Abstract:
When listeners focus on a sound with two or more frequency components to detect an auditory signal, other unattended sounds are suppressed and sensitivity to those sounds is diminished. This result suggests that an attentional filter is involved in the auditory processing. This study shows how to detect the various frequencies when attention is directed by a multiple-component tone. Two components and a number of harmonic tones are presented as a cue signal in the probe-signal procedure. When the cue tone has two components, the target tone is a signal with and near a component frequency. In the case of a harmonic cue, it is a signal with a component, with and near a fundamental frequency. Using ROEX filter estimation, the bandwidth of the attentional filter is discussed. As a result, the frequency spacing between two components affects the shape of the attentional filter. The bandwidth of a filter is almost equal to the critical bandwidth, when the components are moderately apart. Meanwhile, when very far apart, the bandwidth is larger than the critical one. When the cue is a harmonic signal, the detectability of the component signal is less than that with a fundamental frequency. The asymmetric filter is estimated in a fundamental frequency.