Thresholds of filtered transients

Absolute and masked thresholds were obtained for sinusoids, one-third-octave filtered noise, one-third-octave filtered clicks, and for broadband noise and clicks as a function of repetition rate of the filtered clicks. The results indicate that if signal energy is computed for each stimulus, then similar absolute and masked thresholds can be obtained. Thresholds for repetition rate and number of clicks were similar to published results on temporal integration of tones. These results provide a direct and objective means for measuring the level of brief narrow-band stimuli and support the use of these signals as a means of probing auditory sensitivity.