfactory for signal detection and communications purposes, but for inferring the excitatory pattern of a tone in the auditory apparatus, it does not indicate the full area activated by the tone. In the present experiment, therefore, the criterion adopted was the detection of the characteristic pitch of the pure tone signal. The new criterion leads to a masking pattern much higher than the conventional masked threshold and much sharper on the high-frequency side as well as on the low-frequency side. On the other hand, the pitch threshold curve may not have a well-defined peak.