Effects of Background Sounds on Annoyance Reaction to Foreground Sounds in Psychoacoustic Experiments in the Laboratory: Limits and Consequences

Taghipour, Armin; Pelizzari, Eduardo

doi:10.3390/app9091872

Cited by 6 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…It is reasonable to assume that higher (or cumulative) sound pressure levels are generally associated with lower acoustic comfort ratings (see Section 5.6 for a discussion on the effect of sound pressure level on acoustic comfort). This is consistent with other laboratory experiments, whereby "short-term noise annoyance" was reported either not to be significantly affected by increasing playback sequence or to increase with it (Schäffer et al, 2016(Schäffer et al, , 2019Taghipour and Pelizzari, 2019;Taghipour et al, 2019a). Hereby, it is noted that increased noise annoyance is typically associated with decreased acoustic comfort (Yang and Kang, 2005).…”

Section: Discussion and Implications Of The Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

“…While almost all sounds yielded a negative rating concerning the perceived acoustic comfort, relatively pleasant and relatively unpleasant sounds were found to increase and decrease acoustic comfort, respectively. Enabling facilities that invite relatively pleasant sounds, e.g., playing children as well as water features, birds and vegetation (Jeon et al, 2010;De Coensel et al, 2011;Taghipour and Pelizzari, 2019) and avoiding facilities which encourage relatively unpleasant sounds and noisy activities (such as basketball) might improve the overall acoustic comfort in inner yards. This point should be, however, treated with caution, due to inherent differences between shortterm responses in a laboratory setup and long-term effects of the sounds in a living environment (Schäffer et al, 2016;Taghipour et al, 2019a).…”

Section: Discussion and Implications Of The Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Room Acoustical Parameters as Predictors of Acoustic Comfort in Outdoor Spaces of Housing Complexes

et al. 2020

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Room acoustical parameters have frequently been used to evaluate or predict the acoustical performance in rooms. For housing complexes in urban areas with high population density, it is important to improve acoustic performance not solely indoors, but outdoors as well; for example on the balconies or in the yards. This paper investigates to what extent classic room acoustical parameters would be able to predict the perceived acoustic comfort in outdoor spaces (i.e., courtyards) of virtual housing complexes. Individual and combined effects of a series of independent variables (such as facade absorption, sound source, and observer position) on short-term acoustic comfort were investigated in three laboratory experiments. ODEON software was used for virtual inner yard simulation, whereby 2D spatialization was carried out for a playback over five loudspeakers. Moderate facade absorption was found to increase acoustic comfort. Relatively pleasant and relatively unpleasant sounds were associated with comfort and discomfort, respectively. Lower acoustic comfort ratings were observed at receiver positions with high sound pressure levels and/or strong flutter echoes. A further analysis of the results is carried out here with respect to the room acoustical parameters and their ability to predict the acoustic comfort ratings. Speech transmission index (STI), definition (D50), clarity of speech (C50) and music (C80), early decay time (EDT), and lateral energy fraction (LF80) were found to be significantly correlated with acoustic comfort. They were found to be significant predictors of acoustic comfort in a series of linear mixed-effect models. Furthermore, linear mixed-effect models were established with the A-weighted equivalent continuous sound level, LAeq, as a significant predictor of acoustic comfort.

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Section: Discussion and Implications Of The Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussion and Implications Of The Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Room Acoustical Parameters as Predictors of Acoustic Comfort in Outdoor Spaces of Housing Complexes

et al. 2020

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“…Introducing additional background sounds in the noise-polluted sound environment would lead to even higher SPL. Despite that, certain background sounds seem to have a positive influence on the perception of the soundscape [49][50][51][52][53][54]. Relatively pleasant background sounds are shown to be associated with increased acoustic comfort [10] and decreased noise annoyance [54].…”

Section: Background Soundsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite that, certain background sounds seem to have a positive influence on the perception of the soundscape [49][50][51][52][53][54]. Relatively pleasant background sounds are shown to be associated with increased acoustic comfort [10] and decreased noise annoyance [54]. More specifically, it has been suggested that sounds of water features, birds, or natural vegetation could improve the quality of the (acoustic) living environment [51,52].…”

Section: Background Soundsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improved acoustics for semi-enclosed spaces in the proximity of residential buildings

et al. 2023

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Continuous urban densification exacerbates acoustic challenges for residents of housing complexes. They are confronted with higher noise immission from railway, road traffic, construction, as well as louder neighborhood acoustic environments. Thereby, not only noise immission indoors is associated with stress, annoyance, and sleep disturbance, but also the immediate outdoor living environment (e.g., courtyards, private gardens, and playgrounds, etc.) can be acoustically unpleasant and annoying. This non-exhaustive narrative review paper elaborates on the role of a number of design parameters on improving the quality of the outdoor soundscape of housing complexes: architectural and morphological design, facade material characteristics, balconies, greenery, ground, background sounds, and several factors concerning quality of sounds (e.g., multisensory perception, holistic design, the relevance of space, context, social factors, co-creation, etc.). It mainly covers literature including both acoustical (e.g., sound pressure level and room acoustical parameters) and human/perceptual (e.g., comfort and annoyance) factors. A series of recommendations are presented here as to how the semi-enclosed outdoor spaces in the proximity of residential complexes can be acoustically improved.

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“…This separation of foreground events from background noise has subsequently been widely used (e.g. [17][18][19][20]).…”

Section: Environmental Sound and Headphone Media Parametersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying headphone listening experience in virtual sound environments using distraction

Rane

Coleman

Mason

et al. 2022

J AUDIO SPEECH MUSIC PROC.

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Headphones are commonly used in various environments including at home, outside and on public transport. However, the perception and modelling of the interaction of headphone audio and noisy environments is relatively unresearched. This work investigates the headphone listening experience in noisy environments using the perceptual attributes of distraction and quality of listening experience. A virtual sound environment was created to simulate real-world headphone listening, with variations in foreground sounds, background contexts and busyness, headphone media content and simulated active noise control. Listening tests were performed, where 15 listeners rated both distraction and quality of listening experience across 144 stimuli using a multiple-stimulus presentation. Listener scores were analysed and compared to a computational model of listener distraction. The distraction model was found to be a good predictor of the perceptual distraction rating, with a correlation of 0.888 and an RMSE of 13.4%, despite being developed to predict distraction in the context of audio-on-audio interference in sound zones. In addition, perceived distraction and quality of listening experience had a strong negative correlation of − 0.953. Furthermore, the busyness and type of the environment, headphone media, loudness of the foreground sound and active noise control on/off were significant factors in determining the distraction and quality of listening experience scores.

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Effects of Background Sounds on Annoyance Reaction to Foreground Sounds in Psychoacoustic Experiments in the Laboratory: Limits and Consequences

Cited by 6 publications

References 35 publications

Room Acoustical Parameters as Predictors of Acoustic Comfort in Outdoor Spaces of Housing Complexes

Room Acoustical Parameters as Predictors of Acoustic Comfort in Outdoor Spaces of Housing Complexes

Improved acoustics for semi-enclosed spaces in the proximity of residential buildings

Quantifying headphone listening experience in virtual sound environments using distraction

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