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
