Discriminability of bursts of reproducible noise

The ability of human listeners to discriminate pairs of bursts of reproducible noise was examined. A same-different psychophysical method was used. Bursts in a pair were identical on same trials. On different trials, bursts were identical except for tau ms of independent noise located at either the beginning, middle, or end of the pairs of bursts. As the temporal position of the tau ms of independent noise was moved from the beginning to the end of the bursts of noise, discriminability increased. For each temporal position of the independent noise, discriminability was a function of the ratio of the duration of the independent noise (tau) to the total burst duration.