| 1. |
- Axelsson, Östen, et al.
(författare)
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A principal components model of soundscape perception
- 2010
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Ingår i: Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. - : Acoustical Society of America (ASA). - 0001-4966 .- 1520-8524. ; 128:5, s. 2836-2846
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is a need for a model that identifies underlying dimensions of soundscape perception, and which may guide measurement and improvement of soundscape quality. With the purpose to develop such a model, a listening experiment was conducted. One hundred listeners measured 50 excerpts of binaural recordings of urban outdoor soundscapes on 116 attribute scales. The average attribute scale values were subjected to principal components analysis, resulting in three components: Pleasantness, eventfulness, and familiarity, explaining 50, 18 and 6% of the total variance, respectively. The principal-component scores were correlated with physical soundscape properties, including categories of dominant sounds and acoustic variables. Soundscape excerpts dominated by technological sounds were found to be unpleasant, whereas soundscape excerpts dominated by natural sounds were pleasant, and soundscape excerpts dominated by human sounds were eventful. These relationships remained after controlling for the overall soundscape loudness (Zwicker’s N10), which shows that ‘informational’ properties are substantial contributors to the perception of soundscape. The proposed principal components model provides a framework for future soundscape research and practice. In particular, it suggests which basic dimensions are necessary to measure, how to measure them by a defined set of attribute scales, and how to promote high-quality soundscapes.
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| 2. |
- Axelsson, Östen, et al.
(författare)
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A Swedish instrument for measuring soundscape quality
- 2009
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Ingår i: Euronoise 2009. - Edinburgh : Institute of Acoustics.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In 2008 the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) decided to put together a new expert working group ISO/TC 43/SC 1/WG 54 named “Perceptual assessment of soundscape quality”. The purpose of this expert group is to propose the first ever, international standard on how to measure the perceived quality of soundscapes, by means of questionnaire techniques. This work is chiefly motivated by a need to harmonise methods in soundscape research internationally in order to improve the comparability of research results across countries and over time. Within the Swedish research program Soundscape Support to Health, the present authors developed such a technique based on field work and laboratory studies. In the present paper we present research in which we validated our initial findings and finalised our questionnaire protocol. We propose that the measurement of perceived soundscape quality must include: (1) identification of perceived sounds sources, such as, technological sounds, human sounds, and natural sounds, (2) classification of soundscape quality on a good–bad scale, and (3) qualitative measurement of a set of eight perceived-soundscape attributes defined in a two-dimensional Pleasantness–Eventfulness measurement model.
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| 3. |
- Axelsson, Östen, 1971-
(författare)
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Aesthetic Appreciation Explicated
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The present doctoral thesis outlines a new model in psychological aesthetics, named the Information-Load Model. This model asserts that aesthetic appreciation is grounded in the relationship between the amount of information of stimuli and people’s capacity to process this information. This relationship results in information load, which in turn creates emotional responses to stimuli. Aesthetic appreciation corresponds to an optimal degree of information load. Initially, the optimal degree is relatively low. As an individual learns to master information in a domain (e.g., photography), the degree of information load, which corresponds to aesthetic appreciation, increases. The present doctoral thesis is based on three empirical papers that explored what factors determine aesthetic appreciation of photographs and soundscapes. Experiment 1 of Paper I involved 34 psychology undergraduates and 564 photographs of various motifs. It resulted in a set of 189 adjectives related to the degree of aesthetic appreciation of photographs. The subsequent experiments employed attribute scales that were derived from this set of adjectives. In Experiment 2 of Paper I, 100 university students scaled 50 photographs on 141 attribute scales. Similarly, in Paper II, 100 university students scaled 50 soundscapes on 116 attribute scales. In Paper III, 10 psychology undergraduates and 5 photo professionals scaled 32 photographs on 27 attribute scales. To explore the underlying structure of the data sets, they were subjected to Multidimensional Scaling and Principal Components Analyses. Four general components, related to aesthetic appreciation, were found: Familiarity, Hedonic Tone, Expressiveness, and Uncertainty. These components result from the higher-order latent factor Information Load that underlies aesthetic appreciation.
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| 4. |
- Axelsson, Östen, et al.
(författare)
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Soundscape assessment.
- 2005
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Ingår i: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. - 0001-4966. ; 117:4, s. 2591-2592
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In order to improve the quality of the soundscape it is necessary to know its descriptive and evaluative properties, and the relationships between these properties. This was explored in a listening experiment with 100 participants (48 women, 52 men; mean age 25,6 years). Each participant scaled 5 out of 50 soundscapes with regard to 116 single verbal attributes, using a visual analogue scale of agreeableness. In addition, acoustical properties of the soundscapes were assessed. A principal component analysis identified two major evaluative components, labeled Hedonic Tone and Eventfulness. Furthermore it was found that the mere presence of common sound sources, regardless of sound level, correlated significantly with these evaluative components. Technological sounds (e.g., traffic noise) were negatively associated with both Hedonic Tone and Eventfulness, while a positive association was found between Hedonic Tone and sounds of nature (e.g., bird song), and a positive association was found between Eventfulness and human sounds (e.g., human voices). These relationships lead to the hypothesis that introduction of nature and human sounds, in combination with the reduction of technological sounds may improve the quality of soundscapes considerably.
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| 5. |
- Axelsson, Östen, et al.
(författare)
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Validation of the Swedish soundscape-quality protocol
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. - New York : Acoustical Society of America (ASA). - 0001-4966. ; 131:4, s. 3474-
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Swedish Soundscape-Quality Protocol was developed to help non-experts (e.g., officials working for municipalities rather than soundscaperesearchers) to make informed, accurate measurements of soundscape quality. The Protocol has hitherto been used in England, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and The Netherlands; a Korean version is being developed. Based on field studies – soundwalks in urban residential areas, recreational areas, and parks – the present paper reports on the psychometric properties of the scales of the Protocol. Participants were residents, or visitors to the areas and their results support the reliability and validity of the scales in the Protocol. Because high acoustic quality has a greater effect in visually attractive than in visually poor areas, the Swedish Soundscape-Quality Protocol includes scales for cross-sensory tabulation. These are sound source identification – sounds from humans, nature and technology – attribute scales (e.g., eventful, exciting, pleasant, and calm), overall soundscape quality, and concomitant visual impressions. In brief, the Swedish Soundscape-Quality Protocol is an easy to use and practical tool for measuringsoundscape quality. It has the potential to help operationalize how soundscapes can be measured in “quiet areas” to meet a future guideline value of the World Health Organization.
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| 6. |
- Berglund, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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A dualistic psychoacoustic research strategy for measuring soundscape quality : Paper 034.
- 2006
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Ingår i: Inter-Noise 2006–Engineering a Quieter World..
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In order to be able to design future soundscapes, tools are needed by which soundscape quality can be measured. For this purpose a “dualistic psychoacoustic research strategy” has been developed. The main goal of this strategy is to identify new ways to characterize soundscapes acoustically. The core question is how soundscapes should be measured on the one hand acoustically, on the other perceptually, such that the acoustic soundscapes that are similar (or dissimilar) would be identical to the perceived soundscapes that are similar (or dissimilar). A top down approach is favored in which tools for measuring perceived soundscape quality are first developed, and followed by developing models of measurement for acoustic soundscapes. Our multidimensional tool for measuring perceived soundscapes includes (perceived) similarity analysis for finding basic underlying dimensions and corresponding similarity analysis of acoustic (waterfall) soundscape quality. This means that this tool measures soundscape quality beyond loudness of unwanted sounds or mere sound level of predominant noise. Research on neural network models is in progress for finding appropriate acoustic measures of soundscapes.
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| 7. |
- Berglund, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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Are similar acoustic soundscapes perceived as similar? : Paper SS29-355.
- 2006
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Ingår i: EuroNoise 2006.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Health guidelines are concerned with soundscapes as coherent wholes (emissions from all sounds) and everyday life also takes place in soundscapes. Current noise control focuses on sound level change for singular sources, isolated from invariant background and other component sounds. By applying a dualistic similarity approach to data sets of perceptual soundscapes and acoustic soundscapes, it was possible to meaningfully differentiate properties of acoustic soundscapes of relevance for improving urban and suburban soundscapes. Apart from the mere presence of common sounds (e.g., birds, sounds of nature or technological sounds), meaningful differentiations of soundscapes include: (1) the relative proportion of direct and shielded sounds in background soundscapes, (2) the modification of loudness/softness and eventfulness/uneventfulness by acoustic quality, and (3) the “sound signatures” traceable to the relative foreground-background character of perceived soundscapes. Acoustically similar soundscapes (evolutionary spectra) were not always perceived similar, because the reasons for the two types of similarities differ. This fact calls for new ways to assess the acoustic soundscapes such that adequate design tools for coherent soundscapes can be developed.
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| 8. |
- Berglund, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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Master scaling in psychoacoustics.
- 2007
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Ingår i: Revista de Acústica. ; 38:3-4, s. Paper ENV01-002
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)
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| 9. |
- Berglund, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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Noise. In The National Board of Health and Welfare : Environmental Health Report 2005. Extended Summary.
- 2005
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Community noise is a widespread environmental problem in Sweden and is the form of disturbance that affects the highest number of both children and adults. Twelve-year-olds are disturbed by the same noise sources as adults, but, for children, loud music is the most annoying source, whereas road-traffic noise is most annoying source for adults. One child in every seven is annoyed by noise in or near the home and one in four is annoyed by noise in or near the school/kindergarten. One in every five report that after listening to loud music or other loud sounds. They experience ringing, squeaking, howling or buzzing in their ears, this being slightly more frequent among boys than girls. Just over one in ten report that their hearing is sometimes worse after listening to loud music. Children are exposed to hearing-impairing noise to a larger extent than in the past. Sound levels measured in kindergartens and schools exceed the limit for when ear protectors must be worn according to legislation governing health and safety at work. It is important that children’s noise exposures in kindergartens, schools and leisure environments are reduced as well as children's exposure to excessively loud music.
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| 10. |
- Berglund, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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Soundscape perception.
- 2006
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Ingår i: Joint Baltic-Nordic Acoustics Meeting 2006..
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Konferensbidrag (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Annoyance research typically focuses on single sources and on adverse effects of noise. In contrast, soundscape research focuses on the total sound environment, including all its positive and negative aspects. A major challenge in soundscape research is to develop methods for measuring the perceived soundscape. In the research program “Soundscape Support to Health”, we have developed new methods for this purpose, including listening tests in the laboratory, listening walks in the field and questionnaire studies targeted on the soundscape. We have thus identified major perpetual dimensions of soundscapes (pleasantness and eventfulness), linked these features to important acoustical and informational properties of soundscapes (type of sources), and explored the effect of noise mitigation on soundscape perception. Our research show (a) that pleasantness of soundscapes is related to the presence of natural sounds, whereas eventfulness is related to the presence of sounds from humans, (b) that traffic noise should be reduced to below 50 dBA, in order to have a chance to create good outdoor soundscapes in urban residential and recreational areas, and (c) that mitigation efficiency in sound level of various barriers and facades may overestimate corresponding perceptual mitigation efficiency. Based on these findings, new tools for ‘green labelling’ of soundscapes are being developed.
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