ABSTRACT
This paper reports a set of conditions under which a continuous random noise with a spectral notch causes a release from masking. Subjects are required to detect a brief tone in a burst of bandpass noise, and the addition of the continuous random noise, with a notch centered on the signal frequency, reduces thresholds by up to 11 dB. This masking release builds up within 320 ms of notched noise onset, persists for about 160 ms after its offset, and is greatest when thresholds in the absence of notched noise are high. A smaller (7 dB) masking release is obtained with a continuous bandpass noise. The effect is similar in many ways to the “overshoot” effect reported by Zwicker (1965a,b), and it is argued that both these effects may be attributed to peripheral short-term adaptation. It is likely that additional, possibly more central, mechanisms are responsible for part of the effect.
