Pleasantness Of Sounds Research Articles

The right fountain for the right place? An in-situ co-creative soundscaping methodology

Road traffic noise-polluted parks pervade the urban landscape, hindering the enjoyment of the relaxing potential and cognitive benefits that urban parks offer. Soundscape augmentation with natural sounds has demonstrated its merits in this context before, and deliberately introducing fountains can be an attractive solution since such installations can be easily controlled. This work describes a co-creative in-situ experiment where locals help select the most suited fountain at a predefined design spot during the planning phase, with a clear focus on sound. The simplified auralization approach, with loudspeakers positioned at the pond's bank, allowed participants to evaluate various fountain scenarios in an ecologically valid context. To arrive at the optimal choice, sound pleasantness and the road traffic noise masking potential of the (combination of) fountain(s) should be balanced.

Ecological sound loudness in environmental sound representations.

Listeners recognizing environmental sounds must contend with variations in level due to the source level and the environment. Nonetheless, variations in level disrupt short-term sound recognition [Susini, Houix, Seropian, and Lemaitre (2019). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 146(2), EL172-EL176] suggesting that loudness is encoded. We asked whether the experimental custom of setting sounds to equal levels disrupts long-term recognition, especially if it creates a mismatch with ecological loudness. Environmental sounds were played at equalized or ecological levels. Although recognition improved with increased loudness and familiarity, this relationship was unaffected by equalization or real-life experience with the source. However, sound pleasantness was altered by deviations from the ecological level.

Exploring the relation between fundamental frequency and spectral envelope in the perception of musical instrument sounds

Pitch and timbre perception centrally depend on fundamental frequency (F0) and spectral envelopes (SE), respectively. However, timbre perception as a function of F0 is less explored in the literature. An analysis-synthesis approach was used to compare sounds with congruent and incongruent F0 and SE parameters via sound pleasantness, brightness, and plausibility ratings. Analyzing 1900 musical instruments and voice sounds, a two-dimensional synthesis space was derived. The space was sampled in its inner and outer regions, reflecting high and low similarity to existing acoustical instrument sounds. Sounds with congruent and incongruent F0-SE relations were synthesized, defining congruency as the co-occurrence of F0 and SE in the analyzed set of sounds. In Experiment 1, inner regions of the space were rated as more pleasant compared to outer regions. Further, sounds with incongruent F0-SE relation were rated as less pleasant only for F0 discrepancies above two octaves. Finally, the first dimension of the space strongly reflected differences in brightness when F0 was controlled for. In Experiment 2, a spectrally more fine-grained resynthesis approach revealed effects of congruency on pleasantness and plausibility for smaller F0 separations. These results provide evidence for a co-dependence of F0 and SE properties in the perception of harmonic sounds.

Magnetic cortical oscillations associated with subjective auditory coolness during paired comparison of time-varying HVAC sounds.

The impressions of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) sounds are important for the comfort people experience in their living spaces. Revealing neural substrates of the impressions induced by HVAC sounds can help to develop neurophysiological indices of the comfort of HVAC sounds. There have been numerous studies on the brain activities associated with the pleasantness of sounds, but few on the brain activities associated with the thermal impressions of HVAC sounds. Seven time-varying HVAC sounds were synthesized as stimuli using amplitude modulation. Six participants took part in subjective evaluation tests and MEG measurements. Subjective coolness of the HVAC sounds was measured using the paired comparison method. Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) measurements were carried out while participants listened to and compared the time-varying HVAC sounds. Time-frequency analysis and cluster-based analysis were performed on the MEG data. The subjective evaluation tests showed that the subjective coolness of the amplitude-modulated HVAC sounds was affected by the modulation frequency, and that there was individual difference in subjective coolness. A cluster-based analysis of the MEG data revealed that the brain activities of two participants significantly differed when they listened to cooler or less cool HVAC sounds. The frontal low-theta (4-5 Hz) and the temporal alpha (8-13 Hz) activities were observed. The frontal low-theta and the temporal alpha activities may be associated with the coolness of HVAC sound. This result suggests that the comfort level of HVAC sound can be evaluated and individually designed using neurophysiological measurements.

Design of P-FLANN Model for Intelligent Water Fountain Sound Pleasantness Monitoring Using Bio-inspired Computing and Human Speech Perception

Cognitive-inspired Computational Computing systems play a crucial role in designing intelligent health monitoring systems which help both patients and hospitals. It also helps in early and consistent decision-making for various health issues including human psychological health. Water fountains built in parks and public spaces are used as decorative instruments which not only give appealing visuals but also it provides a relaxing environment to the visitors. These natural sounds have a direct effect on the psychological health of visitors. Very few research works are reported on developing the relationship between water sounds and their corresponding psychological impact. This assessment needs trained manpower and a lot of experimental time which is costly and may not be always available. In this paper to access the human health-friendly water fountain sounds from the pleasantness, a Perceptually Weighted functional link artificial neural network (P-FLANN) model is developed. To reduce the computational complexity of training and for faster convergence, swam intelligence-based optimization algorithm is used for updating the weights. It is observed from the comparative simulation results that the proposed P-FLANN model can effectively perform prediction tasks which is not only cost-effective but also 95% accurate and can play a crucial role in designing human health-friendly water fountains in smart cities.

Typical sound level in environmental sound representations

Although the sound level reaching a listener’s ear depends upon the sound source level and the environment, a stable source level can be perceived (McDermott et al., 2021). Nonetheless, variation in sound level can disrupt recognition in a short-term old/new task (Susini et al., 2019). We asked whether there is evidence of long-term memory of the typical level of everyday sounds. First, we found that listeners can report the level at which they typically hear a sound. Next, we compared sound judgements over headphones (ESC-50 dataset) across two conditions: (1) “typical”: levels set to produce the loudness experienced as “typical” for each sound (as determined by pilot studies); and (2) “equal”: levels at 70 dB SPL. Recognition, familiarity, and pleasantness were judged. There was no significant difference in recognition accuracy between level conditions and no interaction with whether sounds were louder or softer than their typical levels. In addition, recognition increased as sound familiarity increased, but this did not interact with level condition. Furthermore, consistent with past findings, sound pleasantness decreased as loudness increased, but this effect did not depend upon the condition. [Work supported by REAM.]

Sound pleasantness influences the perception of both emotional and non-emotional foods

Sounds elicit emotional responses that can influence the perception of food. However, the effects of sounds upon the perception of emotional and non-emotional foods have yet to be fully elucidated. The present study was designed to investigate how pleasant and unpleasant sounds influenced both perception and emotion responses during the consumption of chocolate milkshake (CM) and vegetable ice cream, representing emotional non-emotional foods, respectively. The temporal changes in perceived flavour were documented using the temporal dominance of sensations (TDS) method. In addition, ratings of liking, affective states, and emotional state were determined following the consumption of milkshake and ice cream. Canonical variate analysis (CVA) was used to further summarise the standardised duration of flavour of CM, liked vegetable ice cream (LV), and less liked vegetable ice cream (LLV) consumed under different sound conditions. Multivariate analysis revealed significant differences between the standardised duration of flavours of CM, LV, and LLV perceived under the pleasant sound (PS) and unpleasant sound (US) conditions. Additionally, flavour perception, affective states, and emotional responses varied with CM, LV, and LLV under the PS and US conditions. These findings contribute to a better understanding of how sounds that vary in pleasantness can influence the perceptual dynamics of emotional and non-emotional foods.

Sound pleasantness of electrically adjustable exterior mirrors in vehicles

Consumers increasingly demand high quality products, forcing manufacturers to a greater effort when designing. During the last years, the noise has become a key factor in valuing a product, so the use of psychoacoustic techniques has been extended considerably.The automotive sector has always taken into consideration the noise when designing vehicles. A large number of tools and analysis methods have been developed in order to determine the sound quality of their products. Although the first efforts focussed on establishing the sound quality of the propulsion system, they rapidly spread to other parts of the vehicle like doors, powered windows, etc.The present work focuses on studying the behaviour of electrically adjustable exterior mirrors in vehicles. In order to analyse the noise produced by this kind of devices, four different samples were measured in a semi-anechoic chamber. To establish the pleasantness descriptor of the samples, sixty-two subjects were exposed to an auditory test using two different methods: paired comparison and ranking procedure. The experiments were carried out in three different laboratories: University of Kyushu in Japan (JP), University of Coimbra in Portugal (PT) and University of Alicante in Spain (SP); leading to a cross-cultural study. The results showed a great similarity between the preferences obtained by the two methods.

Social investigation on passersby perception of urban fountain sounds

Running water sounds are among the most pleasant sounds to human ears. Beside natural environments, people experience these sounds in urban environments thanks to fountains. The influence of fountain sounds on passersby has little been explored, especially in situ. This paper presents results from social surveys conducted in Rome and Brussels’ squares for monumental and contemplative fountains as well as modern and participative fountains. Over 70 % of survey respondents qualified the fountain sounds as the most interesting feature of the place, even though the questionnaire did not make any explicit reference to acoustics. For each case study, a comprehensive set of timbre descriptors was applied to audio recordings in the fountain surroundings to characterize sound pleasantness in relation to people’s impressions. Beyond their marked interest for the fountain soundmark, the survey identified people’s preferences in terms of arrangement of fountain surroundings. Such information can be useful to forthcom...

Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Urban Acoustic Environments with Binaural Psycho-Acoustical Considerations for IoT-Based Applications

Sound pleasantness or annoyance perceived in urban soundscapes is a major concern in environmental acoustics. Binaural psychoacoustic parameters are helpful to describe generic acoustic environments, as it is stated within the ISO 12913 framework. In this paper, the application of a Wireless Acoustic Sensor Network (WASN) to evaluate the spatial distribution and the evolution of urban acoustic environments is described. Two experiments are presented using an indoor and an outdoor deployment of a WASN with several nodes using an Internet of Things (IoT) environment to collect audio data and calculate meaningful parameters such as the sound pressure level, binaural loudness and binaural sharpness. A chunk of audio is recorded in each node periodically with a microphone array and the binaural rendering is conducted by exploiting the estimated directional characteristics of the incoming sound by means of DOA estimation. Each node computes the parameters in a different location and sends the values to a cloud-based broker structure that allows spatial statistical analysis through Kriging techniques. A cross-validation analysis is also performed to confirm the usefulness of the proposed system.

Global and Continuous Pleasantness Estimation of the Soundscape Perceived during Walking Trips through Urban Environments

This paper investigates how the overall pleasantness of the sound environment of an urban walking trip can be estimated through acoustical measurements along the path. For this purpose, two laboratory experiments were carried out, during which controlled and natural 3-min audio and audiovisual sequences were presented. Participants were asked to continuously assess the pleasantness of the sound environment along the sequence, and globally at its end. The results reveal that the global sound pleasantness is principally explained by the average of the instantaneous sound pleasantness values. Accounting for recency or trend effects improved the estimates of the global sound pleasantness over controlled sound sequences, but their contribution is not significant for the second group of stimuli, which are based on natural audio sequences and include visual information. In addition, models for global and continuous pleasantness, as a function of the instantaneous sound pressure level Leq,1s, are proposed. The instantaneous sound pleasantness is found to be mainly impacted by the average sound level over the past 6 s. A logarithmic fading mechanism, extracted from psychological literature, is also proposed for this modelling, and slightly improves the estimations. Finally, the globally perceived sound pleasantness can be accurately estimated from the sound pressure level of the sound sequences, explaining about 60% of the variance in the global sound pleasantness ratings.

Indifference to dissonance in native Amazonians reveals cultural variation in music perception.

by biology remains debated. One widely discussed phenomenon is that some combinations of notes are perceived by Westerners as pleasant, or consonant, whereas others are perceived as unpleasant,or dissonant. The contrast between consonance and dissonance is central to Western music and its origins have fascinated scholars since the ancient Greeks. Aesthetic responses to consonance are commonly assumed by scientists to have biological roots, and thus to be universally present in humans. Ethnomusicologists and composers, in contrast, have argued that consonance is a creation of Western musical culture. The issue has remained unresolved, partly because little is known about the extent of cross-cultural variation in consonance preferences. Here we report experiments with the Tsimane'--a native Amazonian society with minimal exposure to Western culture--and comparison populations in Bolivia and the United States that varied in exposure to Western music. Participants rated the pleasantness of sounds. Despite exhibiting Western-like discrimination abilities and Western-like aesthetic responses to familiar sounds and acoustic roughness, the Tsimane' rated consonant and dissonant chords and vocal harmonies as equally pleasant. By contrast, Bolivian city- and town-dwellers exhibited significant preferences for consonance,albeit to a lesser degree than US residents. The results indicate that consonance preferences can be absent in cultures sufficiently isolated from Western music, and are thus unlikely to reflect innate biases or exposure to harmonic natural sounds. The observed variation in preferences is presumably determined by exposure to musical harmony, suggesting that culture has a dominant role in shaping aesthetic responses to music.

Consonance preferences are not universal: Indifference to dissonance among native Amazonians

In Western cultures, some combinations of musical notes are consonant (pleasant) and others are dissonant (unpleasant). Although the aesthetic contrast between consonance and dissonance is commonly thought to have biological roots, and thus to be universally present in humans, a definitive test has remained elusive. Here we report experiments with the Tsimane’—a native Amazonian society with minimal exposure to Western culture—and comparison populations elsewhere in Bolivia and the USA that varied in exposure to Western music. Participants rated the pleasantness of sounds. Despite exhibiting Western-like preferences for several other aesthetic contrasts, and Western-like discrimination abilities, the Tsimane’ rated consonant and dissonant chords and vocal harmonies as equally pleasant. In contrast, Bolivian city- and town-dwellers exhibited significant preferences for consonance, albeit to a lesser degree than U.S. residents. The results indicate that consonance preferences dramatically vary across cultures, and can be fully absent in some cases. The observed variation in preferences is plausibly determined by exposure to Western music, suggesting that culture plays a dominant role in shaping aesthetic responses to consonance.

Pleasantness of Food Sounds

ABSTRACTFifty‐two subjects judged the pleasantness of the sounds produced when they ate 16 different food samples or of tape recorded sounds produced by biting and chewing the same food samples. The tape recorded sounds were also scored for nine other acoustical descriptors. Pleasantness scores of the sounds of foods when eaten were closely related to the scores of the recorded sound with the exception of two outliers. The pleasantness of a sound showed the largest positive correlation with the descriptors crisp and crunchy. Pleasantness did not appear to be useful in interpreting either the one‐ or two‐dimensional multidimensional scaling representations of the 16 food sounds.