Physiological and psychological responses to soundscapes and their connections using machine learning

Abstract

Acoustic environment has significant impacts on humans' feelings and emotions, cognitive performance, and behaviours. It evokes both physiological and psychological responses, which in the long term affect physical and mental health. It has been long believed that physiological and psychological responses are interconnected, yet their correlations are complex and may vary among conditions and studies. This present research study explores the physiological and psychological responses at the exposure to acoustic environment in a short period of time, and examines whether the physiological responses are able to predict the psychological responses. In this research, the physiological and psychological responses of subjects to a set of soundscapes are collected in a laboratory setting, by respectively continuous physiological measurements and self-report ratings on subjective experiences. The connections between the physiological and psychological responses are examined using machine learning methods. The results show the connections between physiological and psychological responses to soundscape. To a certain degree, it is able to predict the psychological responses from the measured physiological responses.