Auditory backward recognition masking: effect of interaural phase on masker efficacy

The effect of interaural phase on pitch and lateralization recognition was examined. Tonal signals were followed by a variable interstimulus interval and an interference tone. Stimuli were presented in a binaural masking-level difference paradigm as a means of manipulating the perceptual location of the signal within the head. In separate tasks, subjects were required to recognize the pitch or location of the signal. The pitch-recognition task resulted in the expected increase in performance as the interstimulus interval increased. There was no effect of interaural phase on pitch-recognition performance. There was no significant effect of interstimulus interval on performance in location recognition. Subjects were proficient at recognizing location of the signal regardless of the interstimulus interval. The data suggest that a strict single-channel interpretation of the preperceptual storage model of backward auditory recognition is inadequate.