Data from: Auditory enhancement under forward masking in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners

Abstract

A target within a spectrally notched masker can be enhanced by a preceding copy of the masker. Enhancement can also increase the effectiveness of the target as a forward masker. Enhancement has been reported in hearing-impaired listeners under simultaneous but not forward masking. However, previous studies of enhancement under forward masking did not fully assess the potential effect of differences in sensation level or spectral resolution between the normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. This study measured enhancement via forward masking in hearing-impaired and age-matched normal-hearing listeners with different spectral notches in the masker, to account for potential differences in frequency selectivity, and with levels equated by adding a background masking noise to equate both sensation level and sound pressure level or by reducing the sound pressure level of the stimuli to equate sensation level.