Revealing the stimulus-driven component of attention through modulations of auditory salience by timbre attributes.

Attention allows the listener to select relevant information from their environment, and disregard what is irrelevant. However, irrelevant stimuli sometimes manage to capture it and stand out from a scene because of bottom-up processes driven by salient stimuli. This attentional capture effect was observed using an implicit approach based on the additional singleton paradigm.

Short-term noise annoyance and electrodermal response as a function of sound-pressure level, cognitive task load, and noise sensitivity.

Introduction: Two aspects of noise annoyance were addressed in the present laboratory study: (1) the disturbance produced by vehicle pass-by noise while engaging in a challenging non-auditory task, and (2) the evaluative response elicited by the same sounds while imagining to relax at home in the absence of a primary activity.

Methods And Material: In Experiment 1, N = 29 participants were exposed to short (3-6 s) pass-by recordings presented at graded levels between 50 and 70 dB(A). Concurrent with each sound presentation, they performed a visual multiple-object tracking task, and subsequently rated the annoyance of the sounds on a VAS scale.

Estimation of field psychoacoustic indices and predictive annoyance models for road traffic noise combined with aircraft noise.

Annoyance due to urban road traffic noise combined with aircraft noise was studied using both laboratory and field survey data. Laboratory data were used to propose (i) partial annoyance models considering psychoacoustic indices and noise sensitivity, and (ii) total annoyance models considering noise indices or partial annoyance models. To predict partial and total annoyance in field, a methodology was proposed to estimate the different psychoacoustic indices, involved in annoyance models, from Lvalues.

Selection of a sound propagation model for noise annoyance prediction: A perceptual approach.

Sound propagation effects need to be considered in studies dealing with the perception of annoying auditory sensations evoked by transportation noise. Thus, in a listening test requiring participants to make dissimilarity ratings, the effects of several feasible propagation models are compared to actual recordings of vehicle noises made at a given distance. As a result, a model taking into account first order reflections without any phase term is found to be the most appropriate model for simulating road traffic noise propagation in an urban environment from a perceptual point of view.

Two laboratory methods of assessing annoyance due to railway noise and vibration.

In laboratory experiments, total annoyance due to combined noise and vibration and partial annoyances due to each source in the presence of the other can be assessed in two ways: during separate sessions dedicated to the evaluation of each kind of annoyance, and during the same session. This letter examines the difference between annoyance responses provided by the two methods. No differences were found between partial (respectively, total) annoyance responses measured during separate sessions and those measured during the same session.

Partial and Total Annoyance Due to Road Traffic Noise Combined with Aircraft or Railway Noise: Structural Equation Analysis.

Structural equation modeling was used to analyze partial and total in situ annoyance in combined transportation noise situations. A psychophysical total annoyance model and a perceptual total annoyance model were proposed. Results show a high contribution of and to , as well as a causal relationship between noise annoyance and lower Moreover, the may increase noise annoyance, even when the visible noise source is different from the annoying source under study.

Noise sensitivity and loudness derivative index for urban road traffic noise annoyance computation.

Urban road traffic composed of powered-two-wheelers (PTWs), buses, heavy, and light vehicles is a major source of noise annoyance. In order to assess annoyance models considering different acoustical and non-acoustical factors, a laboratory experiment on short-term annoyance due to urban road traffic noise was conducted. At the end of the experiment, participants were asked to rate their noise sensitivity and to describe the noise sequences they heard.

Testing of the European Union exposure-response relationships and annoyance equivalents model for annoyance due to transportation noises: The need of revised exposure-response relationships and annoyance equivalents model.

An in situ survey was performed in 8 French cities in 2012 to study the annoyance due to combined transportation noises. As the European Commission recommends to use the exposure-response relationships suggested by Miedema and Oudshoorn [Environmental Health Perspective, 2001] to predict annoyance due to single transportation noise, these exposure-response relationships were tested using the annoyance due to each transportation noise measured during the French survey. These relationships only enabled a good prediction in terms of the percentages of people highly annoyed by road traffic noise.

A Simulated Environment Experiment on Annoyance Due to Combined Road Traffic and Industrial Noises.

Total annoyance due to combined noises is still difficult to predict adequately. This scientific gap is an obstacle for noise action planning, especially in urban areas where inhabitants are usually exposed to high noise levels from multiple sources. In this context, this work aims to highlight potential to enhance the prediction of total annoyance.