Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

In a continuing study of the annoyance due to low frequency noise, 75 subjects (21 actual complainants and 54 controls) carried out a magnitude estimation task and rated the annoyance due to lower-level low frequency noise. Previous experience with the magnitude estimation task was found to influence subsequent rating behaviour, and a threshold effect (i.e. a steepening of the psychophysical function as threshold was approached) occurred, which was accounted for by the inclusion of a threshold constant, p_o, in the psychophysical relationship. The results indicated that no significant difference occurred between the actual complainants and a control group when they rated annoyance in the laboratory. The annoyance growth was described by ψ = k(p_A−p_o)^0–694, 55 < OASPL (dB) < 75, 20 < FREQUENCY (Hz) < 90 (where ψ = the subjective annoyance, p_A = the A-weighted sound pressure in Pa, and k = a constant). However, the complainants seemed more predisposed to complain or express dissatisfaction and were more likely to rate a given noise as unacceptable. Furthermore, they were more likely to do so for stimuli within the 30–50 Hz frequency range.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anon. (1977) “Have you heard the hum?” The Sunday Mirror, June 19.

Anon. (1977) “Hounded by this nagging noise”. The Sunday Mirror, June 26.

Anon. (1977) “Hum that mystery noise drives sobbing wife out of the house”. The Sunday Mirror, July 3.

Broner

(1978) “The Effects of Low Frequency Noise on People – A Review”. J. Sound Vib., Vol. 58, 483–500.

Scott

(1978) “Annoyance Caused by Low Frequency Sound”. Noise and Vibration Bulletin, Sept., 266–268.

Hood

R.A.

Leventhall

H.G.

(1971) “Field Measurement of Infrasonic Noise”. Acustica, Vol. 25, 10–13.

Leventhall

H.G.

Kyriakides

(1976) “Environmental Infrasound: Its Occurrence and Measurement” in ‘Infrasound and Low Frequency Vibration’, Tempest

(ed.), Academic Press. London, 1–18.

Broner

(1978b) “Low Frequency and Infrasonic Noise in Transportation” Applied Acoustics, Vol. 11, 129–146.

Broner

Leventhall

H.G.

(1978) “Individual Loudness Functions”. Acoustics Letters, Vol. 2, 22–25.

10.

Broner

Leventhall

H.G.

“Annoyance, Loudness and Unacceptability of Higher Level Low Frequency Noise” to be published in Journal of Low Frequency Noise & Vibration.

11.

Bryan

M.E.

(1976) “Low Frequency Annoyance” in ‘Infrasound and Low Frequency Vibration’, Tempest

(ed.). Academic Press, London, 65–96.

12.

Vasudevan

R.N.

Gordon

C.G.

(1977) “Experimental Study of Annoyance Due to Low Frequency Environmental Noise”. Applied Acoustics, Vol. 10, 57–69.

13.

Stevens

S.S.

(1956) “The Direct Estimation of Sensory Magnitudes – Loudness”. American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 59, 1–25.

14.

Kryter

K.D.

(1968) “Concepts of perceived noisiness, their implementation and application”. J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 43, 344–361.

15.

Kryter

K.D.

(1970) “Possible modifications to calculation of perceived noisiness”, NASA Report CR 1636, August.

16.

Stevens

S.S.

(1972) “Perceived Level of Noise by Mark VII and Decibels (E)”. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 51, 575–601.

17.

Higgins

T.H.

(1976) “Human response to sound. The calculation of perceived level, PLdB (noisiness or loudness) directly from physical measures”, U.S.D.O.T.F.A.A. Report No. FAA-RD-76-1 (Nov).

18.

ISO (1970) R 507 “Procedure for describing aircraft noise around an airport”.

19.

Broner

Leventhall

H.G.

(1980) “A modified PNdB for assessment of low frequency noise”, J. Sound Vib., Vol. 73, 271–277.

20.

Walford

R.E.

(1978) “Acoustical Aspects of Some Hum Complainants”. Thesis, Diploma of Chelsea College.

21.

Berglund

Lindvall

(1975) “Scaling Loudness, Noisiness and Annoyance of Aircraft Noise”. J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 57, 930–934.

22.

Berglund

Lindvall

(1976) “Scaling Loudness, Noisiness and Annoyance of Community Noises”. J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 60, 1119–1125.

23.

Poulton

E.C.

(1968) “The New Psychophysics: Six Models for Magnitude Estimation”. Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 69, 1–19.

24.

Marks

L.E.

(1974) “Sensory Processes, the New Psychophysics”, Academic Press, New York and London.

25.

Marks

L.E.

Stevens

J.C.

(1968) “The Form of the Psychophysical Function Near Threshold”. Perception and Psychophysics, Vol. 4, 315–318.

26.

Broner

Leventhall

H.G.

(1983) “A Criterion for Predicting the Annoyance Due to Lower Level Low Frequency Noise”. Jnl. Low Freq. Noise & Vib.

The Annoyance and Unacceptability of Lower Level Low Frequency Noise

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References