Empirical Tests of Hypotheses Derived from a Decision-Theoretical Model of Noise-Induced Annoyance
Abstract
This report describes an empirical study of hypotheses derived from a decision-theoretic model of the annoyance of individual aircraft flyovers. The major issues of interest in this laboratory study were the influences of two internal states of the listener (affective state and concentration on ongoing activity) on the self-reported annoyance of noise intrusions. Support was found for the hypothesis that concentration on ongoing activity influences annoyance judgments independently from the acoustic properties of noise intrusion, and for the hypothesis that the affective state of the observer also influences annoyance judgments independently from the same acoustic properties. However, neither of these influences on annoyance was as large as the main effect of signal level. The effect of concentration was unambiguous and directly traceable to the experimental manipulation of task difficulty. The experiment manipulations intended to change moods were ineffective, but post hoc analyses of differences between groups of subjects and subjects' mood ratings revealed significant differences in annoyance judgments related to alternative definitions of affective state. Keywords: Aircraft noise; Annoyance. (KT)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA213891
Entities
People
- Laura Silvati
- Linda Secrist
- Sanford Fidell
Organizations
- BBN Technologies