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- Alvarsson, Jesper J.
(författare)
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Perspectives on wanted and unwanted sounds in outdoor environments : Studies of masking, stress recovery, and speech intelligibility
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- An acoustic environment contains sounds from various sound sources, some generally perceived as wanted, others as unwanted. This thesis examines the effects of wanted and unwanted sounds in acoustic environments, with regard to masking, stress recovery, and speech intelligibility.In urban settings, masking of unwanted sounds by sounds from water structures has been suggested as a way to improve the acoustic environment. However, Study I showed that the unwanted (road traffic) sound was better at masking the wanted (water) sound than vice versa, thus indicating that masking of unwanted sounds with sounds from water structures may prove difficult. Also, predictions by a partial loudness model of the auditory periphery overestimated the effect of masking, indicating that centrally located informational masking processes contribute to the effect. Some environments have also been shown to impair stress recovery; however studies using only auditory stimuli is lacking. Study II showed that a wanted (nature) sound improve stress recovery compared to unwanted (road traffic, ambient) sounds. This suggests that the acoustic environment influences stress recovery and that wanted sounds may facilitate stress recovery compared to unwanted sounds. An additional effect of unwanted sounds is impeded speech communication, commonly measured with speech intelligibility models. Study III showed that speech intelligibility starts to be negatively affected when the unwanted (aircraft sound) masker have equal or higher sound pressure level as the speech sound. Three models of speech intelligibility (speech intelligibility index, partial loudness and signal–to–noise ratio) predicted this effect well, with a slight disadvantage for the signal–to–noise ratio model. Together, Study I and III suggests that the partial loudness model is useful for determining effects of wanted and unwanted sounds in outdoor acoustic environments where variations in sound pressure level are large. But, in environments with large variations in other sound characteristics, models containing predictions of central processes would likely produce better results.The thesis concludes that wanted and unwanted characteristics of sounds in acoustic environments affect masking, stress recovery, and speech intelligibility, and that auditory perception models can predict these effects.
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| 4. |
- Hygge, Staffan, 1944-, et al.
(författare)
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Acoustical conditions in the classroom I : Speech intelligibility and recall of spoken material heard at different signal-to-noise ratios.
- 2013
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Ingår i: 42nd International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering 2013, INTER-NOISE 2013: Noise Control for Quality of Life. ; , s. 4957-4964
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study explored speech intelligibility and free recall of word lists heard under different signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios. Pre-experimental measures of working memory capacity (WMC) were taken to explore individual susceptibility to the disruptive effects of noise. The thirty-five participants first completed a WMC-operation span task in quiet and later listened to spoken word lists containing 11 one-syllable phonetically balanced words presented at four different S/N ratios (+12, +9, +6, and +3). Participants repeated (shadowed) each word aloud immediately after its presentation and performed a free recall task of the words after the end of the list. The speech intelligibility function decreased linearly with increasing S/N levels for both the high-WMC and low-WMC groups. Recall and memory of the words decreased with increasing S/N levels only for the low-WMC group. Recall and memory for the high-WMC individuals was not affected by increased S/N levels. Our results suggest that impoverished acoustical conditions impair speech intelligibility and memory, but also that a high WMC may counteract some of the negative effects of speech noise.
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| 5. |
- Hygge, Staffan, 1944-, et al.
(författare)
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Acoustical conditions in the classroom II : Recall of spoken words in English and Swedish heard at different signal-to-noise ratios
- 2013
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Ingår i: 42nd International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering 2013, INTER-NOISE 2013: Noise Control for Quality of Life. ; , s. 5091-5098
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- An experiment will be reported which assessed speech intelligibility and free recall of spoken words in Swedish (native tongue) and in English heard under different signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios (+3 and +12 dB), and with/without the spoken words being repeated back orally directly after presentation (shadowing). All participants encountered all experimental conditions. Twelve wordlists with 12 words each were generated in English as well as in Swedish. The words were chosen according to their ranks in category norms for the two languages, and no category was the same for the two languages. Blocks of counter balanced presentation orders, S/N-ratios and shadowing/no shadowing were generated. After each wordlist the participants wrote down the words they could recall. Pre-experimental measures of working memory capacity were taken. The basic hypotheses for the recall of the words were that working memory would be overloaded when the S/N-ratio was low, there was no shadowing and when the language was English. A low score on working memory capacity was expected to further enhance these effects. While writing this abstract data collection is still in progress but results will be presented at the conference.
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| 6. |
- Hygge, Staffan, 1944-
(författare)
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Buller påverkar kognition och minne
- 2011
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Ingår i: Psykologtidningen. - 0280-9702. ; :5, s. 15-17
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 7. |
- Hygge, Staffan, 1944-
(författare)
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Classroom acoustics – Speech intelligibility, memory and learning
- 2014
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Ingår i: Proceedings of Forum Acusticum. - 9788361402282
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The acoustical conditions in a classroom may severely impair listening, which in turn impairs learning. To safe-guard against inferior listening conditions government agencies and professional societies have established building codes and recommendations for acceptable signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) and reverberation times (RT) in classrooms. Codes and recommendations are based on conditions required for speech intelligibility and correct identification of spoken words and isolated sentences. Correct identification of what was said is a necessary condition for memory and learning, but it is not a sufficient one. There is a gap between speech intelligibility and memory and the size of that gap is a function of the intelligibility of the spoken message and how much the message taxes the individual's limited working memory capacity. I will discuss how SN, RT and their combinations change speech intelligibility and memory of spoken messages. Although the characteristics of the spoken material and the individual's working memory capacities can be assessed independently of each other, there is a functional equivalence between them. A difficult task and a lack of skill are two sides of the same coin. In a better world building codes and recommendations for classroom acoustics should be based on memory and learning rather than on speech intelligibility alone.
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| 8. |
- Hygge, Staffan, 1944-
(författare)
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Classroom noise and its effect on learning
- 2014
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Ingår i: 11th International Congress on Noise as a Public Health Problem (ICBEN), Nara, Japan, 1-5 June, 2014.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The acoustical conditions in a classroom may severely impair listening, which in turn impairs learning. To safe-guard against inferior listening conditions government agencies and professional societies have established building codes and recommendations for acceptable signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) and reverberation times (RT) in classrooms. Codes and recommendations are based on conditions required for speech intelligibility and correct identification of spoken words and isolated sentences.Correct identification of what was said is a necessary condition for memory and learning, but it is not a sufficient one. There is a gap between speech intelligibility and memory and the size of that gap is a function of the intelligibility of the spoken message and how much the message taxes the individual's limited working memory capacity.I will discuss how SN, RT and their combinations change speech intelligibility and memory of spoken messages. Although the characteristics of the spoken material and the individual's working memory capacities can be assessed independently of each other, there is a functional equivalence between them. A difficult task and a lack of skill are two sides of the same coin.In a better world building codes and recommendations for classroom acoustics should be based on memory and learning rather than on speech intelligibility alone.
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