Effect of listeners' language backgrounds on pure tone detection in temporally modulated noise.

Previous studies in our laboratory showed that English-native listeners had greater masking release from the temporal variation in noise than Chinese-native listeners in speech perception tasks. The goal of this study was to examine whether the advantage of temporal dip listening for English-native listeners was also presented in non-speech perception. Thresholds of temporal modulation detection and thresholds of tone detection in stationary and temporally modulated noise were measured for English- and Chinese-native listeners. Results indicated significant group difference in the masking release for tone detection, but with no difference in temporal modulation detection, suggesting the language effects on psychoacoustical temporal processing.