Masking redux. I: An optimized masking method

This is the first in a series of two papers on masking. The objective of these papers is to develop a masking protocol that provides valid measures of threshold and is, in general, faster than the plateau method. In this paper, a masking method is developed that can replace the traditional plateau method in most masking situations. This new method is optimized to require fewer masking levels than the plateau method. As a result, it can be significantly faster than the plateau method. There are some masking situations in which this optimized method cannot be used. This limitation will be evaluated in the second paper and an alternate masking strategy provided for use when the optimized method is not appropriate.