Effects of Road-Traffic Background Noise on Judgme of Individual Airplane Noises

摘要

Two laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of road-traffic background noise on judgments of individual airplane flyover noises. In the first experiment, 27 subjects judged a set of 16 airplane flyover noises in the presence of traffic-noise sessions of 30-min duration consisting of the combinations of 3 traffic-noise types and 3 noise levels. In the second experi¬ment, 24 subjects judged the same airplane flyover noises in the presence of traffic-noise sessions of 10-min duration consisting of the combinations of 2 traffic-noise types and 4 noise levels. In both experiments the airplane noises were judged less annoying in the presence of high traffic-noise levels than in the presence of low traffic-noise levels. The maximum reduction in airplane-noise annoyance was equivalent to a 5-dB reduction in airplane-noise level. An interaction between airplane-noise level and traffic-noise level was found. The greatest reduction in airplane annoyance occurred when the peak airplane-noise level was approximately 10 dB greater than the traffic-noise level.