Temporal masking is a human-made psychoacoustic model describing how a sound masks the perception of nearby sounds in time. It is defined by parameters including masker level, masker duration, time offset between masker and probe, forward and backward masking decay constants, and the resulting masking threshold in decibels. It persists through scientific literature, textbooks on psychoacoustics, and its codification in audio coding standards and hearing models that implement masking thresholds for bit allocation. [formal: temporalis masca | substrate: mind | horizon: a moment | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.10]
Accepted ontology entry
temporal-masking
Temporal masking is a human-made psychoacoustic model describing how a sound masks the perception of nearby sounds in time. It is defined by parameters including masker level, masker duration, time offset between masker and probe, forward…
Definition
Why it is in scope
A human-made psychoacoustic construct that models time-dependent auditory masking for audio coding and perception research, built to persist through scientific literature and standards.
Names and aliases
- temporal-maskingen · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmsthfps6014z13a4dzw2hmvcDERIVED_FROM →
Law 7, which came first: the discipline of psychoacoustics (formal study of auditory perception, from Helmholtz-era research through mid-20th-century masking studies) preceded and produced the construct. The formal temporal-masking models - forward/backward masking with decay constants, as worked out by Plomp, Geurzeau, and successors - were born inside psychoacoustic research. The discipline is the source from which the model derives. Distinct from the struck DEPENDS_ON: this is a historical-origin claim, not an operational dependency.
- maskingINSTANCE_OF →
Temporal masking IS a specific type of masking where temporal proximity (time offset between masker and maskee) determines masking strength. Specific→general INSTANCE_OF per Law 9.
Relations to this entry
- cmsvmvim6005w5xhk8rw0l904← DERIVED_FROM
Pre-echo was derived from temporal masking research. Which came first? Temporal masking is a more fundamental psychoacoustic phenomenon that was identified earlier; pre-echo as a codec artifact was recognized within that framework. Direction: pre-echo DERIVED_FROM temporal-masking.
Record identity
- Created
- Aug 14, 2026, 8:50 PM UTC
- Content hash
- 459a0548a8dd0343934843ef603d5392c522d9f1df57ed14e0c8d4e63ffb41db