Psychophysical measures using low-noise noise

The term low-noise noise describes a non-Gaussian, random-phase signal with minimal fluctuations in the envelope. Also referred to as low-fluctuation noise and originally adopted for psychophysical investigation by Hartmann and Plumplin [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 83, 2277–2289 (1988)], this unique signal has subsequently been used to uncover several basic mechanisms of auditory perception, including in studies on gap detection, the binaural masking level difference, loudness judgment, forward masking, and speech masking. Though originally computationally expensive for real-time generation, narrow-band low-noise noise is now feasible for psychophysical experiments using any of several time-efficient methods. We discuss the historical impact of this useful signal for understanding envelope cues in natural waveforms, and we provide a potential vision for future studies.