Psychological Monographs: General and Applied - No. 433 - Pure-Tone Thresholds Following Stimulation by Narrow-Band Filtered Noise

Sep 21, 2026

Pure-tone poststimulatory auditory thresholds were studied following stimulation using narrow-band filtered noise. John L. Fletcher reviews prior evidence that intense auditory stimulation can produce bidirectional effects, defined as sensitization (lowered normal threshold or increased acuity), sometimes depending on test-tone frequency and exposure conditions. The work evaluates a theoretical account linked to post-tetanic potentiation by comparing expected sensitization inside a filtered gap with reduced or absent effects in the gap due to diminished tetanization, using filtered and unfiltered noise as controls.

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Psychological Monographs: General and Applied

Pure-Tone Thresholds Following Stimulation by Narrow-Band Filtered Noise

No.433 1957 | Pure-Tone Thresholds Following Stimulation
by Narrow-Band Filtered Noise
By
John L.Fletcher
Army Medical Research Laboratory,Fort Knox,Kentuch) | | --- | lohn L. Fletcher Vol.71 No.4 # chologicalMonographs eneral and AppliedPricc S1.00 Edited by Herbert S.ConradPublished by The American Psychological Association,Inc. ## Psychological Monographs:General and Applied Combining the Applied Psychology Monographs and the Archives of Psychologywith the Psychological Monographs HERBERT S.CONRAD,Editor Department of Health,Education,and Welfare Office of Education Washington 25,D.C. Consulting Editors HAROLD E.JONES DONALD E.BAIER DoNALD W.MACKINNON FRANK A.BEACH LORRIN A.RiGGS ROBERT G.BERNREUTER CARL R.RoGERS W1LLIAM A.BROVNELL SAUL RoSENZWEIG HAROLD E.BURTT Ross STAGNER JERRY W.CARTER,JR. PERCIVAL M.SYMONDS CLYDE H.CooMBS JoSEPH TIFFIN JoHN F.DASHIELL LEDYARD R TUCKER EUGENIA HANFMANN JOSEPH ZUBIN EDNA HEIDBREDER ARTHUR C.HoFFMAN,Managing EditorHELEN ORR,Assistant Managing EditorEditorial Staff:FRANCES H.CLARK,BARBARA CUMMINGS,SADIE J.DoYLE MANUSCRIPTs should be sent to the Editor. Because of lack of space,the Psychological Monographs can print only the originalor advanced contribution of the author.Background and bibliographic materialsmust,in general,be totally excluded or kept to an irreducible minimum.Statisticaltables should be used to present only the most important of the statistical data orevidence. The first page of the manuscript should contain the title of the paper,the author'sname,and his institutional connection (or his city of residence).Acknowledgmentsshould be kept brief,and appear as a footnote on the first page.No table of contentsneed be included.For other directions or suggestions on the preparation of manu-scripts,see:CONRAD,H.S.Preparation of manuscripts for publication as mono-graphs.J.Psychol.,1948,26,447-459. CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING BUSINESS MATTERS(such as subscriptions and sales,change of address,etc.)should be addressed to the American Psychological Associa-tion,Inc.,1333 Sixteenth St.N.W.,Washington 6,D.C.Address changes must arriveby the 1oth of the month to take effect the following month.Undelivered copiesresulting from address changes will not be replaced;subscribers should notify thepost office that they will guarantee third-class forwarding postage. CoPYRIGHT,1957,BY THE AMERICAN PsYCHOLOGICAL,AssOCIATION,INC. ## Pure-Tone Thresholds Following Stimulation by Narrow-Band Filtered Noise¹ JoHN L.FLETCHER Ist Lt.,MSC,USAArmy Medical Research Laboratory,Fort Knox,Kentucky² HE literature regarding auditory fa- L.tigue is abundant.Without attempt-ing an exhaustive review of the litera-ture,the studies of Causse and Chavasse (3),Davis et al.(5),Epstein(7),Harris(10,11,12).Hirsh and Ward(14),Rawdon-Smith (22),Rawnsley and Har-ris(23,24),and Rosenblith (25),Rosen-blith,Galambos,and Hirsh(26),andRosenzweig and Rosenblith(27)showthat inuch effort has been exerted to re-late such factors as the frequency,inten-sity,and duration of exposure of testsounds topoststimulatory auditorythresholds. Evidence has appeared indicating that audi-tory poststimulatory effects can be bidirectional, i.e.,either an increase or a decrease in auditorysensitivity can follow intense auditory stimula-tion.Several investigators have reported what hascome to be called“sensitization”(1,2,4,5,8, 12,13,14,15,16,21)following stimulation.It ishere defined as a lowering of the normal auditorythreshold (or conversely,an increase in normalauditory acuity).Some investigators(1,13,16)report that sensitization varies with the frequencyof the test tone or with the frequency of the ex-posure tone.Bronstein (1)found that sensitiza- tion was less for low frequency tones and increas-ingly greater for higher frequencies.Hughes(15)noted maximum sensitization at 300-500 cps.Healso reported that one of his three extens

FAQs

What effect does intense auditory stimulation have on auditory sensitivity?

It can be bidirectional: sensitivity may increase or decrease after stimulation, often described as sensitization when thresholds lower or acuity rises.

How is sensitization defined in the document?

Sensitization is defined as a lowering of the normal auditory threshold, or conversely an increase in normal auditory acuity.

Why compare narrow-band filtered noise with an unfiltered noise control?

A filtered gap is expected to receive less stimulation during exposure, which should yield different poststimulatory responses inside the gap; unfiltered noise serves to test the hypothesis.

Sep 21, 2026

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