TY - JOUR
T1 - Binaural release from informational masking in a speech identification task
AU - Gallun, Frederick J.
AU - Mason, Christine R.
AU - Kidd, Gerald
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2005/9
Y1 - 2005/9
N2 - Binaural release from informational masking (IM) was examined in a speech identification task. Target and masker sentences were processed into mutually exclusive frequency bands, thus limiting energetic masking (EM), and presented over headphones. In a baseline condition, both were presented monotically to the same ear (TmMm). Despite minimal frequency overlap between target and masker, the presence of the masker resulted in reduced performance, or IM. Presenting the target monotically and the masker diotically (TmM0) resulted in a release from IM. Release was also obtained by imposing interaural differences in level (ILDs) and in time (ITDs) on the maskers (TmMILD,TmMITD). Any masker with a perceived lateral position that differed from that of a truly monaural stimulus resulted in a similar amount of release from IM relative to TmMm. For binaural targets and maskers (T 0MILD,T0MITD), release was seen whenever ITDs or ILDs differed between target and masker. These results suggest that binaural cues can be very effective in reducing IM. Because mechanisms based on differences in perceived location make predictions that are similar to those of nonlocation-based binaural mechanisms, a variant of the equalization-cancellation model is also considered.
AB - Binaural release from informational masking (IM) was examined in a speech identification task. Target and masker sentences were processed into mutually exclusive frequency bands, thus limiting energetic masking (EM), and presented over headphones. In a baseline condition, both were presented monotically to the same ear (TmMm). Despite minimal frequency overlap between target and masker, the presence of the masker resulted in reduced performance, or IM. Presenting the target monotically and the masker diotically (TmM0) resulted in a release from IM. Release was also obtained by imposing interaural differences in level (ILDs) and in time (ITDs) on the maskers (TmMILD,TmMITD). Any masker with a perceived lateral position that differed from that of a truly monaural stimulus resulted in a similar amount of release from IM relative to TmMm. For binaural targets and maskers (T 0MILD,T0MITD), release was seen whenever ITDs or ILDs differed between target and masker. These results suggest that binaural cues can be very effective in reducing IM. Because mechanisms based on differences in perceived location make predictions that are similar to those of nonlocation-based binaural mechanisms, a variant of the equalization-cancellation model is also considered.
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U2 - 10.1121/1.1984876
DO - 10.1121/1.1984876
M3 - Article
C2 - 16240821
AN - SCOPUS:24944433093
SN - 0001-4966
VL - 118
SP - 1614
EP - 1625
JO - Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
JF - Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
IS - 3 I
ER -