A Study on the Comparison of the Impressions of Environmental Sounds among Ages

Abstract

The major objective of this study is to investigate the difference of the impressions of environmental sounds among ages. In order to accomplish this objective, we firstly surveyed the taste for sounds by questionnaires with various aged (from the age of teens to sixties) people. When six ages were divided into young age (under forty years old) and old age (over or equal to forty years old), the most kinds of sounds showed different tastes between two groups of age. Furthermore, two experiments were conducted with each age using environmental sounds and those visual images. In the first experiment, thirty-three sounds were presented to subjects. In the second experiment, the sounds with visual image of sound were presented. The evaluation on the sound impression was performed by using Semantic Differential (SD) method. The factor analysis of the experimental data showed that the change of the impressions due to visual information was more remarkable in the case of young age than old.