School of Audiology and Speech Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, V6T 1Z3, Canada.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2011 Sep;130(3):1503-14. doi: 10.1121/1.3609124.
Three experiments measured the perceived continuity of two pure tones "flankers" through a masker containing a silence. Experiment 1 used a 2I-2AFC procedure; one interval contained two noise bursts separated by a silent gap, and the other contained two noise bursts separated by a tone of the same duration as the silence. Discrimination between masker conditions was very accurate when the flankers were absent but was impaired substantially when the flankers were present. This was taken as evidence that illusory flanker continuity during the silent gap was heard as similar to the physical presence of a tone in the gap. In experiment 2, performance remained poor when the flankers were frequency glides aligned along a common trajectory. Performance improved significantly when the flankers were misaligned in trajectory. In experiment 3, listeners rated directly perceived flanker continuity. Strong continuity was reported in the silent gap conditions for which poor performance had been observed in experiments 1 and 2. These findings show that continuity may be heard through a masker that cannot mask a physically continuous tone but can mask the flankers' offset and onset. The results are explained in terms of the perceptual grouping of onsets and offsets of the flankers.
三个实验通过包含静音的掩蔽器测量了两个纯音“侧音”的感知连续性。实验 1 使用了 2I-2AFC 程序；一个间隔包含两个噪声突发，中间有一个静音间隙，另一个间隔包含两个噪声突发，中间有一个与静音持续时间相同的音。当侧音不存在时，掩蔽器条件的辨别非常准确，但当侧音存在时，辨别能力会大大降低。这被认为是在静音间隙中听到的虚幻侧音连续性与间隙中物理存在的音相似的证据。在实验 2 中，当侧音是沿着共同轨迹的频率渐变时，性能仍然很差。当侧音在轨迹上不匹配时，性能显著提高。在实验 3 中，听众直接对侧音连续性进行了评分。在实验 1 和 2 中观察到性能较差的静音间隙条件下，报告了强烈的连续性。这些发现表明，即使掩蔽器不能掩蔽物理上连续的音，但可以掩蔽侧音的偏移和起始，也可以听到连续性。结果根据侧音的起始和结束的感知分组来解释。
