Masking Redux II: A Recommended Masking Protocol

This is the second in a series of two papers on masking. The objective of these papers is to develop a masking protocol that provides valid measures of threshold and is, in general, faster than the plateau method. In the first paper, a masking method was presented that can replace the traditional plateau method in most masking situations. This new method is optimized to require fewer masking levels than the plateau method. As a result, this optimized method is faster, sometimes significantly, than the plateau method. This paper evaluates the optimized method and compares the optimized method to the traditional plateau method. This paper identifies specific masking situations in which the optimized method is not appropriate. A variation on the plateau method is described. When combined with the optimized method, these two masking methods constitute a recommended masking protocol that can be used in all masking situations.

Key Words

Audiometry - auditory thresholds - masking - optimized method - plateau method