Abstract
The threshold of octave masking (TOM) test was administered to normal-hearing and sensorineural-impaired listeners at four test frequencies; 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz. The TOM value was found to be inversely proportional to the degree of hearing loss at the masker frequency. Results indicate that the TOM test is capable of distinguishing subjects with sensorineural involvement from those with normal hearing and of providing a measure of the degree of sensory dysfunction. Examination of the slope of octave masking revealed that once the influence of hearing loss is overcome at higher intensities the sensorineural ear performs essentially the same as the normal ear in a tone-on-tone masking task.