Kidd G, Mason C R, Rohtla T L, Deliwala P S
Department of Communication Disorders, Boston University, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
J Acoust Soc Am. 1998 Jul;104(1):422-31. doi: 10.1121/1.423246.
A nonspeech pattern identification task was used to study the role of spatial separation of sources on auditory masking in multisource listening environments. The six frequency patterns forming the signal set were comprised of sequences of eight 60-ms tone bursts. Bursts of masking sounds were played synchronously with the signals. The main variables in the study were (1) the difference in spatial separation in the horizontal plane between signals and maskers and (2) the nature of the masking produced by the maskers. Spatial separation of signal and masker ranged from 0-180 degrees. The maskers were of two types: (1) a sequence of eight 60-ms bursts of Gaussian noise intended to produce predominantly peripherally based "energetic masking" and (2) a sequence of eight 60-ms bursts of eight-tone complexes intended to produce primarily centrally based "informational masking." The results indicated that identification performance improved with increasing separation of signal and masker. The amount of improvement depended upon the type of masker and the center frequency of the signal patterns. Much larger improvements were found for spatial separation of the signal and informational masker than for the signal and energetic masker. This was particularly apparent when the acoustical advantage of the signal-to-noise ratio in the more favorable of the two ears (the ear nearest the signal) was taken into account. The results were interpreted as evidence for an important role of binaural hearing in reducing sound source or message uncertainty and may contribute toward solving the "cocktail party problem."
一项非语音模式识别任务被用于研究在多源聆听环境中声源的空间分离对听觉掩蔽的作用。构成信号集的六种频率模式由八个60毫秒的音调脉冲序列组成。掩蔽声脉冲与信号同步播放。该研究中的主要变量为：（1）信号与掩蔽声在水平面内空间分离的差异；（2）掩蔽声产生的掩蔽特性。信号与掩蔽声的空间分离范围为0至180度。掩蔽声有两种类型：（1）由八个60毫秒高斯噪声脉冲组成的序列，旨在主要产生基于外周的“能量掩蔽”；（2）由八个60毫秒八音调复合音脉冲组成的序列，旨在主要产生基于中枢的“信息掩蔽”。结果表明，随着信号与掩蔽声分离度的增加，识别性能得到改善。改善的程度取决于掩蔽声的类型以及信号模式的中心频率。信号与信息掩蔽声的空间分离所带来的改善比信号与能量掩蔽声的空间分离要大得多。当考虑到两只耳朵中更有利的那只耳朵（离信号最近的耳朵）中信噪比的声学优势时，这一点尤为明显。这些结果被解释为双耳听觉在减少声源或信息不确定性方面发挥重要作用的证据，并且可能有助于解决“鸡尾酒会问题”。
