People's perceptions and classifications of sounds heard in urban parks : semantics, affect and restoration

Sounds have been broadly categorized by researchers into ‘human’, ‘nature’ and ‘mechanical’. It is less clear if the general public define and classify sounds in the same way and which factors influence their classification process. Establishing people’s classification and impression of urban park sounds helps identify their perception and experience of urban parks. This in turn aides the process of defining parks with reference to soundscapes, to produce an appreciated and potentially restorative place. This study involved urban park sounds, identified by park users, being presented in card sorts and survey items. Participants sorted the sounds into similar groups, in reference to a visited park. The terminology, factors involved and classification of the sounds was assessed using multidimensional scaling. Triangulation of the results suggests affect is a key factor in people’s classification process. Participants’ grouped sounds were labelled by affective terms more often than their perceived physical properties. Affective evaluations of each sound produced a similar classification structure as the card sort results. People’s classification structure also varied depending on how restorative they found their urban park. Furthermore schematic recollections played a part with many sounds being ‘expected’. Overall similarities and differences with ‘human’, ‘nature’ and ‘mechanical’ classifications were observed

Detection and emotional evaluation of an electric vehicle’s exterior sound in a simulated environment

Electric vehicles are quiet at low speeds and thus potentially pose a threat to pedestrians’ safety. Laws are formulating worldwide that mandate these vehicles emit sounds to alert the pedestrians of the vehicles’ approach. It is necessary that these sounds promote a positive perception of the vehicle brand, and understanding their impact on soundscapes is also important. Detection time of the vehicle sounds is an important measure to assess pedestrians’ safety. Emotional evaluation of these sounds influences assessment of the vehicle brand. Laboratory simulation is a new approach for evaluating exterior automotive sounds. This study describes the implementation of laboratory simulation to compare the detection time and emotional evaluation of artificial sounds for an electric vehicle. An Exterior Sound Simulator simulated audio-visual stimuli of an electric car passing a crossroad of a virtual town at 4.47 ms-1 (10 mph), from the perspective of a pedestrian standing at the crossroad. In this environment, 15 sounds were tested using experiments where participants detected the car and evaluated its sound using perceptual dimensions. Results show that these sounds vary significantly in their detection times and emotional evaluations, but crucially that traditional metrics like dB(A) do not always relate to the detection of these sounds. Detection time and emotional evaluation do not have significant correlation. Hence, sounds of a vehicle could be detected quickly, but may portray negative perceptions of the vehicle. Simulation provides a means to more fully evaluate potential electric vehicle sounds against the competing criteria

Exploring a cardio-thoracic hospital ward soundscape in relation to restoration

Hospitals can provide stressful experiences for both patients and medical staff. A well-designed hospital soundscape should avoid adding to negative emotional states (e.g. stress), limit any detrimental cognitive effects (e.g. attentional fatigue), and enable restoration. Experiences of the cardio-thoracic ward soundscape, in a UK public University hospital, were explored via semi-structured interviews with 11 patients and 16 nurses. Thematic coding analysis resulted in 11 key themes including notions of restoration and emotional responses. The themes were used to develop a conceptual model to describe the processes involved in the perception and evaluation of the soundscape. The language used by patients and nurses indicated the emotional response to the soundscape was at times stressful and at others potentially restorative. Coping methods of accepting and habituating to individual sounds were noted. The impact of the patients' and nurses' ability to maintain these coping strategies are discussed in relation to restoration and the temporal variation of the soundscape. A period of 'quiet time' was in operation at the hospital and the importance of this was noted through various responses relating to emotion and restoration. The results suggest the soundscape has potentially, a beneficial role in facilitating restoration thus helping patients' recovery and medical staff's ability to remain productive. This research supports the need to study hospital soundscapes further so that design implications can be considered for the production of a more restorative environment, possibly through the masking/removal of unwanted sounds and optimising positive sounds

Towards a methodology for assessing electric vehicle exterior sounds

Laws mandate that electric vehicles emit sounds to ensure pedestrians' safety by alerting pedestrians of the vehicles' approach. Additionally, manufacturers want these sounds to promote positive impressions of the vehicle brand. A reliable and valid methodology is needed to evaluate electric vehicles' exterior sounds. To help develop such a methodology, this paper examines automotive exterior sound evaluation methods in the context of experimental design and cognitive psychology. Currently, such evaluations are usually conducted on road or inside a laboratory; however, a virtual environment provides advantages of both these methods but none of their limitations. The stimuli selected for evaluations must satisfy legislative guidelines. Methods for presenting and measuring the stimuli can affect study outcomes. A methodology is proposed for conducting evaluations of an electric vehicle's exterior sounds, testing its detectability and emotional evaluation. An experiment tested the methodology. Thirty-one participants evaluated an electric car in a virtual environment of a town's T-junction with 15 exterior sounds as stimuli. The car's arrival time, direction of approach, and, thus, distance to pedestrian varied across conditions. Detection time of the sound and pleasantness and powerfulness evaluations of the car were recorded. The vehicle's arrival time and approach direction affected its detectability and emotional evaluation; thus, these are important elements to vary and control in studies. Overall, the proposed methodology increases the realistic context and experimental control than in existing listening evaluations. It benefits by combining two competing elements necessary for assessing electric vehicle exterior sounds, namely, pedestrians' safety and impressions of the vehicle brand

Learning Morphological Productivity as Meaning-Form Mappings

Child language acquisition is famously accurate despite the sparsity of linguistic input. In this paper, we introduce a cognitively motivated method for morphological acquisition with a special focus on verbal inflections. Using UniMorph annotations as an approximation of children’s semantic representation of verbal inflection, we use the Tolerance Principle to explicitly identify the formal processes of segmentation and mutation that productively encode the semantic relations (e.g., past tense) between stems and inflected forms. Using a child-directed corpus of verbal inflection forms, our model acquires the verbal inflection morphemes of Spanish and English as a list of explicit and linguistically interpretable rules of suffixation and stem change corresponding to sets of semantic features

Analysing olfactory and auditory sensescapes in English cities: Sensory expectation and urban environmental perception

Cet article analyse la manière dont les individus perçoivent une gamme variée de stimuli, notamment les sons et les odeurs émis par l’activité humaine, lors de leur déambulation dans les espaces publics des villes anglaises. La démonstration s’appuie sur deux études portant sur la déambulation sensorielle (sensewalking) menées entre 2004 et 2009 indépendamment l’une de l’autre mais avec un objectif identique. La première explore la perception de l’environnement olfactif, tandis que l’autre, s’attarde sur les expériences sonores urbaines. La comparaison des résultats montre que les expectations sensorielles modifient l’attitude des individus dans le milieu urbain en induisant des niveaux de signification et de compréhension variés. Par conséquent, il y a là un défi pour les architectes et les aménageurs de créer des milieux où la prise en compte de ces différents modes de perception pourrait conduire à des réponses plus adéquates. Si l’on convient que la perception (ou la non perception) des odeurs et des sons est fortement influencée par l’environnement, il est donc fondamental que le contexte initial soit prise en compte au moment de redéfinir et de gérer les aménagements sensoriels urbains.This paper examines the role of sensory expectation in people’s experiences and perceptions of a range of different urban environments in English towns and cities by focussing upon those related to smell and sound specifically. It draws from two separate but related sensewalking studies undertaken between 2004 and 2009: one exploring urban smell experiences, the other examining urban sound experiences. In drawing from, and comparing the findings of these two studies, sensory expectations are argued as highly influential in urban place experience and perception, providing different layers of meaning and understanding of place, and presenting challenges and opportunities for architects and urban designers when creating more human-centred places in the city. In addition, perceptions of the smells and sounds themselves are revealed as highly influenced by the environmental context within which they are, or are not, detected. As a result, the authors advocate a more proactive approach to the consideration of smells and sound information when designing and managing urban sensory environments

Exploring the Validity of the Perceived Restorativeness Soundscape Scale: A Psycholinguistic Approach

Soundscapes affect people's health and well-being and contribute to the perception of environments as restorative. This paper continues the validation process of a previously developed Perceived Restorativeness Soundscape Scale (PRSS). The study takes a novel methodological approach to explore the PRSS face and construct validity by examining the qualitative reasons for participants' numerical responses to the PRSS items. The structure and framing of items are first examined, to produce 44 items which are assessed on a seven-point Likert agreement scale, followed by a free format justification. Ten English speaking participants completed the PRSS interpretation questionnaire in two cafes in Montréal, Canada. Interpretation of participant free format responses led to six themes, which related to either the individual (personal attributes, personal outcomes), the environment (physical environment attributes, soundscape design) or an interaction of the two (behavior setting, normality, and typicality). The themes are discussed in relation to each Attention Restoration Theory (ART) component, namely Fascination, Being-Away, Compatibility, and Extent. The paper concludes by discussing the face and construct validity of the PRSS, as well as the wider methodological and theoretical implications for soundscape and attention restoration research, including the terminology importance in items measuring ART components and the value of all four components in assessing perceived restorativeness

Using a bespoke situated digital kiosk to encourage user participation in healthcare environment design

Involving users through participation in healthcare service and environment design is growing. Existing approaches and toolkits for practitioners and researchers are often paper based involving workshops and other more traditional design approaches such as paper prototyping. The advent of digital technology provides the opportunity to explore new platforms for user participation. This paper presents results from three studies that used a bespoke situated user participation digital kiosk, engaging 33 users in investigating healthcare environment design. The studies, from primary and secondary care settings, allowed participant feedback on each environment and proved a novel, engaging “21st century” way to participate in the appraisal of the design process. The results point toward this as an exciting and growing area of research in developing not just a new method of user participation but also the technology that supports it. Limitations were noted in terms of data validity and engagement with the device. To guide the development of user participation using similar situated digital devices, key lessons and reflections are presented