Thresholds of noise in harmonic series maskers

Abstract

Numerous studies have investigated the detection of pure tones and harmonic series in noise, but far fewer studied the perception of noise in harmonic series. One such study [Gockel, Moore and Patterson, J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 111(6), 2759–2770 (2002)] demonstrated that the masking thresholds of noise in harmonic series maskers were affected by the fundamental frequency (F0) and the overall level of the series, and by the relative phase of the harmonic components. The maskers used by Gockel et al. comprised unresolved harmonics (10th and higher harmonics below 5 kHz) for which F0 and frequency range covaried. The current study investigated noise detection for three non-overlapping spectral bands of equal auditory filter bandwidths (ERBs). Bands included either resolved harmonics (B1), unresolved harmonics (B3), or both resolved and unresolved harmonics (B2). Masker F0 and overall level were also varied. A Bayesian linear mixed-effects analysis showed that noise detection was better for higher F0s in B1 and B2, and that a higher presentation level resulted in a small improvement in noise detection in B2. Noise detection was better for higher presentation levels in B3. The findings will be discussed in relation to predictions of auditory processing models [Patterson, Allerhand, Giguère, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 98(4), 1890–1894 (1995)].