Spectral integration in bands of modulated or unmodulated noise

Spectral integration was measured for pure-tone signals masked by unmodulated or modulated noise bands centered at the signal frequencies. The bands were typically 100 Hz wide, and when modulated, they were sinusoidally amplitude modulated at a rate of 8 Hz and a depth of 100%. In experiment 1, thresholds were first measured for each individual pure tone of a triplet in the presence of its respective masker band, and then for those three tones added together at their respective threshold levels, masked by their respective masker bands. Four sets of triplets were used: 250, 1000, 4000 Hz; 354, 1000, 2828 Hz; 500, 1000, 2000 Hz; and 800, 1000, 1200 Hz. When the masker bands were unmodulated, the amount of spectral integration was about 2.4 dB for all triplets, consistent with the integration expected based on the multiband energy detector model. When the bands were modulated, the amount of integration depended upon the spacing between masker bands; for the two widest spacings, the integration was between about 0 and 3 dB, whereas for the two closest spacings, the integration was approximately 5 dB. Experiments 2 and 3 addressed the cause of this greater spectral integration in the presence of the modulated masker bands with closer spacing. The second experiment demonstrated that sensitivity (d') was proportional to signal power regardless of whether the background noise was modulated or not, and thus the greater integration in dB in the presence of the modulated noise bands could not be accounted for by shallower psychometric functions in those conditions. Instead, the third experiment showed that the greater integration was likely due to the fact that the masker bands were comodulated. In other words, it was probably due to cues related to comodulation masking release when all three bands (and signals) were present.     

Comodulation detection differences using noise-band signals

In a variant of the standard paradigm employed to study comodulation masking release (CMR), a narrow noise band was used as a signal in the presence of "cue" bands which had either the same or different temporal envelopes. The number of cue bands present ranged from zero to four; when there were two or four cue bands, they were either all presented at the same overall level or the spectral profile was "scrambled" in a haphazard manner. Different noise samples were presented within and across trials. The result was in the opposite direction from the standard CMR outcome; that is, better performance was obtained when the envelopes of the cue band(s) were uncorrelated with those of the signal band than when they were correlated. These comodulation detection differences (CDDs) ranged from a decibel or two up to 10-12 dB in different conditions, and were generally larger the more cue bands present. Standard CMR conditions, which were run as controls, revealed that the detectability of a tonal signal does not increase as the number of cue bands is increased from one to four-an outcome which differs from those obtained in profile analysis experiments. The data taken with the equal-level and the scrambled-level cues differed little in both the CDD and the CMR conditions. All noise bands were 100 Hz wide, and approximately 250 ms in duration. The signal band in CDD and the masker band in CMR were centered at 2500 Hz. The psychophysical procedure was two-interval forced choice.     

Comodulation detection differences with multiple signal bands

Detection thresholds were determined for signals consisting of one, two, or five noise bands embedded in eight "cue" bands. All of the noise bands were 100 Hz wide. The center frequencies of the signal bands ranged from 1250-3250 Hz in 500-Hz steps, and those of the cue bands ranged from 500-4000 Hz in 500-Hz steps. The multiple-band signals either all had the same temporal envelope, or all had different temporal envelopes. Similarly, the cue bands either all had the same temporal envelope or all had different temporal envelopes. In separate listening conditions, signal thresholds were determined for various combinations of the temporal envelope patterns of the signal and cue bands. The results were analyzed both in terms of differences in threshold across listening conditions, and in terms of changes in threshold within a listening condition, as the number of signal bands was increased. For both the single- and multiple-band signals, performance was best when the signal band(s) had a different envelope from the common envelope of the cue bands, and performance was worst when either the cue bands all had different envelopes, or the signal and cue bands all shared the same envelope. The thresholds of the multiple-band signals were better fitted by an independent-thresholds model than by a statistical-summation model. However, neither model predicted thresholds uniformly well in all listening conditions. The results are discussed in terms of both "within-channel" and "across-channel" models.     

Distribution of auditory-filter bandwidths at 2 kHz in young normal listeners

Auditory-filter shapes at 2 kHz were estimated for 95 young normally hearing subjects using a notched-noise masker with spectrum level of 45 dB. Excluding two subjects with a recent history of noise exposure, the equivalent rectangular bandwidths (ERBs) of the filters were approximately normally distributed but the distribution had a slight positive skew. The mean ERB was 308 Hz and the standard deviation was 32 Hz. The two noise-exposed subjects had ERBs of 404 and 497 Hz.     

Comodulation masking release in a forward-masking paradigm

Waveforms that yield comodulation masking release (CMR) when they are presented simultaneously with a signal were used in a standard forward-masking procedure. The signal was a 25-ms sample of a 2500-Hz tone. The masker was a band of noise centered at 2500 Hz, 100 Hz in width, and 200 ms in duration. Presented with the masker were two or four cue bands, each 100 Hz wide and centered at various distances from the masker band. These cue bands either all had the same temporal envelope as the masker band (correlated condition) or their common envelope was different from that of the masker band (uncorrelated condition). In the initial experiments, (1) detectability of the tonal signal was 7-18 dB better when the masker band was accompanied by cue bands than when it was not--an effect that would be expected from past research on lateral suppression--but further, (2) the signal was about 3 dB more detectable in the correlated conditions than in the uncorrelated conditions. In follow-up experiments, these CMR-like differences between the correlated and uncorrelated conditions were substantially reduced (although not eliminated) by presenting a contralateral, wideband noise that was gated synchronously with the masker and/or cue bands. The implications are that the initial results were attributable in part to the "confusion effects" known to exist in certain temporal-masking situations, and that listeners are able to obtain greater information about the temporal extent of a masker band from correlated cue bands than from uncorrelated bands.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Signal detection in computer-synthesized noise.

Human observers detected sinusoidal and pulse-train signals in noise derived from two computer-synthesized sources and from a Gaussian noise source. The synthesized noise stimuli were generated from sequences of pulses whose amplitudes were drawn from two divergent types of probability distributions: a centrally peaked distribution and a bimodal distribution. No differences in the detectability of signals in these noise stimuli were evident at pulse rates of 1000, 2000, 4000, or 10 000 Hz. subjects could not discriminate between the two types of computer-generated maskers at any pulse rate. The data support a spectrum-analyzer model of detection in which multiband filtering of the input smooths the masker energy in each spectral region to approximate the Gaussian case.     

Monaural envelope correlation perception, revisited: effects of bandwidth, frequency separation, duration, and relative level of the noise bands

This article presents the results of two experiments investigating performance on a monaural envelope correlation discrimination task. Subjects were asked to discriminate pairs of noise bands that had identical envelopes (referred to as correlated stimuli) from pairs of noise bands that had envelopes which were independent (uncorrelated stimuli). In the first experiment, a number of stimulus parameters were varied: the center frequency of the lower frequency noise band in a pair, f1; the frequency separation between component noise bands; the duration of the stimuli; and the bandwidth of the component noise bands. For a long stimulus duration (500 ms) and a relatively wide bandwidth (100 Hz), subjects could easily discriminate correlated from uncorrelated stimuli for a wide range of frequency separations between the component noise bands. This was true both when f1 was 350 Hz, and when f1 was 2500 Hz. In each case, narrowing the bandwidth to 25 Hz, or shortening the duration to 100 ms, or both, made the task more difficult, but not impossible. In the second experiment, the level of the higher frequency noise band in a pair was varied. Performance did not decrease monotonically as the level of this band was decreased below the level of the other band, and only showed marked impairment when the level of the higher frequency band was at least 60 dB below that of the lower frequency band. The pattern of results in these two experiments is different from that which is obtained when the same stimulus parameters are varied in experiments investigating comodulation masking release (CMR). This suggests that the mechanisms underlying CMR and those underlying the discrimination of envelope correlation are not identical.     

The effect of cross-spectrum correlation on the detectability of a noise band

An experiment was performed to study the interaction of two narrow-band noises having correlated temporal envelopes. The detection threshold of a 100-Hz-wide noise-band signal was measured at different center frequencies in the presence of a continuous 100-Hz-wide noise band having a center frequency of 1000 Hz. The two noise bands had either correlated or independent temporal envelopes. Measured signal detection thresholds are lower when the two noise bands are independent, but the magnitude of this difference is not a simple function of the frequency separation between the two noise bands.     

Binaural masking experiments using noise maskers with frequency-dependent interaural phase differences. II: Influence of frequency and interaural-phase uncertainty

This study investigates whether binaural signal detection is improved by the listener's previous knowledge about the interaural phase relations of masker and test signal. Binaural masked thresholds were measured for a 500-ms dichotic noise masker that had an interaural phase difference of 0 below 500 Hz and of pi above 500 Hz. The thresholds for two difference 20-ms test signals were determined within the same measurement using an interleaved adaptive 3-interval forced-choice (3IFC) procedure. In each 3IFC trial, both signals could occur with equal probability (uncertainty). The two signals differed in frequency and interaural phase in such a way that one signal always had a frequency above the masker edge frequency (500 Hz) and no interaural phase difference (So), whereas the other signal frequency was below 500 Hz and the interaural phase difference was pi (S pi). The frequencies of a signal pair remained fixed during the whole 3IFC track. These two signals thus lead to two different binaural conditions, i.e., NoS pi for the low-frequency signal and N pi So for the high-frequency signal. For comparison, binaural masked thresholds were measured with the same masker for fixed signal frequency and phase. The binaural masking level differences (BMLDs) resulting from the two experimental conditions show no significant difference. This indicates that the binaural system is able to apply different internal transformations or processing strategies simultaneously in different critical bands and even within the same critical band.     

Noise sources in swirl burners

Sources of noise present in swirl burners in the non-combustive and combustive cases are experimentally investigated. It is shown that under the non-combustive conditions, the main source of noise is the precessing vortex core, a three-dimensional time-dependent instability present in such burners at high degrees of swirl. With combustion, the amplitude of this instability is damped and the combustion roar is predominant. Regimes of noise (combustion roar) generation in a flame can be located by measurements of temperature fluctuations, as it is demonstrated that there is a good correlation with pressure fluctuations.     

Fluctuating characteristics of radiative source term in hydrogen turbulent jet diffusion flame

The laminar flamelet model in combination with joint probability density function transport equation of mixture fraction and turbulence frequency is used to simulate turbulent jet diffusion flames of hydrogen. The frequency distributions of radiative source terms are calculated for four important infrared bands of water vapor. The results show that, for the given ensemble, about 95% samples of radiative source term for each band locate within the region of ±3.0 standard deviation of the mean radiative source term. Due to the different relation between band intensity parameters and temperature for every band, the symmetrization of frequency distributions for each band is different.     

Asymptotic probability density of nonlinear phase noise

The asymptotic probability density of nonlinear phase noise, often called the Gordon-Mollenauer effect, is derived analytically when the number of fiber spans is large. Nonlinear phase noise is the summation of infinitely many independently distributed noncentral chi2 random variables with two degrees of freedom. The mean and the standard deviation of those random variables are both proportional to the square of the reciprocal of all odd natural numbers. Nonlinear phase noise can also be accurately modeled as the summation of a noncentral chi2 random variable with two degrees of freedom and a Gaussian random variable.     

Gap detection in multiple narrow bands of noise as a function of spectral configuration.

This study sought to differentiate between the effect of stimulus bandwidth and the effect of number of activated auditory channels on gap detection in narrow bands of noise. The aim was to clarify the role of across-frequency analysis in temporal processing. Experiment 1 established that when total noise bandwidth is held constant at 100 Hz, gap detection improves as stimulus energy is distributed to both lower and higher frequencies. Experiment 2a showed that the effect was smaller, or was absent, when the cumulative stimulus bandwidth was increased from 100 to 200 Hz. Experiment 2b confirmed that the benefit of spectral dispersion for the narrower cumulative bandwidth also held for a higher frequency region. The results suggest that in conditions where the cumulative stimulus bandwidth is relatively narrow and, concomitantly, gap detection is relatively poor, there is an advantage in dispersing the stimulus across a number of auditory channels. The advantage for the distribution of energy across a range of auditory channels may be offset when the spectral spacing of bands exceeds a critical value.     

The attention filter for tones in noise has the same shape and effective bandwidth in the elderly as it has in young listeners

Listeners asked to detect tones masked by noise hear frequent signals but miss infrequent probes, suggesting that they attend to spectral regions where they expect the signals to occur. The narrow detection pattern centered on the frequent target approximates that obtained in notched noise, indicating that attention is focused on the auditory filter. We measured attention bands in young and elderly listeners (n=5, 4; 20-25 and 62-82 years of age) for targets (800 or 1200 Hz) and infrequent probe signals (target +/-25-100 Hz) masked in wideband noise. We anticipated that their width would increase with age, as has been reported for auditory filters. A yes-no single-interval procedure provided detection probabilities and detection response speeds. Both measures showed near-linear declines with decreasing signal level, and graded decay functions as probe frequency deviated from the target frequency. Probes deviating from the target by 25 to 50 Hz were equivalent to a 2-dB reduction in signal level for both measures. The equivalent rectangular bandwidth (ERB) for detection approximated 11% of the signal frequency for each age group. Confidence intervals (95%) showed that the elderly ERB could be at most only about 20% larger than that of younger listeners.     

Comodulation masking release and auditory grouping

The detectability of a pure-tone signal masked by a band of noise centered on the signal can be improved by the addition of flanking noise bands, provided that the temporal envelopes of the flanking bands are correlated with that of the on-signal band. This phenomenon is referred to as comodulation masking release (CMR). The present study examined CMR in conditions in which some flanking noise bands were comodulated with the on-signal band, but other flanking bands (termed "deviant" bands) were not. Past research has indicated that CMR is often substantially reduced when deviant bands are present at spectral locations close to the signal frequency. An investigation was undertaken to determine whether the disruptive effects of such bands could be reduced by factors related to auditory grouping. The signal frequency was 100 Hz. In one condition, only 20-Hz-wide comodulated bands, centered on 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1400, and 1600 Hz, were present. The CMR for this condition, referenced to threshold for the on-signal band only, was approximately 15 dB. In a second condition, two deviant bands were added at 900 and 1100 Hz; their presence reduced the CMR to only 3-4 dB. The number of deviant bands was then increased progressively, from two to eight bands. Deviant bands either shared a common envelope (codeviant), or had unique envelopes (multideviant). The number of bands that were comodulated with the on-signal band was held constant at six.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

甲烷爆炸感应期内火焰光谱特征分析方法研究

基于目标发射光谱分析法的原理,通过分析小尺寸实验平台上测得的体积分数10%的甲烷爆炸火焰光谱数据,提出甲烷爆炸火焰光谱特征分析方法,包括频域特征参数光谱密度、波段辐射光强度、波段平均及偏差,时域特征参数波段辐射能量、时间段平均及偏差和特性参数偏度、峰度、半宽的计算方法;分析得出当甲烷爆炸火焰光谱波长值为某些定值时,光谱密度在1 nm范围内在正向与负向之间转换,表明光强密集程度变化剧烈;甲烷爆炸火焰光谱波段定积分在550～900 nm波段最强;甲烷爆炸火焰光谱信号随着波长的增大可测时间增长,信号强度在达到峰值后整体呈衰减趋势,在衰减过程中间隔出现依次减弱的强度增强;研究结果表明目标发射光谱分析法可应用于甲烷爆炸感应期内火焰光谱的动态半定量分析,分析得出的光谱特征可作为检测甲烷爆炸火焰的判据。     

Monaural masking release in random-phase and low-noise noise

Two masking-release paradigms thought to involve across-channel processing are comodulation masking release (CMR) and profile analysis. Similarities between these two paradigms were explored by comparing signal detection in maskers that varied only in degree of envelope fluctuation. The narrow-band-noise maskers were 10 Hz wide and their envelope fluctuations were manipulated using the low-noise noise algorithm of Pumplin [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 78, 100-104 (1985)]. Masking conditions included the classic CMR conditions of an on-frequency band, multiple (five) incoherent bands, or multiple coherent bands. Detection was compared using both random-phase noise (RPN) and low-noise noise (LNN) maskers. In one set of conditions, the signal was identical to the on-frequency masker, yielding an intensity discrimination task. Conditions that included RPN maskers and tonal signals resembled the classic CMR paradigm, whereas conditions including LNN and noise signals more closely resembled the classic profile analysis paradigm. Other conditions may be considered hybrids. This combination of conditions provided a wide variety of within- and across-channel cues for detection. The results suggest that CMR and profile analysis could be based upon the same set of stimulus cues and perhaps the same perceptual processes.     

基于小波分解的岩石破坏次声信息特征研究

次声探测是近年来在自然灾害临灾预警领域兴起的一种新方法,具有广阔的前景。为了研究岩石破坏次声信息特性,在室内试验的基础上采集了砂岩试件破坏前的次声信号,借助小波分析方法对信号的能量特征进行了分析。结果表明:岩石变形破坏次声信号能量主要集中在4～8 Hz的中频带和8～16 Hz的高频带两个频率范围内,中频带能量大于高频带能量,同时在低频带0～4 Hz内也存在一定的能量分布。随着岩石变形破坏程度的增加,次声信号的中低频带能量在相对减少,在岩石临近破坏前,次声信号的中低频带能量与高频带能量的比值接近1。上述特征的发现,为岩石破坏次声信号识别以及破坏前兆预警提供了重要依据。