Interaural Phase and the Absolute Threshold for Tone

The present study agrees with earlier ones that the binaural absolute threshold is about 3 dB lower than the monaural. It also finds that reversing the interaural phase of the signal lowers the threshold still further. The findings are shown to indicate the likelihood that so‐called absolute thresholds are really masked thresholds, with the masking noise present internally and exhibiting a small positive correlation. The close relation of our results to the earlier work of Hirsh on binaural masking phenomena is discussed.