Quantification of context effects in the determination of source-specific annoyance ratings for shooting and road-traffic sounds

摘要

Specific analyses of field survey data suggest that the context in which a sound is heard may substantially influence the reaction to it. In the present paper, the relevance of the effect of context on the community response to single sources is estimated from the data obtained in two separate field surveys. By means of multiple linear regression analyses, it was verified to which extent the predictability of the source-specific annoyance caused by a target sound (road-traffic or shooting sounds) from its noise dose could be enhanced by adding the noise dose of a non-target source (shooting or road-traffic sounds) as a second predictor. Overall, a 10-dB increase in the noise exposure of a second source resulted in a decrease in the annoyance that was equivalent to a shift in its noise dose of 0.5-1 dB.