Abstract
In order to clarify the subjective attribute of sounds in terms of the evaluation of environmental noises, 12 psycho-acoustical experiments in 5 series were performed during the period of five years. All experiments were carried out in an acoustically treated listening room. Subjects were asked to estimate the impressions of sound stimuli using semantic scales of adjectives. In order to obtain the validity of study, a wide variety of subjects, semantic scales, and sound stimuli were adopted. Stimuli included artificial sounds, a variety of environmental noises, classic, popular and traditional musics, natural sounds and human voices of many types. To formulate the sematic scales, two sources were utilized. The first was the standard Japanese dictionary of Iwanami edition, from which all entries were reviewed to achieve 23 bipolar scales. The second was the Bunrui Goihyo, the authorized Japanese thesaurus edited by National Language Institute, from which all entries were again reviewed according to its categorical analyses to achieve 22 bipolar scales. Subjects were both trained and untrained. Untrained subjects included junior high school pupils, college students of both sexes, housewives, and the aged citizens. Their ages ranged from 12 to 75. The results of 12 experiments were analyzed by the principal factor methods using the program of S.P.S.S., 6th and 8th editions by Kyoto University. Through all 12 analyses, three orthogonal factors were extracted. The first factor, "the acceptability", represents the acceptable impression of sound, which is related to the overall total quality but not directly related to major physical characteristics of stimuli. The second factor, "the strength". corresponds well to the total acoustical energy of the stimuli. The third factor, "the sharpness", corresponds both to the high frequency components and the impulsiveness of stimuli. The findings were compared to the similar studies done both in Japan and abroad. Discussions were made on the differences among the studies.
