PSYCH 3A03 Lecture Notes - Auditory Masking, Critical Band, Psychoacoustics

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH 3A03
• Professor: Paul Faure

Document Summary

A plot of erb as a function of center frequency of critical band filter reveals that the critical bandwidth increases with increasing frequency. The shape of the critical band filter does not vary with frequency. Assume listener detects probe signal by monitoring a critical band of frequencies centered on probe. Assume listener monitors different critical bands to detect different probe frequencies. The masking tone sets up a pattern of excitation. Neurons with cf closest to masker frequency will allow the most masker energy to pass. Excitation caused by masker spreads to a number of critical band internal filters. So far we have dealt only with simultaneous masking conditions. Backward and forward temporal masking occurs for tones, clicks, noise, and speech. Masking thresholds increase as the time interval between the probe and masker decreases. Amount of masking is greatest at the temporal fringes of the masker, near the onset of offset of masker (i. e. overshoot of masking)