Wind turbine (WT) noise is commonly reported as very annoying. There is an agreement that this is... more Wind turbine (WT) noise is commonly reported as very annoying. There is an agreement that this is mainly because of the non-stationary nature of the signal which is modulated by the blades' movements. However, measurements and recordings of such noise is very difficult due to the fact that in majority of cases a single wind turbine is only a part of the greater complex (consisted of dozens of them). In this paper we describe a laboratory experiment, in which people were asked to rate annoyance of WT noise in the function of the distance from a WT. Noise generated by the wind turbine was recorded from both sides, downwind and in line with the rotor plane. Results suggest that annoyance ratings decrease with the increasing distance from a WT and the noise recorded from the side (in line with the rotor plane) is marginally more annoying than that recorded downwind. Moreover, road traffic (RT) used as the reference noise, was the least annoying source.
The objective of the study was to investigate the inuence of wood species on sound timbre generat... more The objective of the study was to investigate the inuence of wood species on sound timbre generated by electric string instruments. The obtained results allow to conclude that wood species have the largest inuence on the specic sound loudness and it correlates with density and modulus of elasticity. The greater dierences occur at lower frequencies. There was no correlation between signal recorded by microphone and pickup.
Annoyance has a negative influence on health and well-being, and over a longer time, it can incre... more Annoyance has a negative influence on health and well-being, and over a longer time, it can increase the risk of stress, sleep disturbance, obesity and even heart attacks. The aim of this paper was to investigate the influence of audiovisual information on the assessment of annoyance caused by wind turbines. Seven soundscapes and seven landscapes were presented to 44 participants in an anechoic chamber with an ambisonic set up of 25 + 1 loudspeakers, and a large sound-permeable screen for visual presentation. First, participants were presented with auditory samples and asked to rate the noise annoyance on the ICBEN scale. Subsequently, they were asked to identify the sound sources. Second, participants were presented with visual samples and asked to rate their annoyance. Last, participants were presented with audiovisual mixes and again asked to rate their annoyance. The obtained results suggest that sound level of auditory presentation was the most influential factor in the annoyance assessment. The second most influential factor was the presented visual sample, and the least influential factor was the presented audio samples. Recognition of wind turbines tended to increase the annoyance ratings of the small wind turbines audio sample. Moreover, the participants who recognized the wind turbine also tended to rate the transportation samples as more annoying, but not the natural-like samples. In general, the audio and audiovisual samples of wind turbines were assessed similarly to the transportation samples, but not to the natural-like samples.
The aim of the study was to examine how the wording of a question about audio, visual and audiovi... more The aim of the study was to examine how the wording of a question about audio, visual and audiovisual stimuli can affect the assessment of the environment. The participants of the psychophysical experiments were asked to rate, on a numerical scale, audio and visual information both separately and together, combined into mixes. A set of questions was used for all the investigated audio, visual, and audiovisual stimuli. The participants were asked about the comfort or the discomfort caused by the perceived stimuli presented at three different sound levels. The results show that there are no statistically significant differences between the assessment of comfort and discomfort associated with visual samples. Actually, the comfort and discomfort ratings are equivalent to the extent that a discomfort rating can be represented as the opposite to the comfort rating, i.e. the discomfort rating is equal to the 10 minus comfort rating. In general, the results obtained for audio and audiovisual samples were the same, with only a few exceptions that were dependent on sound level. No statistically significant differences were found for the loudest stimuli, but there were some exceptions for the softener cases. Based on the results, we show that only for visual stimuli both scales are totally interchangeable. When presenting audio and audiovisual samples, only one scale should be applied-either discomfort or comfort, depending on the context and the character of the stimuli.
Noise annoyance can be rated either in situ or in laboratory conditions. Regarding the , many pap... more Noise annoyance can be rated either in situ or in laboratory conditions. Regarding the , many papers indicate that only 30% of the variance in people's answers can be explained by sound level values. This value increases when a single type of noise is presented to participants in lab. However, the relationship between time structure of the noise stimulus and annoyance rating is still ambiguous. In this study road traffic noise stimuli with different time structure at three different sound levels were created. Moreover, the psychoacoustical characteristics of them were also computed. The calculated data was compared with results of the listening test in which participants rated each stimulus on the numerical ICBEN scale. Analysis showed that loudness and sound level are the dominant factors, they correlate quite well (~70%) with people's ratings. However, the different time structure of the road traffic noise at the same sound level did not evoke significantly different noise annoyance ratings. Since there are no standards available for loudness measurement, the sound level for the same type of noise remains the simplest factor to reliably predict its impact on people regarding noise annoyance.
The aim of the study was to examine if visual perception of objects located at different distance... more The aim of the study was to examine if visual perception of objects located at different distances modifies auditory annoyance assessment of sounds typically produced by these objects. Original audiovisual recordings were made in the city of Poznań and in the rural environment. The stimuli were 4 real objects: 2 mobile (car, train) and 2 stationary (fountain, wind turbine) recorded at 5 distances. Participants of the psychophysical experiment were asked to rate, on a numerical standardized scale, the degree of annoyance they would feel if they were present in such places and observed such objects. The experiment was carried out in the laboratory in 3 different conditions: (a) annoyance assessment of pure audio samples, presented at 3 sound levels, (b) annoyance assessment of pure video samples with objects located at 5 distances and (c) annoyance assessment of audiovisual samples. The results of the experiment demonstrate that there is no significant difference in annoyance assessment in conditions (a) and (c). We interpret this result as a support of the thesis that auditory annoyance is not modified by visual presentation of sources of annoying sounds. We also obtained a puzzling result for visual modality. The annoyance ratings of pure visual samples were higher for moving objects than for the stationary ones. It agrees with our view that in auditory domain studies on annoyance assessment should be related to the properties of sound sources (primarily, their mobility) and not to the sounds alone.
Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 2018
In this paper the results of noise maps counted for cars and trams, in 10 areas in the city of Po... more In this paper the results of noise maps counted for cars and trams, in 10 areas in the city of Poznań, are analyzed in the context of possible action plans. These results are compared with the information from surveys, involving 794 participants, performed at the same 10 areas. The general results showed that basing solely on the values of noise indicators, i.e. information from the noise maps, is not sufficient for reliable planning of noise action plans, particularly those created in response to multiple noise sources. The exceedance of a noise limit for a given sound source does not necessarily mean that this source is the most annoying for inhabitants. To find a solution to this problem, we propose conducting dedicated noise surveys in the specific areas in each city (in which the noise maps are calculated) where we know a priori that more than one noise source will occur at the same time and could be potentially annoying. In the proposed survey we suggest using two specified questions: whether a given sound source is annoying or not, and which sound source should be the first one to be eliminated, if this is possible. This new survey proposal is the result of an analysis of the survey performed within this study. Some methodological changes are proposed with regard to the survey that was actually used. This new approach could improve decisions about action plans and provide more complex information about peoples' assessment of noise annoyance evoked by different sound sources.
SineWave Synthesis, (SWS), allows a significant reduction of the information carried by a speech ... more SineWave Synthesis, (SWS), allows a significant reduction of the information carried by a speech signal representing by the dynamic spectral properties of formants selected from the natural speech. The synthesis rejects all the detailed acoustic information carried by a signal, including the fundamental frequency as well as harmonic and noise components. Regardless of the impressive information reduction (the compression coefficient for 3-tone synthesis reaches even 195:1), the linguistic and extra-linguistic information of a signal are to a large extend preserved. For the first time, a modified version of SWS was used to analyze Polish speech in order to evaluate the relationship between data reduction and the intelligibility of speech. Speech intelligibility was tested in different utterances varying in grammatical structure, linguistic information, and duration. The modified SWS method, elaborated in Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, provided noticeably better results for Polish speech than the original method elaborated in late 1970s at Haskins Laboratories.
Introduction Noise produced by source located farther from a listener is assessed as less annoyin... more Introduction Noise produced by source located farther from a listener is assessed as less annoying than noise produced by source of the same type that is located closer. It sounds pretty trivial but the satisfactory explanation of this phenomenon is not easy to achieve. Apparent explanations correctly point that increase in distance of the source of noise causes decrease in loudness but falsely assume that this decrease in loudness is the only factor that causes the decrease in annoyance. In such explanations neither ground effect nor air absorption phenomena are taken into account. Their occurrence changes not only the sound level of the stimulus but also its spectral content. It is the change in the spectral content that helps to estimate the distance of the sound source and contributes to the annoyance judgment. The aim of the present paper is to answer two questions: (1) what change in distance of sound source location evokes the change in noise annoyance assessment, and (2) how...
Objective: The need for validated measures enabling clinicians to classify tinnitus patients acco... more Objective: The need for validated measures enabling clinicians to classify tinnitus patients according to the severity of tinnitus and screen the progress of therapies in our country led us to translate into Polish and to validate two tinnitus questionnaires, namely the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) and the Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI). Design: The original English versions of the questionnaires were translated into Polish and translated back to English by three independent translators. These versions were then finalized by the authors into a Polish THI (THI-Pl) and a Polish TFI (TFI-Pl). Participants from three laryngological centers in Poland anonymously answered the THI-Pl (N = 98) and the TFI-Pl (N = 108) in addition to the Polish versions of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale as a measure of self-perceived level of depression, and the Satisfaction With Life Scale to assess self-perceived quality of life. Both were used to determine discriminant validity. Two Visual Analog Scales were used to measure tinnitus annoyance and tinnitus loudness in order to determine convergent validity. Results: Similar to the original version of the THI, the THI-Pl showed a high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.93). The exploratory factor analysis revealed that the questionnaire has a three-factorial structure that does not correspond to the original division for functional, catastrophic, and emotional subscales. Convergent and discriminant validities were confirmed. The TFI-Pl showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.96) with the reliability ranging from 0.82 to 0.95 for its different subscales. Factor analysis confirmed an eight-factorial structure with factors assigning all items to appropriate subscales reported in the original version of the questionnaire. Discriminant and convergent validities were also confirmed for the TFI-Pl. Conclusion: We translated and validated the Polish versions of the THI and the TFI to make them suitable for clinical use in Poland.
The annoyance of three different sound sources was evaluated in a psychoacoustic experiment. An o... more The annoyance of three different sound sources was evaluated in a psychoacoustic experiment. An objective analysis of the stimuli used in the experiment has shown that calculated loudness was responsible for equally annoying pairs of different sound sources. Based on the loudness calculations and annoyance ratings, a "tram bonus" of 3 dB was found in comparison to the bus sound source. In addition, it was found that loudness explains the annoyance results when the LpA max is larger than 74.5 dB(A). With sound levels smaller than 74.5 dB(A) sharpness and roughness contribute to annoyance judgments.
Annoyance ratings for artificially created noises, resembling the main characteristics of tempora... more Annoyance ratings for artificially created noises, resembling the main characteristics of temporal wind turbine noise, were studied by means of a listening experiment involving 21 participants with normal hearing. Three types of stimuli were examined: broadband noise (−4 dB/octave), noise generated by moving cars, and narrowband noise. All stimuli had the sound level fluctuations typical for wind turbine noise. The magnitude of the sound level fluctuations was measured in a quantitative way, by using the characteristics of amplitude modulated sound: modulation rate and modulation depth. Our aim was to examine how the modulation rate and the modulation depth influence the noise annoyance assessment of broadband and narrowband amplitude modulated noises. Three different modulation rates, 1, 2 and 4 Hz, and sound level fluctuations (a measure of the modulation depth), 3, 6, 9 dB, were applied to each type of stimuli (with exception of noise generated by the moving cars) and investigate...
Acute annoyance due to noise from trams and buses was ascertained and compared in two experimenta... more Acute annoyance due to noise from trams and buses was ascertained and compared in two experimental studies. First, 22 healthy young persons (19-22 years) using a standardised scale, rated their annoyance caused by noise from trams, buses and trucks, which were each presented at seven sound levels. The noise of a tram was judged to be equally annoying as the noise of a bus with a 3 dB lower level, which corresponds to the calculated loudness difference. The noises of a tram and of a bus were superimposed onto a 2-h realistic road traffic scenario in the second study. This study was conducted with 60 healthy young persons (18-31 years). Twenty participants were each exposed either to the scenario with the tram or the bus (L AeqT ¼ 55 dBA) or to a control condition (L AeqT ¼ 43.6 dBA) while working on different mental tasks. Performance data did not differentiate between the noise conditions, but the participants were again less annoyed by the scenario with the tram, suggesting a possible bonus for the tram. This assumption has to be verified in future studies. The fact that calculated loudness could predict annoyance in the psychoacoustic tests and this annoyance due to the same noises presented in complex scenarios might indicate the possibility of a more economical approach, at least to noises between which loudness differs greatly.
ABSTRACT General annoyance is a complex quantity. It is a combination of, among other things, “ge... more ABSTRACT General annoyance is a complex quantity. It is a combination of, among other things, “general well being”, disturbance during sleep and rest, problems with listening to TV and radio, interruption of conversation, etc. The hypothesis for this study is that the intelligibility of speech is so tied up with general annoyance that the two quantities are highly correlated. If so, it may be possible to substitute intensive subjective annoyance assessment tests with an intelligibility test that is faster, arguably more “objective”, and also less expensive to carry out. To test this hypothesis, two psychoacoustic experiments were performed. In Experiment I, speech intelligibility was measured for eight environmental noises at seven signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). For these SNR values, the participants assessed their difficulty with speech comprehension. As a result, the relationships between the intelligibility functions and the difficultly in speech comprehension for all the investigated noises were established. In Experiment II, the standard method of noise annoyance assessment was applied to the same noises as in Experiment I. A comparison of the results of both experiments shows that in 4 out of 7 cases the measure of noise annoyance during the communicative activity (difficulty in speech comprehension) is statistically undistinguishable from the annoyance ratings obtained in traditional noise annoyance assessments. The differences obtained in the remaining 3 cases are discussed and explained. The potential noise annoyance rating could be predicted on the basis of the speech intelligibility scores. Some limitations of this approach are also discussed in the paper.
Currently research into the psychological evaluation of noise in daily life is carried out withou... more Currently research into the psychological evaluation of noise in daily life is carried out without taking into account the sense of sight. The human senses interact with each other; thus some information coming from one sense can be skipped or ignored in favor of information coming from another sense, leading to completely different reactions or behavior. The aim of this paper is to verify, on the basis of psychophysical experiments, how a human being processes audio-visual information coming from the different environmental noises which can be encountered in daily life. The experiment was divided into three parts: auditory, visual, and audio-visual. In each part of the experiment, the ICBEN scale (0-10) was used to rate the presented stimuli. In the first part only audio stimuli were presented, and subjects were asked to rate their annoyance with the sound. In the second part of the experiment, the participants were asked to rate how pleasant the presented video clips were. Finally, in the last part of the experiment, participants were presented with a compatible and incompatible mix of audio and visual stimuli and asked to rate their annoyance. We found that several audio stimuli were assessed differently, to a significant extent, by listeners after video clips were added to them.
Wind turbine (WT) noise is commonly reported as very annoying. There is an agreement that this is... more Wind turbine (WT) noise is commonly reported as very annoying. There is an agreement that this is mainly because of the non-stationary nature of the signal which is modulated by the blades' movements. However, measurements and recordings of such noise is very difficult due to the fact that in majority of cases a single wind turbine is only a part of the greater complex (consisted of dozens of them). In this paper we describe a laboratory experiment, in which people were asked to rate annoyance of WT noise in the function of the distance from a WT. Noise generated by the wind turbine was recorded from both sides, downwind and in line with the rotor plane. Results suggest that annoyance ratings decrease with the increasing distance from a WT and the noise recorded from the side (in line with the rotor plane) is marginally more annoying than that recorded downwind. Moreover, road traffic (RT) used as the reference noise, was the least annoying source.
The objective of the study was to investigate the inuence of wood species on sound timbre generat... more The objective of the study was to investigate the inuence of wood species on sound timbre generated by electric string instruments. The obtained results allow to conclude that wood species have the largest inuence on the specic sound loudness and it correlates with density and modulus of elasticity. The greater dierences occur at lower frequencies. There was no correlation between signal recorded by microphone and pickup.
Annoyance has a negative influence on health and well-being, and over a longer time, it can incre... more Annoyance has a negative influence on health and well-being, and over a longer time, it can increase the risk of stress, sleep disturbance, obesity and even heart attacks. The aim of this paper was to investigate the influence of audiovisual information on the assessment of annoyance caused by wind turbines. Seven soundscapes and seven landscapes were presented to 44 participants in an anechoic chamber with an ambisonic set up of 25 + 1 loudspeakers, and a large sound-permeable screen for visual presentation. First, participants were presented with auditory samples and asked to rate the noise annoyance on the ICBEN scale. Subsequently, they were asked to identify the sound sources. Second, participants were presented with visual samples and asked to rate their annoyance. Last, participants were presented with audiovisual mixes and again asked to rate their annoyance. The obtained results suggest that sound level of auditory presentation was the most influential factor in the annoyance assessment. The second most influential factor was the presented visual sample, and the least influential factor was the presented audio samples. Recognition of wind turbines tended to increase the annoyance ratings of the small wind turbines audio sample. Moreover, the participants who recognized the wind turbine also tended to rate the transportation samples as more annoying, but not the natural-like samples. In general, the audio and audiovisual samples of wind turbines were assessed similarly to the transportation samples, but not to the natural-like samples.
The aim of the study was to examine how the wording of a question about audio, visual and audiovi... more The aim of the study was to examine how the wording of a question about audio, visual and audiovisual stimuli can affect the assessment of the environment. The participants of the psychophysical experiments were asked to rate, on a numerical scale, audio and visual information both separately and together, combined into mixes. A set of questions was used for all the investigated audio, visual, and audiovisual stimuli. The participants were asked about the comfort or the discomfort caused by the perceived stimuli presented at three different sound levels. The results show that there are no statistically significant differences between the assessment of comfort and discomfort associated with visual samples. Actually, the comfort and discomfort ratings are equivalent to the extent that a discomfort rating can be represented as the opposite to the comfort rating, i.e. the discomfort rating is equal to the 10 minus comfort rating. In general, the results obtained for audio and audiovisual samples were the same, with only a few exceptions that were dependent on sound level. No statistically significant differences were found for the loudest stimuli, but there were some exceptions for the softener cases. Based on the results, we show that only for visual stimuli both scales are totally interchangeable. When presenting audio and audiovisual samples, only one scale should be applied-either discomfort or comfort, depending on the context and the character of the stimuli.
Noise annoyance can be rated either in situ or in laboratory conditions. Regarding the , many pap... more Noise annoyance can be rated either in situ or in laboratory conditions. Regarding the , many papers indicate that only 30% of the variance in people's answers can be explained by sound level values. This value increases when a single type of noise is presented to participants in lab. However, the relationship between time structure of the noise stimulus and annoyance rating is still ambiguous. In this study road traffic noise stimuli with different time structure at three different sound levels were created. Moreover, the psychoacoustical characteristics of them were also computed. The calculated data was compared with results of the listening test in which participants rated each stimulus on the numerical ICBEN scale. Analysis showed that loudness and sound level are the dominant factors, they correlate quite well (~70%) with people's ratings. However, the different time structure of the road traffic noise at the same sound level did not evoke significantly different noise annoyance ratings. Since there are no standards available for loudness measurement, the sound level for the same type of noise remains the simplest factor to reliably predict its impact on people regarding noise annoyance.
The aim of the study was to examine if visual perception of objects located at different distance... more The aim of the study was to examine if visual perception of objects located at different distances modifies auditory annoyance assessment of sounds typically produced by these objects. Original audiovisual recordings were made in the city of Poznań and in the rural environment. The stimuli were 4 real objects: 2 mobile (car, train) and 2 stationary (fountain, wind turbine) recorded at 5 distances. Participants of the psychophysical experiment were asked to rate, on a numerical standardized scale, the degree of annoyance they would feel if they were present in such places and observed such objects. The experiment was carried out in the laboratory in 3 different conditions: (a) annoyance assessment of pure audio samples, presented at 3 sound levels, (b) annoyance assessment of pure video samples with objects located at 5 distances and (c) annoyance assessment of audiovisual samples. The results of the experiment demonstrate that there is no significant difference in annoyance assessment in conditions (a) and (c). We interpret this result as a support of the thesis that auditory annoyance is not modified by visual presentation of sources of annoying sounds. We also obtained a puzzling result for visual modality. The annoyance ratings of pure visual samples were higher for moving objects than for the stationary ones. It agrees with our view that in auditory domain studies on annoyance assessment should be related to the properties of sound sources (primarily, their mobility) and not to the sounds alone.
Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 2018
In this paper the results of noise maps counted for cars and trams, in 10 areas in the city of Po... more In this paper the results of noise maps counted for cars and trams, in 10 areas in the city of Poznań, are analyzed in the context of possible action plans. These results are compared with the information from surveys, involving 794 participants, performed at the same 10 areas. The general results showed that basing solely on the values of noise indicators, i.e. information from the noise maps, is not sufficient for reliable planning of noise action plans, particularly those created in response to multiple noise sources. The exceedance of a noise limit for a given sound source does not necessarily mean that this source is the most annoying for inhabitants. To find a solution to this problem, we propose conducting dedicated noise surveys in the specific areas in each city (in which the noise maps are calculated) where we know a priori that more than one noise source will occur at the same time and could be potentially annoying. In the proposed survey we suggest using two specified questions: whether a given sound source is annoying or not, and which sound source should be the first one to be eliminated, if this is possible. This new survey proposal is the result of an analysis of the survey performed within this study. Some methodological changes are proposed with regard to the survey that was actually used. This new approach could improve decisions about action plans and provide more complex information about peoples' assessment of noise annoyance evoked by different sound sources.
SineWave Synthesis, (SWS), allows a significant reduction of the information carried by a speech ... more SineWave Synthesis, (SWS), allows a significant reduction of the information carried by a speech signal representing by the dynamic spectral properties of formants selected from the natural speech. The synthesis rejects all the detailed acoustic information carried by a signal, including the fundamental frequency as well as harmonic and noise components. Regardless of the impressive information reduction (the compression coefficient for 3-tone synthesis reaches even 195:1), the linguistic and extra-linguistic information of a signal are to a large extend preserved. For the first time, a modified version of SWS was used to analyze Polish speech in order to evaluate the relationship between data reduction and the intelligibility of speech. Speech intelligibility was tested in different utterances varying in grammatical structure, linguistic information, and duration. The modified SWS method, elaborated in Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, provided noticeably better results for Polish speech than the original method elaborated in late 1970s at Haskins Laboratories.
Introduction Noise produced by source located farther from a listener is assessed as less annoyin... more Introduction Noise produced by source located farther from a listener is assessed as less annoying than noise produced by source of the same type that is located closer. It sounds pretty trivial but the satisfactory explanation of this phenomenon is not easy to achieve. Apparent explanations correctly point that increase in distance of the source of noise causes decrease in loudness but falsely assume that this decrease in loudness is the only factor that causes the decrease in annoyance. In such explanations neither ground effect nor air absorption phenomena are taken into account. Their occurrence changes not only the sound level of the stimulus but also its spectral content. It is the change in the spectral content that helps to estimate the distance of the sound source and contributes to the annoyance judgment. The aim of the present paper is to answer two questions: (1) what change in distance of sound source location evokes the change in noise annoyance assessment, and (2) how...
Objective: The need for validated measures enabling clinicians to classify tinnitus patients acco... more Objective: The need for validated measures enabling clinicians to classify tinnitus patients according to the severity of tinnitus and screen the progress of therapies in our country led us to translate into Polish and to validate two tinnitus questionnaires, namely the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) and the Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI). Design: The original English versions of the questionnaires were translated into Polish and translated back to English by three independent translators. These versions were then finalized by the authors into a Polish THI (THI-Pl) and a Polish TFI (TFI-Pl). Participants from three laryngological centers in Poland anonymously answered the THI-Pl (N = 98) and the TFI-Pl (N = 108) in addition to the Polish versions of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale as a measure of self-perceived level of depression, and the Satisfaction With Life Scale to assess self-perceived quality of life. Both were used to determine discriminant validity. Two Visual Analog Scales were used to measure tinnitus annoyance and tinnitus loudness in order to determine convergent validity. Results: Similar to the original version of the THI, the THI-Pl showed a high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.93). The exploratory factor analysis revealed that the questionnaire has a three-factorial structure that does not correspond to the original division for functional, catastrophic, and emotional subscales. Convergent and discriminant validities were confirmed. The TFI-Pl showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.96) with the reliability ranging from 0.82 to 0.95 for its different subscales. Factor analysis confirmed an eight-factorial structure with factors assigning all items to appropriate subscales reported in the original version of the questionnaire. Discriminant and convergent validities were also confirmed for the TFI-Pl. Conclusion: We translated and validated the Polish versions of the THI and the TFI to make them suitable for clinical use in Poland.
The annoyance of three different sound sources was evaluated in a psychoacoustic experiment. An o... more The annoyance of three different sound sources was evaluated in a psychoacoustic experiment. An objective analysis of the stimuli used in the experiment has shown that calculated loudness was responsible for equally annoying pairs of different sound sources. Based on the loudness calculations and annoyance ratings, a "tram bonus" of 3 dB was found in comparison to the bus sound source. In addition, it was found that loudness explains the annoyance results when the LpA max is larger than 74.5 dB(A). With sound levels smaller than 74.5 dB(A) sharpness and roughness contribute to annoyance judgments.
Annoyance ratings for artificially created noises, resembling the main characteristics of tempora... more Annoyance ratings for artificially created noises, resembling the main characteristics of temporal wind turbine noise, were studied by means of a listening experiment involving 21 participants with normal hearing. Three types of stimuli were examined: broadband noise (−4 dB/octave), noise generated by moving cars, and narrowband noise. All stimuli had the sound level fluctuations typical for wind turbine noise. The magnitude of the sound level fluctuations was measured in a quantitative way, by using the characteristics of amplitude modulated sound: modulation rate and modulation depth. Our aim was to examine how the modulation rate and the modulation depth influence the noise annoyance assessment of broadband and narrowband amplitude modulated noises. Three different modulation rates, 1, 2 and 4 Hz, and sound level fluctuations (a measure of the modulation depth), 3, 6, 9 dB, were applied to each type of stimuli (with exception of noise generated by the moving cars) and investigate...
Acute annoyance due to noise from trams and buses was ascertained and compared in two experimenta... more Acute annoyance due to noise from trams and buses was ascertained and compared in two experimental studies. First, 22 healthy young persons (19-22 years) using a standardised scale, rated their annoyance caused by noise from trams, buses and trucks, which were each presented at seven sound levels. The noise of a tram was judged to be equally annoying as the noise of a bus with a 3 dB lower level, which corresponds to the calculated loudness difference. The noises of a tram and of a bus were superimposed onto a 2-h realistic road traffic scenario in the second study. This study was conducted with 60 healthy young persons (18-31 years). Twenty participants were each exposed either to the scenario with the tram or the bus (L AeqT ¼ 55 dBA) or to a control condition (L AeqT ¼ 43.6 dBA) while working on different mental tasks. Performance data did not differentiate between the noise conditions, but the participants were again less annoyed by the scenario with the tram, suggesting a possible bonus for the tram. This assumption has to be verified in future studies. The fact that calculated loudness could predict annoyance in the psychoacoustic tests and this annoyance due to the same noises presented in complex scenarios might indicate the possibility of a more economical approach, at least to noises between which loudness differs greatly.
ABSTRACT General annoyance is a complex quantity. It is a combination of, among other things, “ge... more ABSTRACT General annoyance is a complex quantity. It is a combination of, among other things, “general well being”, disturbance during sleep and rest, problems with listening to TV and radio, interruption of conversation, etc. The hypothesis for this study is that the intelligibility of speech is so tied up with general annoyance that the two quantities are highly correlated. If so, it may be possible to substitute intensive subjective annoyance assessment tests with an intelligibility test that is faster, arguably more “objective”, and also less expensive to carry out. To test this hypothesis, two psychoacoustic experiments were performed. In Experiment I, speech intelligibility was measured for eight environmental noises at seven signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). For these SNR values, the participants assessed their difficulty with speech comprehension. As a result, the relationships between the intelligibility functions and the difficultly in speech comprehension for all the investigated noises were established. In Experiment II, the standard method of noise annoyance assessment was applied to the same noises as in Experiment I. A comparison of the results of both experiments shows that in 4 out of 7 cases the measure of noise annoyance during the communicative activity (difficulty in speech comprehension) is statistically undistinguishable from the annoyance ratings obtained in traditional noise annoyance assessments. The differences obtained in the remaining 3 cases are discussed and explained. The potential noise annoyance rating could be predicted on the basis of the speech intelligibility scores. Some limitations of this approach are also discussed in the paper.
Currently research into the psychological evaluation of noise in daily life is carried out withou... more Currently research into the psychological evaluation of noise in daily life is carried out without taking into account the sense of sight. The human senses interact with each other; thus some information coming from one sense can be skipped or ignored in favor of information coming from another sense, leading to completely different reactions or behavior. The aim of this paper is to verify, on the basis of psychophysical experiments, how a human being processes audio-visual information coming from the different environmental noises which can be encountered in daily life. The experiment was divided into three parts: auditory, visual, and audio-visual. In each part of the experiment, the ICBEN scale (0-10) was used to rate the presented stimuli. In the first part only audio stimuli were presented, and subjects were asked to rate their annoyance with the sound. In the second part of the experiment, the participants were asked to rate how pleasant the presented video clips were. Finally, in the last part of the experiment, participants were presented with a compatible and incompatible mix of audio and visual stimuli and asked to rate their annoyance. We found that several audio stimuli were assessed differently, to a significant extent, by listeners after video clips were added to them.
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