Some observations on the masking effects of Mach bands.

There are 8 cycle/deg ripples or oscillations in performance as a function of location near Mach bands in experiments measuring Mach bands' masking effects on random polarity signal bars. The oscillations with increments are 180 degrees out of phase with those for decrements. The oscillations, much larger than the measurement error, appear to relate to the weighting function of the spatial-frequency-tuned channel detecting the broadband signals. The ripples disappear with step maskers and become much smaller at durations below 25 ms, implying either that the site of masking has changed or that the weighting function and hence spatial-frequency tuning is slow to develop.