Continuous Evaluative and Pupil Dilation Response to Soundscapes
Abstract
We investigated human response to soundscapes using a continuous second-by-second rating of soundscapes and a more conventional overall rating of each sample at the end of each audition. The work is exploring what new understanding of soundscape perception is revealed by obtaining time-varying responses. A secondary aim was to understand how pupil dilation response relates to soundscape perception. We used ambisonic soundscapes simulated in a laboratory environment. During playback, listeners were asked to perform a continuous evaluation on pleasantness and eventfulness dimensions. A comparison of the results of the two rating methods (continuous and overall) indicates that the first can be used reliably for soundscape evaluation. We found a strong effect of soundscape category ? human, nature or man-made industrial or domestic ? on the pleasantness and eventfulness ratings and on the first two principal components derived from the overall ratings, which related to pleasantness-eventfulness dimensions. In addition, we observed some effects of category on pupil size, which were broadly consistent with perceptual ratings. The perceived differences between soundscape categories were consistent with findings in the literature of greater pleasantness ratings for natural sounds than mechanical or industrial sounds. Pupil dilation response demonstrated the ?old/new? effect, in which familiar items are associated with larger pupil sizes than unfamiliar items.
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