Smit, Jasper Laurens (2020) Determining the influence of Age & Gender on Soundscape Perception - A Quantitative Data Analysis. Pre-master thesis.
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Abstract
Issues of noise exposure have become a relevant topic in modern day society. There is established research available regarding the topic of noise, yet there is little known about the psychological and physiological factors that influence how an individual’s well-being is affected by noise exposure. Soundscape studies have proven to be a capable method for exploring these aspects. Further research in understanding what role psychological and physiological factors play a in the perception of sounds can contribute to the current empirical foundation on soundscape perception, aiding in finding universally applicable theories. Therefore, this research aims at finding to what extend demographical characteristics of people have an influence on soundscape perception. One limitation of research in this field is that empirical findings can be limited to the context in which the research was conducted. Therefore, a large dataset was provided comprising of effectively 1108 cases from multiple cities and countries. All research conducted was done in line with the protocols defined by the ISO 12913 series, which standardized the research in the field of soundscape studies. Clustering analysis was done in order to categorize all cases based on their most dominant sound sources. Non-Parametric correlation tests, either Pearson rank order or Kendall’s Tau-b, were used to determine the existence of a correlation between the soundscape perception and demographic characteristics. Soundscape perception, the dependent variable, was calculated as the perceived Pleasantness and Eventfulness, while age and gender were the demographical characteristics used as independent variables. This process was repeated on all the defined clusters, as well as on the dataset as a whole. The results indicate a correlation between the demographic attributes and soundscape perception in certain clusters and when the dataset was being analyzed in it’s entirety. Considering these results are obtained from a dataset that contains multiple contexts, they will aid in the pursuit towards new empirical theories on the phycological and physiological influences related to soundscape perception.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Pre-master) |
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| Degree programme: | Environmental & Infrastructure Planning |
| Supervisor: | Margaritis, E. |
| Date Deposited: | 03 Mar 2022 15:45 |
| Last Modified: | 03 Mar 2022 15:45 |
| URI: | https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3795 |
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