抄録
To investigate the temporal course of the frequency characteristics of the response elicited in the auditory system, pure-tone masking patterns were obtained at several time positions relative to the onset or the offset of the masker. The simultaneous masking patterns obtained suggest that the shape of the response distribution remained almost unchanged during the masker, although they are less informative compared to the other conditions because of interaction effects between the masker and the probe. The forward masking data illustrate the decay course of the distribution and are believed to give more reliable informations as to the frequency selectivity of the auditory system. The backward masking data, however, fail to give any tenable suggestions. The phenomenon of the shift in the maximum-masking-frequency was observed in all conditions and its underlying mechanisms were discussed.
