Integrative Analyses of Perception and Reaction to Information and Warning Sounds in Vehicles

Doctoral thesis, 2008

The aim of the present thesis is to establish procedures to connect different types of data on auditory perception. This knowledge will lead to both a better understanding of perception in general, but also more efficient and cost effective methods for analyzing auditory perception data. In paper I, it is shown how to develop more specific psychoacoustic measures to use for analyzing sound quality problems. Paper II argues for the use of perceptual space in sound quality research, using psychoacoustic measures and preference mapping for interpretation of the dimensions in the perceptual space. Benefits of this method against traditional interpretation methods is shown. Paper III presents a framework for the assessment and design of infor- mation and warning sounds in vehicle. This is demonstrated in an experiment using emotional reactions as the most important test items. In Paper IV two studies examine emotional reactions to auditory alerts. The first study showed that sounds of different warning levels could be separated using self reports of emotional reactions. The second study validated these results using physiological measures of emotional reactions. In Paper V an integrative approach is used to accomplish further knowledge of the underlying mechanisms in the perception of sound. Overall the five papers builds up a fuller view on sound perception. The results suggested that a better specification of the auditory perceptual process could be reached by combining different data types and methods. These results may be used to improve sub jective test methodology in both basic and applied research.