WORD RECOGNITION IN CONTINUOUS NOISE, INTERRUPTED NOISE, AND IN QUIETBY NORMAL-HEARING LISTENERS AT 2 SENSATION LEVELS

The effect of presentation level on word recognition performance-inten sity functions in continuous and interrupted broadband noise and in qu iet was explored. Normal-hearing participants were tested at 30 and 50 dB sensation levels (SLs). Performance-intensity functions in both no ises were determined at signal-to-noise ratios (S/Ns) of 10, 5, 0, -5, -10, -15, and -20 dB. There was no effect of SL presentation on word recognition performance in quiet (p = 0.136). A significant main effec t was observed for S/N in both continuous and interrupted broadband no ise conditions (p < 0.0001). Performance increased with increases in S /N regardless of the competing noise condition. A significant main eff ect for SL presentation was only observed in the interrupted noise con dition (p = 0.0019). That is, performance was higher for the 50 SL for the interrupted noise condition only. It is suggested that the observ ed difference in performance in interrupted noise at different SLs off ers additional evidence for level-dependent, temporal masking phenomen a.