The acoustic reflex at a 1000 Hz probe frequency: phasor and vector analysis.

Phasor plots of reflex growth functions have been inconclusive concerning the effect of the reflex for mass dominated ears. The present study aimed to establish whether vector plots clarified the effects of the reflex for phasors not showing a clear circular shape. Measured admittance data (ipsilateral reflexes across a wide intensity range) was represented as both phasor diagrams and converted to impedance quantities, represented as vectors. The results analysed for 34 ears showed few unclassifiable phasor diagrams. In addition, all growth functions showed increased stiffness on vector analysis. Resistance changes appeared to be variable. The results suggest that vector diagrams may be a useful way of representing data that is not clearly represented via phasor diagrams. The current study, however, does not clarify the pattern for mass dominated ears.