Evaluation of Acoustical Environments in Eating Establishments

Abstract

The acoustical environments, and the acoustical conditions to which customers and workers are exposed, were evaluated in ten existing eating establishments. The perceived quality of the EE acoustical environments for customers and employees, and how respondent-related factors and the EE acoustical characteristics affect it, were investigated. These objectives were achieved by way of physical and acoustical measurements, and customer and employee questionnaires and their statistical analysis. Summary statistics, and the results of correlation and stratification analyses of the data, are reported and interpreted. A simple regression model for the reduction of customer enjoyment of the dining experience is presented. Lessons learned for EE design are discussed.

Lombard effect, intelligibility, ambient noise, and willingness to spend time and money in a restaurant amongst older adults

“…Restaurants are designed to look aesthetically pleasing and modernized, which often is portrayed with a lack of materials used to absorb sound. The lack of these materials tends to increase the overall noise level in the restaurant which has caused diners, critics, audiologists and researchers to take notice 1 , 3 , 5 – 12 . In 2018, a repeated restaurant survey revealed noise was the primary complaint of restaurant patrons 12 .…”

“…Typical restaurant noise can fluctuate throughout the course of an evening ranging from 65 dB(A) up to as high as 85 dB(A) 1 , 3 , 4 , 7 , 13 . This causes increased difficulty to be heard and understood by anyone 4 , 5 , 10 , 13 . The main source of noise in a restaurant is caused by the patrons, as a consequence several researches suggested that dining establishments should no longer be thought to have “maximum capacity” but rather “acoustical capacity” 5 , 6 , 10 .…”

“…This causes increased difficulty to be heard and understood by anyone 4 , 5 , 10 , 13 . The main source of noise in a restaurant is caused by the patrons, as a consequence several researches suggested that dining establishments should no longer be thought to have “maximum capacity” but rather “acoustical capacity” 5 , 6 , 10 . The maximum capacity can be defined as the number of seats occupied within the restaurant space, in order to retain efficiency and safety to both the workers and patrons.…”

“…The hypotheses of the current study are: (1) Older adults will have a lower Lombard Effect than the previous young adult group, as a result of aging and decreased vocal effort 32 . (2) Older adults will perceive a greater disturbance than the young adult group, due to younger adults’ lesser likelihood of peripheral hearing loss and more reliable auditory processing abilities 5 , 31 , 35 . 3) Older adults’ willingness to spend time and money will decrease as the noise increases, due to their dislike of louder noise levels while dining out 5 .…”

“…(2) Older adults will perceive a greater disturbance than the young adult group, due to younger adults’ lesser likelihood of peripheral hearing loss and more reliable auditory processing abilities 5 , 31 , 35 . 3) Older adults’ willingness to spend time and money will decrease as the noise increases, due to their dislike of louder noise levels while dining out 5 . 4) Older adults will perform poorer on intelligibility as the noise increases, due to their recorded peripheral hearing loss, lack of amplification to assist in preservation of word understanding abilities, and their general decrease in cognition specifically for selective attention, working memory, and auditory closure abilities.…”