Psychological Modeling of Stream Sound and Assessment of Sound Amenity

The Pleasantness of Stream Sounds (Part3)

Abstract

This study measured the physical characteristics that characterized the pleasantness of stream sounds. Two kinds of sensory test were carried out on 117 subjects to determine the most appealing loudness and pitch of stream sound. The results of the tests and analysis were as follows:(2) The appeal of the loudness of stream sound could be evaluated by the sound level. However, the pleasantness of loudness was affected by the pitch of the stream sound and bythe manner in which the subjects listened to it.(2) The appeal of the pitch of the stream sound was affected by the local fluctuation of the sound pressure levels over the frequency range of 200 to 8, 000 Hz.(3) A psychological model of stream sound was formulated by a linear discriminant function composed of the sound level and the difference between the local minimum value of the sound pressure level over the frequency range of about 200 to 500Hz and the local maximum value of the sound pressure level over the frequency range of about 1, 000 to 4, 000Hz.