Some factors affecting the perception of continuity in alternately sounded tone and noise signals.

Abstract

Three experiments are reported that employed 78 normally hearing college students who demonstrated an ability to concentrate on an interrupted white noise that alternated with a tonal burst. The purpose of these experiments was to investigate the effects of the duration of the white noise and the frequency of the tonal burst on the perception of continuity under monaural and dichotic presentation. The effect of the number of noise pulses in the stimulus interval was also investigated. The results showed that under monaural presentation the perception of continuity was affected by both the duration of the noise and the frequency of the tone. Only the duration variable was significant under dichotic presentation. The number of noise pulses in the stimulus interval significantly affected the perception of continuity.