Abstract
Masking patterns obtained with forward‐masking paradigms and relatively intense maskers sometimes have their peaks at the masker frequency and sometimes at a frequency well above it. Here it is shown that which outcome is obtained depends upon certain temporal parameters of the procedure. Specifically, the masking pattern for a 2000‐Hz tone showed a gradual shift toward higher frequencies as masker intensity was increased from 65 to 95 dB SPL when long signals (about 50 ms) and long masker‐to‐signal intervals (about 50 ms) were used, but the effect was absent or smaller when the signals and intervals were short. This shift did not occur with a 750‐Hz masker. Upward shifts in the masking pattern with increasing masker intensity are in accord with the view that the peak of displacement of the traveling‐wave envelope migrates basally with increasing intensity—an idea that has frequently been suggested as an explanation of the so‐called half‐octave shift so routinely seen in auditory fatigue experiments.