Reverberation limits the release from informational masking obtained in the harmonic and binaural domains

Abstract

A difference in fundamental frequency (ΔF0) and a difference in spatial location (ΔSL) are two cues known to provide masking releases when multiple speakers talk at once in a room. We examined situations in which reverberation should have no effect on the mechanisms underlying the releases from energetic masking produced by these two cues. Speech reception thresholds using both unpredictable target sentences and the coordinate response measure followed a similar pattern. Both ΔF0s and ΔSLs provided masking releases in the presence of nonspeech maskers (matched in excitation pattern and temporal envelope to the speech maskers) that, as intended, were robust to reverberation. Larger masking releases were obtained for speech maskers, but critically, they were affected by reverberation. These results suggest that reverberation either limits the amount of informational masking that is present to begin with or affects its release by ΔF0s or ΔSLs.