“Information” can mean words or other things that have meaning to you, like sirens or music. This is called informational masking potential because it is the information in the background sound that covers up the other sound. The second type of masking potential happens when the background sound contains information that may distract you.
The louder the sound, or the closer it is in pitch to the sound it is masking, the harder it is to pick the two apart. “Energy” could include how loud the sound is (volume) or how high or low it is (pitch). This is called energetic masking potential because it is the energy of the sound wave that covers up your voice. The first type of masking potential happens when the background sound physically covers up your voice. Masking potential is how likely one sound is to mask, or cover up, another. When one sound covers up another, we call this masking. Scientists who study speech have identified two ways that background sounds make it harder to hear and talk to other people. But what is it that makes such a conversation difficult?
But what if you are standing on a busy street, or meeting a friend at a fairground? Holding a conversation in a very loud place can be tricky. If you are at home in a quiet room, it is pretty easy to concentrate on what you are saying. Most of us have conversations with other people every day, in all kinds of places-at home, in the street, at a party, or in the playground, for example. So, maybe being able to hear yourself is not as important as we thought! Masking: The Problem With Talking in Noise We found that the brain cares most about sounds that contain lots of information, even if they do not block out other noises very well. Maybe it is your favorite song and you cannot help singing along! Which of these do you think affects you most when you are trying to talk? We decided to find out by putting people in a brain scanner and asking them to talk while we played various noises in the background. The background sound might be so loud that it blocks out other noises, or it might contain information that is distracting. What would it be like trying to speak to your friend in all that noise? Scientists call background noise like this “masking sound” because it covers up other sounds, in two ways. Imagine you are at party with loud music playing.