Experiment name

Description

AbsoluteThreshold

Absolute threshold for a 500-ms pure tone of 1-kHz. The tone is gated on and off with two raised cosine ramps of 10-ms. !!!PLEASE NOTE THAT THE EXACT SOUND PRESSURE LEVEL AT LISTENER'S EAR MUST BE DETERMINED APART BY MEANS OF AN ADEQUATE HARDWARE!!!

BackwardMasking

A 20-ms, 1-kHz pure tone (the signal) is presented immediately before (i.e., no silent gap) a band of bandpass noise of 300-ms (400-1600 Hz). All sounds are onset and offset gated by means of two raised cosine onset and offset ramps of 10-ms. The subject has to detect the tone (in yes/no task) or to tell which interval has the tone. !!!PLEASE NOTE THAT THE EXACT SOUND PRESSURE LEVEL AT LISTENER'S EAR MUST BE DETERMINED APART BY MEANS OF AN ADEQUATE HARDWARE!!!

ForwardMasking

A 20-ms, 1-kHz pure tone (the signal) is presented immediately after (i.e., no silent gap) band of bandpass noise of 300-ms (400-1600 Hz). All sounds are onset and offset gated by means of two raised cosine onset and offset gates of 10-ms. The subject has to detect the tone (in yes/no task) or to tell which interval has the tone. !!!PLEASE NOTE THAT THE EXACT SOUND PRESSURE LEVEL AT LISTENER'S EAR MUST BE DETERMINED APART BY MEANS OF AN ADEQUATE HARDWARE!!!

SimulataneousMasking

A 20-ms, 1-kHz sine tone (the signal) is presented within a band of bandpass noise of 300-ms (400-1600 Hz). All sounds are onset and offset gated by means of two raised cosine onset and offset gates of 10-ms. The subject has to detect the tone (in yes/no task) or to tell which interval has the tone. !!!PLEASE NOTE THAT THE EXACT SOUND PRESSURE LEVEL AT LISTENER'S EAR MUST BE DETERMINED APART BY MEANS OF AN ADEQUATE HARDWARE!!!

PitchDiscriminationPureTone

Pitch discrimination threshold for a 250-ms complex tone. The tone has four harmonics (f0=330-Hz, mi4). The subject has to tell the highest pitch tone. Onset and offset of tones are gated on and off with two 10-ms raised cosine ramps. See Kidd, Watson and Gygi (2007) for possible results.

IntensityDiscriminationPureTone

Intensity discrimination threshold for a 1-kHz, 250-ms pure tone. The subject has to tell the loudest tone. The onset and offset of the tones are gated with two 10-ms raised cosine ramps. The standard is -30-dB attenuated in level. See Kidd, Watson and Gygi (2007) for possible results.

DurationDiscriminationPureTone

Duration discrimination for a 1-kHz, 250-ms pure tone. The subject has to tell the longest tone. The tone has raised cosine onset and offset gates of 10-ms. See Kidd, Watson and Gygi (2007) for possible results.

PulseTrainDurationDiscrimination

Pulse-train discrimination. The standard stimulus consists of six 20-ms pulses of a 1-kHz tone. These pulses are arranged in three pairs, with 40-ms of silence between members of a pair and 120 ms between pairs. The temporal structure of the variable sequence is varied by increasing the separation between members of each pair, with a corresponding decrease in the between-pair time and, thus, a constant interval between the first tones in each of the successive pairs. Thus, the first, third, and fifth tones are fixed in time, while the onsets of the second, fourth, and sixth tones are delayed by varying amounts. See Kidd, Watson and Gygi (2007) for possible results.

EmbeddedTesTone

Subjects listen for one member of a sequence of nine tones with frequencies ranging from 300 to 3000-Hz. A different, randomly selected series of nine tones is presented on each trial. The task is to detect the presence of the fifth tone in the sequence. The tone is absent in the standard. The duration of all tones except the fifth, or target tone, is 40-ms. All tones have 2.5-ms raised cosine onset and offset gates. The test is made more difficult by reducing the duration of the target tone. See Kidd, Watson and Gygi (2007) for possible results.

TemporalOrderTones

Temporal order for tones. The task is to discriminate the order in which two equal-duration pure tones of 550 and 710-Hz are presented. The duration of the two tones is varied according to listener performance. Tones are presented without a gap between them and are preceded and followed, without gaps, by 100-ms “leader” and “trailer” tones at 625-Hz. The onset and offset of the tones are gated with two 10-ms raised cosine ramps. See Kidd, Watson and Gygi (2007) for possible results.

SAM_Detection_8Hz

Sinusoidal Amplitude Modulation (SAM) noise discrimination. A 500-ms Gaussian noise is sinusoidally amplitude modulated at 8-Hz. The depth of the modulation is expressed as 20log(m), where m is a modulation index that ranges from 0.0 (no modulation) to 1.0 (full modulation). The subject has to detect the modulation (in yes/no task) or to tell which interval has the modulated noise. Modulated and unmodulated stimuli are equated for total RMS power. Noises have two 10-ms raised cosine ramps at onset and offset. The threshold is the modulation depth (in dB). See Kidd, Watson and Gygi (2007) for possible results.

SAM_Detection_20Hz

Sinusoidal Amplitude Modulation (SAM) noise discrimination. A 500-ms Gaussian noise is sinusoidally amplitude modulated at 20-Hz. The depth of the modulation is expressed as 20log(m), where m is a modulation index that ranges from 0.0 (no modulation) to 1.0 (full modulation). The subject has to detect the modulation (in yes/no task) or to tell which interval has the modulated noise. Modulated and unmodulated stimuli are equated for total RMS power. Noises have two 10-ms raised cosine ramps at onset and offset. The threshold is the modulation depth (in dB). See Kidd, Watson and Gygi (2007) for possible results.

SAM_Detection_60Hz

Sinusoidal Amplitude Modulation (SAM) noise discrimination. A 500-ms Gaussian noise is sinusoidally amplitude modulated at 60-Hz. The depth of the modulation is expressed as 20log(m), where m is a modulation index that ranges from 0.0 (no modulation) to 1.0 (full modulation). The subject has to detect the modulation (in yes/no task) or to tell which interval has the modulated noise. Modulated and unmodulated stimuli are equated for total RMS power. Noises have two 10-ms raised cosine ramps at onset and offset. The threshold is the modulation depth (in dB). See Kidd, Watson and Gygi (2007) for possible results.

SAM_Detection_200Hz

Sinusoidal Amplitude Modulation (SAM) noise discrimination. A 500-ms Gaussian noise is sinusoidally amplitude modulated at 200-Hz. The depth of the modulation is expressed as 20log(m), where m is a modulation index that ranges from 0.0 (no modulation) to 1.0 (full modulation). The subject has to detect the modulation (in yes/no task) or to tell which interval has the modulated noise. Modulated and unmodulated stimuli are equated for total RMS power. Noises have two 10-ms raised cosine ramps at onset and offset. The threshold is the modulation depth (in dB). See Kidd, Watson and Gygi (2007) for possible results.

RippleNoiseDiscrimination

Ripple noise discrimination. A 500-ms digital Gaussian noise is lowpass filtered at 3000-Hz. Sinusoidal ripples are created by adding the noise to itself with a 5-ms delay. The delayed noise is attenuated by a variable amount. The standard is always a 500-ms broadband noise with the same bandpass filtering as the “rippled” samples, but with a uniform power spectrum. Standard and variable are equalized to average RMS power. The threshold is the attenuation (in dB) of the delayed noise. See Kidd, Watson and Gygi (2007) for possible results.

GapDetectionWhiteNoise

Gap detection. A band of 750-ms gaussian noise has a gap in its temporal center. Gap duration is varied according to the listener performance. The noise has 0.5-ms cosine ramps at the beginning and end of the gap. In nI-nAFC tasks, the standard is always a 750-ms broadband noise with no gap whereas the variable contains the gap. See Kidd, Watson and Gygi (2007) for possible results.

GapDiscriminationWhiteNoise

Gap-duration discrimination. The standard is a 750-ms Gaussian noise with a silent gap of 40-ms placed at its temporal center. The variable has a variable gap duration and the length of its gap is changed as function of the subject performance. All noises have a 0.5-ms cosine ramp at onset and offset. See Kidd, Watson and Gygi (2007) for possible results

PitchDiscriminationComplexTone

% Pitch discrimination threshold for a 250-ms complex tone. The tone has four harmonics (f0=330-Hz, mi4). The subject has to tell the highest pitch tone. Onset and offset of tones are gated on and off with two 10-ms raised cosine ramps. See Micheyl, Delhommeau, Perrot, & Oxenham, (2006) for possible results.

IntensityDiscriminationComplexTone

Intensity discrimination threshold for a 250-ms complex tone. The tone has four harmonics (f0=330-Hz, mi4). The subject has to tell the loudest tone. The onset and offset of the tones are gated with two 10-ms raised cosine ramps. The standard is -30-dB attenuated in level.

IntensityDiscriminationWhiteNoise

Intensity discrimination threshold for a 250-ms white noise. The subject has to tell the loudest noise. The onset and offset of the noises are gated with two 10-ms raised cosine ramps. The standard is -30-dB attenuated in level.

DurationDiscriminationComplexTone

Duration discrimination for a 250-ms complex tone. The tone has four harmonics (f0=330-Hz, mi4). The subject has to tell the longest tone. The tone has raised cosine onset and offset gates of 10-ms.

DurationDiscriminationWhiteNoise

Duration discrimination for 250-ms white noise. The subjects has to tell the longest noise. The noise has raised cosine onset and offset gates of 10-ms.

ProfileAnalysis

Profile Analysis. In this experiment the subject listens to three complex tones. Two are identical (the standards). They have five harmonics all at the same amplitude (f0=330-Hz, mi4). The third has a similar harmonic structure, however, the amplitude of the third harmonic component is higher producing a different timbre in comparison to the standards. The subject has to tell the odd timbre tone. The overall level of standards and variable is varied randomly from trial to trial within a range of 5-dB. Onset and offset of tones are gated on an off with two 10-ms raised cosine ramps. This experiment can be run as 3AFC only. The threshold is given in dB. Please note that the amplitude of the fixed-amplitude harmonics is -40-dB.

MelodyMistuningDetection

Melody mistuning detection. The major diatonic equitempered scale (i.e., do, re mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do) is played (starting do, do4=261.6-Hz). The sol note has a variable pitch. The subject has to tell whether the scale is in tune or out of tune (in yes/no task) or to tell the out of tune scale (in nAFC task). Notes are 500-ms complex tones of five harmonics. All tones are gated on and off with two raised cosine ramps of 10-ms. The threshold is estimated in cents. To convert the threshold in hertz: threshold=261.6*2^((700+t)/1200). Where t is the estimated threshold in cents.