Soundscapes and Sensitivity

Tarlao, Steffens, and Guastavino’s work verifies that many factors besides the actual noises themselves influence perceptions of acoustic experiences. The researchers report that “Previous soundscape research has shown a complex relationship between soundscapes, public space usage and contexts of users’ visits to the space. . . . The present study is a comparative analysis of in situ questionnaires collected over four study sites in Montreal . . . . in both French and English. . . .  The analyses. . .. . suggest[s] that younger people, women, and extraverted people occupy the public space more in groups, and that people in groups rate the soundscape as more pleasant and less eventful. Older people and women were found to be more sensitive to noise, and more sensitive people tended to perceive the soundscape as less pleasant and less monotonous.”

Cynthia Tarlao, Jochen Steffens, and Catherine Guastavino.  “Investigating Contextual Influences on Urban Soundscape Evaluations with Structural Equation Modeling.”  Building and Environment, in press, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.107490