TEMPORAL GAP RESOLUTION IN MASKED NORMAL EARS AS A FUNCTION OF MASKER LEVEL

The author examines the premise that SL effects in gap resolution are independent of sound pressure level. Normal hearing subjects used a Bekesy procedure to track the minimum level of an octave-band signal at 1 kHz needed to keep a periodic temporal gap at threshold. Performance functions were generated to show stimulus intensity as a function of gap duration, for gaps from 25 ms to the smallest detectable value. In separate conditions, the level of a white-noise background was varied to shift the subject's audibility threshold. Results indicate that the limits of resolution are largely invariant with SPL, but criterion sensation levels for resolution are progressively reduced at higher SPL.