Comodulation masking release using SAM tonal complex maskers: effects of modulation depth and signal position

The purpose of this investigation was to examine two stimulus parameters that were reasoned to be of importance to comodulation masking release (CMR). The first was the degree of fluctuation, or depth of modulation, in the masker bands, and the second was the temporal position of the signal with respect to the modulations of the masker. The investigation began by demonstrating the efficacy of sinusoidally amplitude-modulated (SAM) tonal complex maskers in eliciting CMR. "Nine-band" maskers, 650 ms in duration, were constructed by adding together nine SAM tones spaced at 100-Hz intervals from 300 to 1100 Hz. The rate of modulation for each SAM tone was 10 Hz, and the depth of modulation was 100%. Using such maskers, it was shown that when the on-frequency SAM tone had a modulation depth of 100%, the threshold for a 250-ms, 700-Hz tone improved monotonically as the modulation depths of the flanking SAM tones increased from 0% to 100%. When the on-frequency SAM tone had a modulation depth of 63%, some listeners performed optimally when the flanking SAM tones also exhibited a modulation depth of 63%, whereas others performed best when the flankers had modulation depths of 100%. With regard to signal position, a typical CMR effect was observed when the signal, consisting of a train of three 50-ms, 700-Hz tone bursts, was placed in the dips of the on-frequency masker. However, when the signal was placed at the peaks of the envelope, an increase in masking was observed for a comodulated masker.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)