A battery of 21 contact‐detection tests was prepared consisting of a variety of signals immersed in one of three types of background noise. Signals were pure‐tone pulses, filtered clicks, speech, and several other complex sounds. Backgrounds were either white noise, a frequency‐modulated noise band, or an interrupted noise. The fundamental question is whether performance in handling tasks involving unfavorable S/N ratios is an unitary trait or whether several different (though perhaps related) abilities are involved. Two groups of young men, of average or better intelligence, were given the battery: a group of 72 given special motivation and more prolonged testing, and a group of 700 given more‐routine treatment. Four factors emerge from a Thurstone centroid treatment: an ability to detect complex noises, an ability to understand masked speech, an ability to detect tone pulses in a noise, and an ability to detect clicks in an interrupted noise. Interpretations of these factors are offered. Evidently, the area of contact detection is factorially complex; parameters involved in any particular experimental situation may not necessarily be involved in the same way in other situations.