To determine if listeners can accurately identify various environmental sounds, a total of 40 sounds, including animal, inanimate, musical, and human sounds, were recorded, randomly arranged on a master tape, and presented to 30 judges for identification. Analysis indicated that, in general, listeners can accurately identify environmental sounds. However, their accuracy was not equal for all four classes of sounds investigated: human sounds yielded the highest accuracy, followed by musical and inanimate sounds, and animal sounds were least accurately identified. Implications and suggestions for research are discussed.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if listeners can accurately identify various environmental sounds. A total of 40 sounds were recorded: (a) 20 animal sounds from four cows, cats, dogs, pigs, and sheep; (b) 12 inanimate sounds from four typewriters, car horns, and telephones; (c) four musical sounds from a flute, piano, guitar, and drum; and (d) four human sounds (/pʌ) from two female and two male speakers. A master tape containing the randomly arranged recordings was prepared and presented to 30 judges who were asked to identify the source of each sound and the confidence of their judgments on a seven-point rating scale. Results indicate that listeners can accurately identify environmental sounds. However, their accuracy was not equal within each sound class as well as between all four classes of sounds investigated: human sounds yielded the highest accuracy, followed by musical and inanimate sounds, and animal sounds were least accurately identified. Moreover, listeners' judgmental confidence was similar to that of their accuracy. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

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