Comparison of short-term noise annoyance assessment methods

摘要

Both acousticaland non-acousticalfactors influence noise annoyance. The onlyacoustical factor taken into account in current annoyance models is mean acoustical energy, whereas otheracousticalfactors (linked to frequency and temporal contents) also influence noise annoyance. Thus, more investigations are needed to better take into account such acousticalfactors. This step requires assessing noise annoyance with controlledacoustical factors in laboratory conditions.To that end, two main methods exist in the literature: one with imaginary context (subjects listen to stimuli in a quiet room), and one with simulated context (subjectsperformactivities in a simulated living room exposed to noise). The question may arise whether anexperiment with imaginary context is pertinent for short-term noise annoyance assessment. The current paper aims at comparing results obtained from experiments based onimaginary and simulated contexts. The comparison revealed a significant difference between contexts in terms of mean noise annoyance responses. But it also showed that the noise annoyance models, respectively determined under imaginary and simulated contexts, provided similar prediction quality when these modelsare confronted with noise annoyance responses collectedin situ. Thus, an experiment with imaginary context is suitable for investigating acoustical factors that influence noise annoyance.