TY - JOUR A1 - Himmelein, Hendrik A1 - von Berg, Markus A1 - Pörschmann, Christoph A1 - Steffens, Jochen T1 - Influence of mental effort on sound evaluations in virtual and real experimental environments JF - Frontiers in Virtual Reality N2 - Psychoacoustic research increasingly relies on virtual reality (VR) to account for the complexity of acoustic scenarios and enhance the ecological validity of laboratory findings. However, recent studies suggest that virtual environments can alter mental effort compared to real-world settings, for example, through increased perceptual complexity which in turn may affect auditory perception.This could bias experimental outcomes and compromise the ecological validity of studies conducted in VR. To investigate this, a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment was conducted to assess whether VR environments increase mental effort and thereby influence auditory perception. A real office environment was visually reconstructed in Unity and presented to the participants via a head-mounted display (HMD) and compared to its real counterpart. Participants in both environments were asked to retrospectively rate the loudness and unpleasantness of dynamically rendered binaural office noise scenarios presented via headphones and to report perceived sound sources. Moreover, participants were divided into two groups to induce different levels of mental effort. One group was asked to listen only to the sounds, while the other performed the Stroop Color-Word interference test in parallel. The results show no significant difference in the overall induced mental effort between environment conditions. Furthermore, performing the Stroop test had an effect on loudness and unpleasantness that was mediated by subjective effort. The results also suggest that auditory jugment depend primarily on individual sound properties, regardless of the visual environment. KW - Psychoakustik KW - Virtuelle Realität KW - Lautwahrnehmung KW - Head-mounted Display Y1 - 2025 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:hbz:due62-opus-57985 SN - 2673-4192 VL - 6 PB - Frontiers Media SA ER - TY - GEN A1 - von Berg, Markus A1 - Versümer, Siegbert A1 - Steffens, Jochen A1 - Bitta, Joshua T1 - Reproduction levels of outdoor soundscapes in the lab after in-situ exposure: participant responses and recording level envelopes N2 - Supplemental material for https://doi.org/10.1051/aacus/2025062 To investigate loudness biases in the lab, where outdoor sounds are perceived as being too loud if reproduced with physically accurate levels in the lab, a listening experiment was conducted, where thirty-one participants visited a street and listened to the environmental sounds for one minute. These sounds were also recorded using a dummy head. Afterwards, participants listened to the recording in a quiet laboratory and adjusted its level as they remembered it. About half of the sample did this immediately, the other half about 20 min after the recording, during which the performed another listening tests. Afterwards, previous experience with acoustics, musical sophistication and noise sensitivity were assessed. The results revealed a mean gain adjustment of 8.9 dB below the original. The data uploaded here comprises participants gain adjustment, the recording levels averaged other A) the entire recording and B) the first and last 7.5s or 15s, respecitvely and all questionnaire responses as well as aggregate scores for musical sophistication and noise sensitivity, as well as a binary categorization of the respondent into laymen and experienced, based on their previous experience with acoustics. For sociodemographic information, participants age, sex and educational degree are reported as well. Content - 00_Description: - Description of the data files - Includes a list of explanation of the columns names in "data_questionnaires_aggregateLevels.csv - data_questionnaires_aggregateLevels.csv - Participants' adjusted recordings levels - Several level and loudness aggregates of each participant's recording that were analyzed in the paper - Participants' responses to the administered questionnaires - level_envelopes.zip - Archive with 31 CSV files containing level envelopes of each participant's recording. - A-weighted and unweighted level envelope for the dummy head's left and right ear - One-minute recordings with a temporal resolution of 125ms KW - Psychoakustik KW - Lautwahrnehmung KW - Lautstärke Y1 - 2025 UR - https://doi.org/10.1051/aacus/2025062 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17663267 PB - Zenodo ER - TY - JOUR A1 - von Berg, Markus A1 - Versümer, Siegbert A1 - Bitta, Joshua A1 - Steffens, Jochen T1 - Reduced reproduction levels of outdoor soundscapes are deemed appropriate - even after real-world exposure JF - Acta Acustica N2 - Laboratory experiments in psychoacoustical and soundscape research indicate that participants perceive a reproduction sound level lowered by 8-10 dB as more plausible than the original level. This bias supposedly roots in an adaptation of perceptual loudness scaling to the laboratory environment, that is overall quieter than urban outdoor soundscapes. To gain further insights into the nature of such loudness bias, we conducted a listening experiment in both field and laboratory using a within-subjects design. Thirty-one participants visited a street and listened to the environmental sounds for one minute, while these sounds were also recorded using a dummy head. Thereafter, they listened to the recording in a quiet laboratory nearby and adjusted its level as they remembered it. About half of the sample did this immediately, the other half about 20 minutes after the recording. Results confirm a bias towards lower levels with a mean of about 8.9 dB, regardless of the time between the recording and the reproduction in the laboratory. Also, participants with higher musical abilities tended to select higher, more accurate levels, whereas noise-sensitive participants deemed lower levels appropriate. Results suggest that the hypothesized adaptation of perceptual scaling to the laboratory happens immediately and is affected by individual factors. KW - Psychoakustik KW - Lautwahrnehmung KW - Lautstärke Y1 - 2025 UR - https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17663267 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1051/aacus/2025062 SN - 2681-4617 N1 - Acta Acustica, Forthcoming article, Accepted Manuscript PB - EDP Sciences ER - TY - CHAP A1 - von Berg, Markus A1 - Bitta, Joshua A1 - Versümer, Siegbert A1 - Steffens, Jochen T1 - Investigation of auditory memory through loudness reproduction in the laboratory [Abstract] T2 - DAS|DAGA 2025: 51st Annual Meeting on Acoustics, March 17-20, 2025, Copenhagen KW - Gedächtnis KW - Lautwahrnehmung KW - Lautstärke Y1 - 2025 UR - https://pub.dega-akustik.de/DAS-DAGA_2025/konferenz-1497.html?article=132 PB - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Akustik e.V. CY - Berlin ER - TY - THES A1 - Versümer, Siegbert T1 - Generalized prediction of quiet indoor soundscapes based on retrospective and in-situ judgements N2 - This dissertation aims to enhance the understanding of how people perceive and react to everyday sounds, particularly in their homes. The focus is laid on indoor soundscapes and the interplay between acoustic measures, individual differences, and contextual factors. A retrospective online study and a field study at peoples’ homes based on the Experience Sampling Method were the ecologically valid ground truth for four key publications. These address significant gaps in soundscape research by providing insights into the factors influencing sound perception in real-life contexts, the evaluation of low-level (i.e., quiet) sounds, and the consequences of (in)appropriate statistical analysis of imbalanced hierarchical soundscape data. The studies reveal that the sound source category is a critical predictor of annoyance and the pleasantness of soundscapes, with different types of sounds (e.g., natural, human, technical) having distinct impacts. Contrary, the effect of acoustic measures like perceived and calculated loudness on sound perception was expected to be high but was masked by contextual factors. These were the perceived control over the acoustic situation and the affective state of a person in the specific situation, proving context-related perceptual measures to be more important than the sound itself. The research consequently highlights the need for automatic sound source identification in complex polyphony everyday sound environments and suggests that individual preferences and liking of sounds could be potential factors in predicting individual sound perception. The dissertation also emphasizes the importance of using appropriate statistical methods, including mixed-effects models and nonlinear regression techniques, to generate more generalizable and more valid results based on hierarchical and imbalanced soundscape data. The findings underscore the limitations of traditional acoustic metrics and advocate for the use of time-series data to better capture the dynamic nature of everyday sound environments in contrast to stimuli typically used in laboratory studies. The author further developed a multi-objective function for avoiding both over- and underfitting during hyperparameter tuning, significantly improving generalized model fitting in soundscape research. Overall, this work contributes to the field of soundscape research by providing a comprehensive analysis of sound perception in indoor environments, highlighting the importance of context, individual differences, and advanced statistical methods in understanding and modeling soundscapes. Finally, future perspectives were discussed, such as the focus on individual preferences, experiences, and expectations for the improved prediction of individual sound perception. N2 - Diese Dissertation verbessert das Verständnis dafür, wie Menschen alltägliche Geräusche wahrnehmen. Der Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf der Geräuschkulisse in Innenräumen und dem Zusammenspiel von (psycho-)akustischen Messgrößen, individuellen Unterschieden und kontextuellen Faktoren. Eine retrospektive Online-Studie und eine Feldstudie in Wohnräumen der Probanden bildeten die ökologisch valide Grundlage der vier Schlüsselpublikationen. Diese untersuchen Faktoren, die die Geräuschwahrnehmung in realen Kontexten beeinflussen, indem sie die Bewertung von Geräuschen und die Folgen einer (un-)angemessenen statistischen Analyse von unausgewogenen hierarchischen Soundscape-Daten betrachten. Die Studien zeigen, dass die Kategorie der Geräuschquelle ein entscheidender Prädiktor für die Belästigung und die Angenehmheit ist. Entgegen der Erwartung, dass akustische Messgrößen wie die wahrgenommene und berechnete Lautheit einen großen Einfluss auf die Geräuschwahrnehmung haben, zeigte sich jedoch, dass diese durch kontextbezogene Faktoren maskiert wurde. Dabei handelte es sich um die empfundene Kontrolle über die akustische Situation und den emotionalen Zustand einer Person in der spezifischen Situation, wobei sich kontextbezogene Wahrnehmungsmaße als wichtiger erwiesen als das Umgebungsgeräusch selbst. Die Untersuchung unterstreicht folglich die Notwendigkeit einer automatischen Identifizierung von Geräuschquellen in komplexen polyphonen alltäglichen Geräuschumgebungen und legt nahe, dass individuelle Vorlieben für bestimmte Klänge wichtige Faktoren bei der Vorhersage der individuellen Geräuschwahrnehmung sein könnten. Die Dissertation unterstreicht zusätzlich die Bedeutung der Verwendung geeigneter statistischer Methoden, einschließlich Modellen mit gemischten Effekten und nichtlinearen Regressionstechniken, um verallgemeinerungsfähigere Ergebnisse auf der Grundlage hierarchischer und unausgewogener Daten von Soundscape-Studien zu erzielen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen zudem die Grenzen akustischer und psychoakustischer Metriken auf und implizieren die Verwendung von Zeitreihendaten, um die dynamische Natur alltäglicher Geräuschumgebungen besser zu repräsentieren. Darüber hinaus entwickelte der Autor eine Mehrzieloptimierung zur Vermeidung von Über- und Unteranpassung beim Hyperparametertuning, wodurch die Anpassung verallgemeinerbarer Modelle erheblich verbessert wird. Insgesamt leistet diese Arbeit einen wesentlichen Beitrag, indem sie eine umfassende Analyse der Geräuschwahrnehmung in Innenräumen liefert und die Bedeutung von Kontext, individuellen Unterschieden und angemessenen statistischen Methoden für das Verständnis und die Modellierung von Soundscapes hervorhebt. Abschließend werden mögliche Zukunftsperspektiven erörtert, wie z. B. der Fokus auf individuelle Präferenzen, Erfahrungen und Erwartungen für eine verbesserte Vorhersage der individuellen Geräuschwahrnehmung. KW - Psychoakustik KW - Lautwahrnehmung KW - Lautstärke KW - Belästigung Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-23962 PB - Berlin CY - Technische Universität Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Versümer, Siegbert A1 - Steffens, Jochen A1 - Weinzierl, Stefan T1 - Day-to-day loudness assessments of indoor soundscapes: Exploring the impact of loudness indicators, person, and situation JF - The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America N2 - This study investigates loudness perception in real-world contexts using predictors related to the sound, situation, or person. In the study, 105 participants recorded 6594 sound environments in their homes, which were then evaluated based on the Experience Sampling Method. Hierarchical linear regressions using a loudness level based on ISO 532-1 allowed for obtaining the best model fits for predicting perceived loudness and explaining the highest variance. LAeq and LAF5 provided comparable results and may require less computational effort. However, the analysis shows that only one-third of the variance explained by fixed effects was attributable to the loudness level. Sixteen percent stemmed from perceived properties of the soundscape; 1% were attributable to relatively temporally stable, person-related predictors like participants' age; non-auditory situational predictors made no additional contribution. The results thus did not confirm previous findings on loudness perception under laboratory conditions, emphasizing the importance of the situational context. Along with the current paper, a comprehensive dataset, including the assessed person-related, situational, and sound-related measures as well as LAeq time-series and third-octave spectrograms, is provided to enable further research on sound perception, indoor soundscapes, and emotion. KW - Lautwahrnehmung KW - Akustische Eigenschaft KW - Hörschädigung KW - Lautstärke KW - Audiometrie KW - Sonogramm KW - Regressionsanalyse KW - Gauß-Prozess KW - Auditory perception KW - Acoustical properties KW - Hearing impairment KW - Loudness perception KW - Audiometry KW - Acoustic noise control KW - Spectrograms KW - Acoustic ecology KW - Regression analysis KW - Gaussian processes Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:hbz:due62-opus-46127 SN - 0001-4966 VL - 153 IS - 5 SP - 2956 EP - 2972 PB - Acoustical Society of America (ASA) ER -