Annoyance

About: Annoyance is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2015 publications have been published within this topic receiving 38300 citations. The topic is also known as: annoy.

Noise: hearing loss and psychological effects.

Abstract: There are many uncertainties about the effects of noise below the level that might harm hearing. The author suggests that there is good evidence that loud noises affect well being and health in the widest sense and reviews recent research on the subject. The level of annoyance experienced depends upon the nature of the source, the circumstances, the characteristics and attitude of the individual as well as the physical features of the noise. While annoyance increases with increasing noise there is a wide range of individual variation in response. There is evidence to show that introverts cannot tolerate noise as well as extroverts while anxious people tend to judge sounds to be louder than the non-anxious. Results show that although mentally disturbed and normal people are annoyed by aircraft noise, the former are more likely to be very annoyed. The effect of noise in work performance is not always adverse. Noise increases arousal and focuses attention on the dominant features of the task at the expense of the subsiding aspects. The ability to perform complex tasks and complex intellectual functions deteriorates in the presence of noise; accuracy and the response to the unexpected suffer. Changes in noise level appear to be particularly disturbing. (TRRL)

Characterization of sound quality of impulsive sounds using loudness based metric

Abstract: A study on the characterization of the sound quality of transient sounds via fundamental psychoacoustic measures is described in this paper. Specifically, the overall subjective perception of annoyance for transient sounds was studied. Through magnitude estimation and paired comparison jury evaluation experiments, the subjective annoyance magnitudes of 15 transient sounds were determined. For each sound, several objective psychoacoustic measures were calculated, and using simple linear regression models, the relationships between these objective measures and the subjective annoyance magnitudes were investigated. Examined psychoacoustic measures included loudness, sharpness, roughness, fluctuation strength, tonality, and a new loudness-based measure of impulsiveness. The new impulsiveness measure is based on the summation of the magnitudes of impulse-induced peaks in the loudness time history for a sound (calculated according to DIN 45631/A1). The models were analyzed using several statistical measures of model significance and fit. It was found that for the transient sounds studied, significant relationships existed between subjective annoyance and each of the following psychoacoustic measures: loudness, sharpness, roughness, and loudness-based impulsiveness. These four measures were then combined into a single model for predicting subjective annoyance using multiple linear regression analysis. It was found that this model was highly correlated to the subjective annoyance of transient sounds.

Annoyance Reactions to External Environmental Factors in Different Sociological Groups

Abstract: endangered by such factors. It suffices that they cause &dquo;trouble&dquo; to the individuals exposed to them. However, if the external environmental factors appear to be of such a harmless nature that they do not represent a threat to the health of the individuals exposed, it will still be necessary to decide whether &dquo;sanitary nuisance&dquo; applies to such cases. This decision will depend on the frequency and intensity of subjective trouble experiences registered among the individuals exposed. Two groups of factors influence the subjective experience of trouble: firstly, the nature of the trouble; secondly, the characteristics of the individuals exposed. In deciding whether a case implies &dquo;sanitary nuisance&dquo;, major importance should be attached to ascertaining the effect of disturbing external environmental factors from the trouble reactions of the individuals exposed to them. But even when the individuals of the group compared have been equally exposed, they will react differently owing to the fact that, between them, they possess a large number of different individual characteristics. Obviously, it is a complicated matter to evaluate such subjectively differing reactions. Therefore, an attempt must be made to find out to which extent the trouble reactions registered depend on qualities pertaining to the disturbing environmental factor and to which extent they depend on the individuals disturbed.

Emotions evoked by exposure to footstep noise in residential buildings

Abstract: In the present study, the effect of footstep noise on emotions was investigated. This study used noise stimulus of human footsteps throughout the study. First, Korean emotion lexicons were collected from narratives of residents living in multi-family housing buildings. The lexicons were then classified into four emotion clusters, with three expressing negative emotions (anger, dislike, and pain) and the fourth depicting empathy. Since self-reported annoyance has long been investigated as one of the major non-auditory responses to noise, annoyance was measured along with affective responses in a laboratory experiment with varying noise levels. The findings revealed that the emotion and noise annoyance experienced by the participants were significantly affected by noise levels. All clusters expressing negative emotions showed strong correlations with noise annoyance, whereas that representing empathy showed the weakest correlation. Noise sensitivity and attitudes to the noise source were observed as possible moderators in emotional responses and annoyance ratings.

Experimental characterisation of the low frequency noise annoyance arising from industrial plants

Abstract: Complaints about low frequency noise annoyance are frequently reported although the sound levels, measured according to usual procedures, do not seem to justify such reactions. In the present paper...