Dichotic Backward Masking of Complex Sounds

Abstract

In the first experiment subjects identified a consonant-vowel syllable presented dichotically with a known contralateral masking sound at a stimulus onset asynchrony of ± 60 msec. When the mask followed the target syllable, perception of place of articulation of the consonant was impaired more when the mask was a different consonant-vowel syllable than when it was either a steady-state vowel or a non-speech timbre. Perception was disturbed less when the mask preceded the target, and the amount of disruption was independent of which mask was used. Greater backward than forward masking was also found in the second experiment for the identification of complex sounds which differed in an initial change in pitch. These experiments suggest that the extraction of complex auditory features from a target can be disrupted by the subsequent contralateral presentation of a sound sharing certain features with the target.

Backward interference by tones or noise in pitch perception as a function of practice

“…Since concurrent white noise would normally produce more impairment than a remote tone, the lack of resemblance to direct acoustical masking is such as to suggest that the term "masking" is a misnomer in this 4 I 12 SESSIONS zo context. A similar effect has been noted at the level of speech identification, where Darwin (1971) has found that the recognition of stop-vowel syIlables is more impaired by dichotic presentation of a different stop-vowel syllable than by the same vowel, a different vowel. or a nonspeech timbre.…”

Internal processes in speech perception

“…The syllables differ in the consonant but not in the vowel, and differ also in the relative times of onset. (Darwin 1971). Hence S2 can be used as a probe into the state of the processing of S•.…”

Auditory and linguistic processes in speech perception: Inferences from six fusions in dichotic listening.

“…This epistemological position often leads the researcher to paradigms of masking in both visual (Turvey, 1973) and auditory (Darwin, 1971;Massaro, 1972Massaro, , 1974 modalities. Masking occurs through the rivalry of two stimuli competing for the limited processing capacities of a single processor: Information is lost at a bottleneck in the perceptual system.…”