Soundscapes and protected area conservation: Are noises in nature making people complacent?

This study explores how existing connections to natural places may affect PA visitors’ experiences and perceptions within the PA. Specifically, outside-the-PA soundscape perceptions are examined to better understand how their experiences outside the PA may affect perceptions of PA soundscapes and visitors’ ability to effectively contribute to conservation monitoring. Survey research (n=389) of recent urban visitors to the Chilean Coyhaique National Reserve (CNR) in Patagonia unpacked perceptions of the acoustic environments within the places where participants felt most connected to nature, including landscape features, favorite and prevalent sounds, and acceptability of particular anthrophonic sounds. Favorite and prevalent sounds were open-coded, and anthrophonic sounds were rated for prevalence and acceptability. The mountain landscape features and sounds (‘wind’, ‘running water’,‘ birds’) participants described as prominent within the places where they felt most connected to nature aligned well with CNR characteristics. Participants who ‘sometimes’‘/often’ heard certain anthropogenic sounds (vehicles, aircraft, machines, city sounds), within the places where they felt most connected to nature, rated those sounds as more acceptable than participants who reported ‘never’ hearing them, raising concerns about complacency toward anthrophony in natural settings. Continued research efforts are warranted to better understand visitors’ frames of reference, their influence on the reliability of social norm data for PA soundscape monitoring, and their influence on PA managers’ ability to protect conservation values.

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PERCEIVED RESTORATIVE BENEFITS OF OBUDU MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE, NIGERIA

Jurnal Teknologi ◽

10.11113/jt.v77.6540 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 77 (15) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Henry Ojobo ◽

Ismail Said ◽

Sapura Mohamad ◽

Aldrin Abdullah ◽

Norsidah Ujang

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Rating Scale ◽

Urban Landscape ◽

Stress Relief ◽

Natural Environments ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Landscape Features ◽

Mountain Landscape ◽

Human Wellbeing

Specific natural environments evoke restorative potentials for the amelioration of stress necessary for human wellbeing. However, studies focusing on the evaluation of this phenomenon have covered mainly forests, wilderness and urban landscape features, while mountain landscape features have not been adequately explored. This study examined the perception of individuals regarding the benefits of contact with the features of a mountain landscape environment in relation to human wellbeing. A direct rating scale questionnaire was administered to 200 respondents drawn from a population of lecturers and students. Overall findings suggest that the multi-stimulus Obudu mountain landscape environment possesses the potential to enhance wellbeing through excitement, calmness and stress relief. This finding will inform policy makers and landscape architects in decision-making concerning the development of mountain landscape environments and provision of landscape features for specific environments.

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Going beyond Quietness: Determining the Emotionally Restorative Effect of Acoustic Environments in Urban Open Public Spaces

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph16071284 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (7) ◽

pp. 1284 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Karmele Herranz-Pascual ◽

Itziar Aspuru ◽

Ioseba Iraurgi ◽

Álvaro Santander ◽

Jose Luis Eguiguren ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Perceived Stress ◽

Positive Emotions ◽

Smartphone Application ◽

Public Spaces ◽

Emotional States ◽

Subjective Data ◽

Research Attention ◽

Acoustic Comfort ◽

Acoustic Environments ◽

Natural Settings

The capacity of natural settings to promote psychological restoration has attracted increasing research attention, especially with regards to the visual dimension. However, there is a need to extend these studies to urban settings, such as squares, parks or gardens, due to the global trend towards urbanisation, and to integrate the dimension of sound into landscape. Such was the main aim of this study, in which 53 participants assessed four public spaces in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain) as part of the CITI-SENSE Project (137 observations were used for analysis). A smartphone application was used to simultaneously collect objective and subjective data. The results show that at the end of the urban environmental experience, there was a statistically significant reduction in negative emotions and perceived stress, and a slight increase in positive emotions. Emotional restoration was mainly associated with prior emotional states, but also with global environmental comfort and acoustic comfort. The soundscape characteristics that contributed to greater emotional restoration and a reduction in perceived stress were pleasantness, calm, fun and naturalness. Therefore, in agreement with previous research, the findings of the present study indicate that besides contributing to the quietness of the urban environment, the urban soundscape can promote psychological restoration in users of these spaces.

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Perspectives on the Ecological Role of Geophysical Sounds

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution ◽

10.3389/fevo.2021.748398 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Almo Farina ◽

Tim C. Mullet ◽

Tursynkul A. Bazarbayeva ◽

Tamara Tazhibayeva ◽

Diana Bulatova ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Animal Behavior ◽

Anthropogenic Source ◽

Sea Waves ◽

Ecological Processes ◽

Running Water ◽

Natural Sources ◽

Ecological Values ◽

Negative Impacts ◽

Anthropogenic Sounds

Humans categorize unwanted sounds in the environment as noise. Consequently, noise is associated with negative human and ecological values, especially when it is derived from an anthropogenic source. Although evidence confirms that many machine-generated anthropogenic sounds have negative impacts on animal behavior and communication, natural sources of non-biological sound, such as wind, rain, running water, and sea waves (geophonies) have also been categorized as noise and are frequently dismissed or mischaracterized in acoustic studies as an outside factor of acoustic habitats rather than an integrated sonic component of ecological processes and species adaptations. While the proliferation of machine-generated sound in the Biosphere has become an intrusive phenomenon in recent history, geophony has shaped the Earth’s sonic landscapes for billions of years. Therefore, geophonies have very important sonic implications to the evolution and adaptation of soniferous species, forming essential ecological and semiotical relationships. This creates a need to distinguish geophonies from machine-generated sounds and how species respond to each accordingly, especially given their acoustic similarities in the frequency spectrum. Here, we introduce concepts and terminology that address these differences in the context of ecoacoustics. We also discuss how Acoustic Complexity Indices (ACIs) can offer new possibilities to quantifiably evaluate geophony in relation to their sonic contest.

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Hearing Aid Amplification Reduces Communication Effort of People With Hearing Impairment and Their Conversation Partners

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2020_jslhr-19-00350 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 63 (4) ◽

pp. 1299-1311 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Timothy Beechey ◽

Jörg M. Buchholz ◽

Gitte Keidser

Keyword(s):

Hearing Impairment ◽

Hearing Aid ◽

Normal Hearing ◽

Referential Communication ◽

Hearing Impaired ◽

Directional Hearing ◽

Acoustic Environment ◽

Communication Task ◽

Acoustic Environments ◽

The Impact

Objectives This study investigates the hypothesis that hearing aid amplification reduces effort within conversation for both hearing aid wearers and their communication partners. Levels of effort, in the form of speech production modifications, required to maintain successful spoken communication in a range of acoustic environments are compared to earlier reported results measured in unaided conversation conditions. Design Fifteen young adult normal-hearing participants and 15 older adult hearing-impaired participants were tested in pairs. Each pair consisted of one young normal-hearing participant and one older hearing-impaired participant. Hearing-impaired participants received directional hearing aid amplification, according to their audiogram, via a master hearing aid with gain provided according to the NAL-NL2 fitting formula. Pairs of participants were required to take part in naturalistic conversations through the use of a referential communication task. Each pair took part in five conversations, each of 5-min duration. During each conversation, participants were exposed to one of five different realistic acoustic environments presented through highly open headphones. The ordering of acoustic environments across experimental blocks was pseudorandomized. Resulting recordings of conversational speech were analyzed to determine the magnitude of speech modifications, in terms of vocal level and spectrum, produced by normal-hearing talkers as a function of both acoustic environment and the degree of high-frequency average hearing impairment of their conversation partner. Results The magnitude of spectral modifications of speech produced by normal-hearing talkers during conversations with aided hearing-impaired interlocutors was smaller than the speech modifications observed during conversations between the same pairs of participants in the absence of hearing aid amplification. Conclusions The provision of hearing aid amplification reduces the effort required to maintain communication in adverse conditions. This reduction in effort provides benefit to hearing-impaired individuals and also to the conversation partners of hearing-impaired individuals. By considering the impact of amplification on both sides of dyadic conversations, this approach contributes to an increased understanding of the likely impact of hearing impairment on everyday communication.

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Behavioral Assessment of Social Interactions in Natural Settings

European Journal of Psychological Assessment ◽

10.1027/1015-5759.12.2.124 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 124-131 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Carlos Santoyo

Keyword(s):

Social Skills ◽

Social Interaction ◽

Social Interactions ◽

Behavioral Assessment ◽

Behavioral Observation ◽

Social Responsiveness ◽

Social Agents ◽

Social Effectiveness ◽

Natural Settings

The present paper deals with behavioral assessment of social interaction in natural settings. The design of observational systems that allow the identification of the direction, contents, quality and social agents involved in a social interchange is an aim of social interaction assessment and research. In the first part a description of a system of behavioral observation of social interaction is presented. This system permits the identification of the above mentioned aspects. Secondly a strategy for the behavioral assessment of social skills is described. This strategy is based on the consequences and effects of social interaction, and it is supported by three basic processes: social effectiveness, social responsiveness and reciprocity.

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Is the Musical Stroop Effect Able to Keep Its Promises?

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000222 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 61 (1) ◽

pp. 80-83 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Laurent Grégoire ◽

Pierre Perruchet ◽

Bénédicte Poulin-Charronnat

Keyword(s):

Stroop Task ◽

Stroop Effect ◽

Extensive Training ◽

Natural Settings ◽

Current Procedure

Grégoire, Perruchet, and Poulin-Charronnat (2013) claimed that the Musical Stroop task, which reveals the automaticity of note naming in musician experts, provides a new tool for studying the development of automatisms through extensive training in natural settings. Many of the criticisms presented in the four commentaries published in this issue appear to be based on a misunderstanding of our procedure, or questionable postulates. We maintain that the Musical Stroop Effect offers promising possibilities for further research on automaticity, with the main proviso that the current procedure makes it difficult to tease apart facilitation and interference.

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