Comparison of the loudness of inside car noises from various sound sources in the same context

Abstract

A comparison of the loudness of inside car noises from various sound sources in situations similar to daily life is investigated. If each sound is presented independently, subjects would pay more attention to the sound than in actual situations. In the present experiment, the impressions of the sounds while driving were judged continuously using the method of continuous judgment by category. This method makes it possible to evaluate the impressions of various noises without paying special attention to any of the specific noises in the same context and to examine the effect of each noise separately. The results suggest that some sounds tend to be overestimated compared with the background noises and others do not. The finding of this experiment may be helpful to find the effects of various factors in sound environments and take effective countermeasures.