title: Monaural envelope correlation perception for bands narrower or wider than a critical band.
abstract: Monaural envelope correlation perception concerns the ability of listeners to discriminate stimuli based on the degree of correlation between the temporal envelopes of two or more frequency-separated bands of noise [Richards, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 82, 1621-1630 (1987)]. Previous work has examined this ability for relatively narrow bandwidths, generally 100 Hz or less. The present experiment explored a wide range of bandwidths, from 25 to 1600 Hz, which included bands narrower and wider than a critical bandwidth. Stimuli were pairs of noise bands separated by a 500-Hz-wide spectral gap centered on 2250 Hz. The magnitude spectra of the pair of comodulated bands were either identical or reflected around the midpoint of the band, and performance was assessed with and without a low-pass noise masker. Although discrimination was best for intermediate bandwidths, mean performance was above chance for all bandwidths tested. Data were similar for stimuli with identical and reflected magnitude spectra, and for stimuli with and without the low-pass masker. The one exception was particularly good performance for intermediate-bandwidth stimuli with identical spectra, for which some listeners reported hearing a tonal cue. Results indicate that listeners are flexible in selecting spectral regions upon which to base across-frequency comparisons.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, 170 Manning Drive, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA. ebuss@med.unc.edu
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Buss
authors.forename: Joseph W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Grose
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001299:Audiometry; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D010898:Pitch Perception; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013997:Time Factors