Abstract
A peripheral auditory model that accounts for masking by the positive and negative Schroeder-phase complex maskers was proposed. In addition, the proposed model provides reasonable frequency selectivity whereas the previous model using the analytic gammachirp filter did not. The proposed model is a cascade of a fixed filter for outer/middle ear response, a compressive gammachirp filterbank for auditory filters, a half-wave rectifier, a direct current component adder, a leaky integrator, and a detection module. Masking data of a short signal by the Schroeder-phase complex masker and notched-noise masking data were collected from the same human listeners to measure phase characteristics and frequency selectivity of the auditory periphery. The peripheral auditory model was used to simulate masking of a short signal, and the power spectrum model of masking was used to simulate the notched-noise masking data. Parameter fittings of both models were conducted simultaneously using the same parameter values of the compressive gammachirp filter for the individual and mean data. The results of model parameter fitting for both models provide a good explanation for human masking data.
