Effect of contralateral precursor type on the temporal effect in simultaneous masking with tone and noise maskers.
Résumé
A sound ~contralateral precursor! presented to the nontest ear prior to the onset of a masker and
probe has been shown to reduce the temporal effect in simultaneous masking with noise maskers but
not with tonal maskers. The present study examined this further. The probe was a 4.0-kHz tone. In
experiment 1a, the masker was a 4.4-kHz tone and the precursor was a 4.4-kHz tone or an
unmodulated ~UM! or amplitude-modulated ~AM! band of noise ~4.4–8.0 kHz!. In experiment 1b,
the masker was a broadband noise and the precursor was a UM or an AM broadband noise. In both
experiments the precursor consistently reduced the temporal effect for only one of the seven or eight
subjects, regardless of precursor type. These largely negative results indicate that it may not be
possible to use contralateral precursors to gain much insight into the mechanisms underlying
temporal effects in simultaneous masking.