The effect of pure‐tone forward masking on overshoot

The overshoot effect can be reduced by temporary hearing loss induced by aspirin or exposure to intense sound. The present study simulated a hearing loss at 4.0 kHz via pure‐tone forward masking and examined the effect of the simulation on threshold for a 10‐ms, 4.0‐kHz signal presented 1 ms after the onset of a 400‐ms, broadband noise masker whose spectrum level was 20 dB SPL. Masker frequency was 3.6, 4.0, or 4.2 kHz, and masker level was 80 dB SPL. Subject‐dependent delays were determined such that 10 or 20 dB of masking at 4.0 kHz was produced. In general, the pure‐tone forward masker did not reduce the simultaneous‐masked threshold, suggesting that elevating threshold with a pure‐tone forward masker does not sufficiently simulate the effect of a temporary hearing loss on overshoot.