Abstract
Werner and Bargones (1991) showed that infants are susceptible to remote-frequency masking of a 1 kHz tonal signal by a 4–10 kHz noise band, conditions for which adults do not experience masking. Differences in frequency selectivity with age cannot account for these findings, implicating informational masking. To further substantiate this interpretation and to assay whether such an effect is specific to high-frequency maskers, the current experiment compared the effects of a 500–501 kHz noise band on detection of a 4 kHz tone in 8–11 month-olds (n = 10) and adults (n = 9). A two-stage approach was employed whereby an adaptive procedure established the signal level needed to produce detection scores of 70.7% in quiet. That level was used in fixed conditions in quiet and in noise. These data were used to compute d-prime and estimate thresholds. Overall, infants’ thresholds were higher in noise than in quiet, whereas adults’ thresholds did not change across the two conditions. Results suggest that remote-frequency masking in infants occurs for maskers above or below the signal frequency.
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