ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the topic of frequency analysis and begin with psychoacoustic experiments that measure the limit and extent of the observer’s ability to analyze sound. Masking occurs when one sound makes another sound difficult or impossible to hear. The masking patterns produced with a noise masker are much more regular than those obtained with a sinusoid masker. With a noise masker, the irregularities around the center frequency of the noise band or its harmonics are not evident. Webster, Miller, Thompson, and Davenport measured the detectability of the signal in the region of the gap and, by varying the width of the gap, made inferences concerning the width of the auditory filter. Since about 1950, a number of investigators have studied other phenomena assumed to reflect the critical band mechanism. These experiments have not concentrated on masking phenomena. The bandwidths of the auditory filter depend on an assumption concerning its mode of operation.
