Differences in common psychoacoustical tasks by sex, menstrual cycle, and race

Abstract

The psychoacoustical literature contains multiple reports about small differences in performance depending upon the sex and phase of the menstrual cycle of the subjects. In an attempt to verify these past reports, a large-scale study was implemented. After extensive training, the performance of about 75 listeners was measured on seven common psychoacoustical tasks. For most tasks, the signal was a 3.0-kHz tone. The initial data analyses failed to confirm some past outcomes. Additional analyses, incorporating the limited information available about the racial background of the listeners, did confirm some of the past reports, with the direction and magnitude of the differences often diverging for the White and Non-White listeners. Sex differences and race differences interacted for six of the seven tasks studied. These interactions suggest that racial background needs to be considered when making generalizations about human auditory performance, and when considering failures of reproducibility across studies. Menstrual differences were small, but generally larger for Whites than Non-Whites. Hormonal effects may be responsible for the sex and cycle differences that do exist, and differences in intra-cochlear melanocytes may account for the race differences.

FIG. 1.

Detection of a 3.0-kHz tone in the quiet (duration 300 ms). (Top) Subjects are pooled across race. (Bottom) Subjects are partitioned by race. For all figures shown, the error bars denote the standard error of the mean and footnote is relevant. Discrepancies between the N's for the pooled and partitioned conditions are attributable to the absence of responses to the questionnaire items on race/ethnicity or to anomalies in the data collected for individual subjects.

FIG. 2.

Overshoot. The masker was a wideband noise, 300 ms in duration and spectrum level of 17 dB/Hz (25 dB/Hz for Pre-VMm males). The signal was a 3.0-kHz tone of 10 ms duration and presented either 2 or 225 ms after the onset of the masker. Decibel difference in performance for the two delays (short minus long) is the magnitude of overshoot. (Top) Subjects are pooled across race. (Bottom) Subjects are partitioned by race.

FIG. 3.

Bandwidth of the auditory filter (ERB) determined using a pair of noise bands adjusted to have different frequency separations (notch widths) on different blocks of trials. Noise was 17 dB/Hz (25 dB/Hz for Pre-VMm males). Signal was a 3.0-kHz tone; both signal and noise were 300 ms, presented simultaneously. (Top) Subjects are pooled across race. (Bottom) Subjects are partitioned by race.

FIG. 4.

Forward masking. Masker was a 3.0-kHz tone of 300 ms duration and 42 dB SPL (50 dB SPL for Pre-VMm males). The signal was the same frequency but 20 ms in duration and presented 5 ms after masker offset. Decibel difference in detection with and without tonal masker is amount of forward masking. (Top) Subjects are pooled across race. (Bottom) Subjects are partitioned by race.

FIG. 5.

Greenwood task. The signal was a 3.6-kHz tone of 300 ms duration. One masker was a 3.0-kHz tone of 62 dB SPL (70 dB SPL for Pre-VMm males). The second masker was a narrowband of noise centered over the 2f_lower − f_higher CT at 2.4 kHz and having a spectrum level of 27 dB/Hz (35 dB/Hz for Pre-VMm males). Both maskers were continuously present. Decibel difference in performance with and without the narrowband masker is the Greenwood effect. (Top) Subjects are pooled across race. (Bottom) Subjects are partitioned by race.

FIG. 6.

Complex, uncertain masker (profile analysis). The masker was 10 tones pseudorandomly selected for each observation interval over the range of 0.5 to 6.0 kHz; each tone was 42 dB SPL in level (50 dB SPL for Pre-VMm males). The signal was a 3.0-kHz tone of 300 ms duration, simultaneously present with the masker. (Top) Subjects are pooled across race. (Bottom) Subjects are partitioned by race.

FIG. 7.

Two-tone suppression. One masker was a 3.0-kHz tone of 42 SPL and the second masker was a 3.45-kHz tone of 52 SPL (both levels were 8 dB higher for Pre-VMm males); both were 300 ms in duration. The signal was a 3.0-kHz tone of 20 ms duration presented 5 ms after masker offset (forward masking). Decibel difference in detection with and without the second masker is the amount of two-tone suppression. (Top) Subjects are pooled across race. (Bottom) Subjects are partitioned by race.