Situational and person-related factors influencing momentary and retrospective soundscape evaluations in day-to-day life

Steffens, Jochen; Steele, Daniel; Guastavino, Catherine

doi:10.1121/1.4976627

Cited by 48 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Selected studies make use of different study designs, that are laboratory tests [16,[18][19][20][21]24,25,32,34,36,[41][42][43]47] and field campaigns based on socio-acoustic [15,17,22,23,26,28,35,37,39,40,45,46,[48][49][50][51], social surveys [29][30][31]33,38,44], or soundscape assessments [27]. Laboratory studies evaluate testers' response to experimental stimuli in laboratory settings, under controlled conditions.…”

Section: Study Designs Acoustic Measures and Soundscape Data Collecmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment Methods and Factors Determining Positive Indoor Soundscapes in Residential Buildings: A Systematic Review

et al. 2019

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The design of an indoor acoustic environment positively perceived by building occupants requires a perceptual approach to be adopted in order to define what makes it sound good. Soundscape standards ISO 12913 have been introduced to assess how the acoustic environment is perceived, in context, by people. According to the standards, a straightforward characterization of a soundscape as positive is currently possible only through measurements by persons, because of a current gap in linking perceptual metrics to acoustic or psychoacoustic measurements. In addition, despite applying also to indoor contexts, methods and perceptual metrics described by the standards have been mainly derived from studies related to outdoor urban environments and it is not clear whether they could be directly applied indoor. For this reason, a systematic review was performed to investigate: (i) Data collection methods used in the literature for indoor residential soundscapes and (ii) factors, output of such methods, that characterize them positively. For this purpose, a systematic review has been conducted in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses) guidelines. The Scopus database was searched for peer-reviewed journal papers published in English, between 1 January 2009 and 24 June 2019, including: (1) field or laboratory studies relevant to residential buildings and (2) studies assessing factors that influence the perception by building users of indoor acoustic environments. The search excluded studies related to: (a) Speech perception issues; (b) noise-induced sleep disturbance; (c) acoustic perception by hearing impaired building users; (d) perception of vibrations or impact sounds. The search returned 1087 results. After the screening process, 37 articles were finally included. Given the differences in methodologic approaches, a quantitative meta-analysis could not be performed, and a qualitative approach was adopted instead. A large part of the selected literature reflected a general effort of minimizing noise annoyance by reducing noise exposure and, in particular, noise levels. Questionnaires and guided interviews were used to capture people’s perception, while the adoption of soundwalks and non-participatory behavioral studies did not emerge in the review literature and need further investigation. The evaluation of a variety of auditory sensations both in their positive and negative dimensions, beyond annoyance, would be required to explore the positive perceptual potential of sounds. Besides sound level, a variety of factors related and unrelated to the acoustic environment were found to affect perceptual outcomes and a framework of evaluation has been proposed as a reference for future assessments. Results encourage the integration of soundscape methodologies into IEQ research, in order to enhance user health and well-being.

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Section: Study Designs Acoustic Measures and Soundscape Data Collecmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment Methods and Factors Determining Positive Indoor Soundscapes in Residential Buildings: A Systematic Review

et al. 2019

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“…In examining users’ evaluations of their soundscapes in urban public outdoor spaces, we rely on users’ activities as a key variable that can influence their evaluations, and, through that, the current and future use of the urban public space (see Nielbo et al, 2013; Steffens et al, 2017; Bild et al, 2018 for comparable approaches). With this in mind, this paper aims to understand the factors that can influence and moderate, both separately and together, how users of three different public spaces evaluate their soundscapes in relation to their on-site activities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the role of users’ activities as a variable potentially influencing their relationship with their soundscapes has been suggested before (Dubois, 2000; Lercher and Schulte-Fortkamp, 2003), the effective and explicit integration of activity in scientific research with a focus on urban public spaces is still in its incipient, exploratory phase (Aletta et al, 2016b; Bild et al, 2016, 2018; Lavia et al, 2016; Steffens et al, 2017). Most of these research projects arise from more practice-oriented questions, either dealing with specific soundscape interventions with some form of behavioral control in mind (see Lavia et al, 2012, 2016), or emphasizing the role users’ soundscapes play in relaxation or rehabilitation activities or in relation to auditory comfort, both indoors and outdoors (Mzali, 2002; Delepaut, 2009; Cerwén et al, 2016; Filipan et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Space Users’ Soundscape Evaluations in Relation to Their Activities. An Amsterdam-Based Study

et al. 2018

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Understanding the relationship between people and their soundscapes in an urban context of innumerable and diverse sensory stimulations is a difficult endeavor. What public space users hear and how they evaluate it in relation to their performed or intended activities can influence users’ engagement with their spaces as well as their assessment of suitability of public space for their needs or expectations. While the interaction between the auditory experience and activity is a topic gaining momentum in soundscape research, capturing the complexity of this relationship in context remains a multifaceted challenge. In this paper, we address this challenge by researching the user-soundscape relationships in relation to users’ activities. Building on previous soundscape studies, we explore the role and interaction of three potentially influencing factors in users’ soundscape evaluations: level of social interaction of users’ activities, familiarity and expectations, and we employ affordance theory to research the ways in which users bring their soundscapes into use. To this end, we employ a mixed methods design, combining quantitative, qualitative and spatial analyses to analyze how users of three public spaces in Amsterdam evaluate their soundscapes in relation to their activities. We documented the use of an urban park in Amsterdam through non-intrusive behavioral mapping to collect spatial data on observable categories of activities, and integrated our observations with on site questionnaires on ranked soundscape evaluations and free responses detailing users’ evaluations, collected at the same time from park users. One of our key findings is that solitary and socially interactive respondents evaluate their soundscapes differently in relation to their activities, with the latter offering higher suitability and lower disruption ratings than the former; this points to qualitatively different auditory experiences, analyzed further based on users’ open-ended justifications for their evaluations. We provide a methodological contribution (adding to existing soundscape evaluation methodologies), an empirical contribution (providing insight on how users explain their soundscape evaluations in relation to their activities) and a policy and design-related contribution, offering additional insight on a transferable methodology and process that practitioners can employ in their work on the built environment to address the multisensory experience of public spaces.

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“…Soundscape researchers have sought ecologically valid ways of studying the relationship between users of public and private spaces and their auditory environment, but have only recently begun to consider the role of activity in mediating this relationship i.e. as the explanatory link between users and their environments (Herranz-Pascual et al 2010, Bild, Coler et al 2015, Aletta, Lepore et al 2016, Steffens, Steele & Guastavino 2017. Furthermore, while there is a growing body of knowledge on the influence of certain categories of sounds (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Activity as a Mediator Between Users and Their Auditory Environment in an Urban Pocket Park

Bild

Steele

Pfeffer

et al. 2018

Advances in Civil and Industrial Engineering

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Sound is receiving increasing attention in urban planning and design due to its effects on human health and quality of life. Soundscape researchers have sought ecologically valid measures to describe and explain the complex relationship between people and their auditory environments, largely employing laboratory studies and neglecting the active role of activity. This chapter proposes a situated cognition approach to study the relationship between context, use of space, and the ways in which users describe and evaluate sounds and their auditory environments in an urban pocket park. It draws on empirical data gathered in Parc du Portugal in Montreal, Canada using a mixed-methods research design that integrates ethnographic observations, on-site questionnaires, and behavioral mapping using a geo-spatial app to offer a situated understanding of the human auditory experience in its full complexity, with an emphasis on the mediating role of activity on the user-auditory environment relationship.

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Situational and person-related factors influencing momentary and retrospective soundscape evaluations in day-to-day life

Cited by 48 publications

References 36 publications

Assessment Methods and Factors Determining Positive Indoor Soundscapes in Residential Buildings: A Systematic Review

Assessment Methods and Factors Determining Positive Indoor Soundscapes in Residential Buildings: A Systematic Review

Public Space Users’ Soundscape Evaluations in Relation to Their Activities. An Amsterdam-Based Study

Activity as a Mediator Between Users and Their Auditory Environment in an Urban Pocket Park

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