A PSYCHOACOUSTIC MODEL FOR THE NOISE MASKING OF PLOSIVE BURSTS

A model for predicting the masked thresholds of the voiceless plosive bursts /k,t,p/ in background noise is proposed. Because plosive bursts are brief, are generated by a noise source, and have different spectr al characteristics, the modeling approach accounts for duration, cente r frequency, and signal bandwidth. Noise-in-noise masking experiments are conducted using a broadband masker and bandpass noise signals of v arying bandwidth (100-5483 Hz), duration (10-300 ms), and center frequ ency (0.4-4 kHz). Data from these experiments are used to parametrize an auditory filter model in which the effective bandwidth and the sign al-to-noise ratio at threshold for each filter are duration dependent. The duration-dependent filter model is then used to predict the thres holds of synthetic and naturally spoken plosive bursts in background n oise. Finally, results from pilot notched-noise experiments are presen ted which support duration-dependent frequency selectivity. (C) 1997 A coustical Society of America.