Low-level pure-tone masking: a comparison of "tuning curves" obtained with simultaneous and forward masking.

Simultaneous and forward pure‐tone masking are compared, using a fixed‐level probe of 20‐ms and a 200‐ms masker. For a 1‐kHz probe of 30 dB SPL the required masker level Lm is measured as a function of the time interval Δt between masker offset and probe onset. When masker and probe have equal frequencies a monotonic relationship is found for phase π/2 but not for phase 0. When the masker frequency fm is 50 or 100 Hz below the probe frequency fp a nonmonotony is found, with a minimum at Δt=0, the transition between simultaneous and forward masking. When fm is 50 or 100 Hz above fp, however, the relationship of Lm to Δt is monotonic. In the case of simultaneous masking the iso‐Lp curves, which give Lm as a function of fm, show a typical asymmetry around fm=fp, leading to the positive shift of the maximum masking frequency MMF previously reported for stationary pure‐tone maskers. In the case of forward masking, however, this asymmetry ceases to exist. We conclude that simultaneity of probe and masker is a n...

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