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Verbal Expression of Emotional Impression of Sound: a Cross-Cultural Study

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Verbal Expression of Emotional Impression of Sound: a Cross-Cultural Study J. A-coust. Soc. Jpn.(E) 12, 1 (1991) Verbal expression of emotional impression of sound: A cross-cultural study Seiichiro Namba,*1 Sonoko Kuwano,*1 Takeo Hashimoto,*2 Birgitta Berglund,*3 Zheng Da Rui,*4 August Schick,*5 Holger Hoege," and Mary Florentine" *1College of General Education , Osaka University, 1-1 Machikaneyama, Toyonaka, 560 Japan *2Facultv of Enkineerink , Seikei University, 3-3-1 Kichijoji-Kitamachi, Musashino, 180 Japan *3 Department of Psychology, University of Stockholm, S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden *4 Institute of Acoustics , Academia Sinica, 5 Zhongguancun Street, Beijing, China *5lnstitut zur Erforschung von Mensch-Umwelt Beziehungen, Psychologie, Fachbereich- 5, Universitaet Oldenburg, Postfach 2503, D-2900 Oldenburg, F. R. Germany *6Communication Research Laboratory , Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue 133FR, Boston, MA 02115 U.S.A. (Received 6 September 1990) Emotional expression of four levels of six kinds of sound (aircraft noise, train noise, road traffic noise, speech, music and construction noise) was examined using the method of selected description in five countries-Japan, Sweden, West Germany, China and the U.S. Subject were asked to select the adjectives which they thought appropriate for expressing the impression of each sound. Using the method of selected description, the differences and similarities between sound sources and use of adjectives were expressed more clearly than when conventional semantic differential was used. On the basis of the adjectives selected and cluster analysis, it was found for sounds used in this experi mentthat "loud" in Japan, Sweden and China has neutral connotations while "loud" in Germany and the U.S. has negative connotations. It was also suggested that "noisy" and "annoying" are not differentiated in Japan, while in the other four countries these two adjectives are differentially used. Keywords: Loudness, Noisiness, Annoyance, The method of selected description PACS number:43.66. -x, 43.50. -x terms can be objectively expressed by letters or 1. INTRODUCTION vocally. On the other hand, attributes of sensation In the psychological evaluation of noise the terms is involved in the inner world of human beings and for expressing the emotional experience or subjective cannot be observed directly from outside. How impression have important roles. It is necessary ever,it can be expected that generally the attributes to differentiate the terms themselves and attributes of sensation, such as loudness, has good correlation of sensation expressed by the terms. That is, the with the physical values of stimuli and that subjects 19 J. Acoust. Soc. Jpn.(E) 12, 1 (1991) respond regularly according to the change of the stimuli. It is true that the term is an important clue to estimate the sensation or emotion even though it does not directly express them. It is desirable to use appropriate terms for expressing the attributes of noise. Especially at present the research into noise is internationally spread and related to each other. Therefore, it is necessary to use terms which are not misunderstood in any languages. We have been doing cross-cultural studies on the terms for expressing the emotional aspects of sounds using the method of selected description1,2) and semantic differential." From these studies, it was found that the method of selected description is a better method than semantic differential in order to examine the terms appropriate for expressing the emotional aspects of sounds. It is because that the judgment using the method of selected description is very natural; subjects are asked to select adjectives appropriate for expressing the subjective impression of each sound. On the other hand in semantic differential, subjects may be forced to rate stimuli using adjective scales which are not always appro priatefor expressing the impression of the stimuli. This study was designed to investigate what terms are appropriate for expressing the impression of various sounds using the method of selected de 2.2 Adjectives scriptionin five countries : Japan, Sweden, West In a preliminary experiment, the stimuli were Germany, China and the U.S. The classification presented to subjects in random order and they were among adjectives and sound sources will also be asked to describe any adjectives which they thought examined by cluster analysis. appropriate for expressing the impression of each sound. Making reference to these adjectives de 2. EXPERIMENT scribed,thirty-two adjectives were selected. They 2.1 Stimuli are shown in Table 2. The adjective list in Japanese Twenty-four stimuli were used. They were air was translated into English through discussion with craftnoise, train noise, road traffic noise, Japanese a British linguist. The adjective list in Chinese was speech, music and construction noise.*1 Four levels prepared by Zheng on the basis of Japanese version of noise were used for each noise source.*2 The and those in Swedish and German by Berglund and duration was about 10s. The stimuli used are listed Hoege, respectively on the basis of English version. with the values of Leq in Table 1. 2.3 Apparatus *1 The reasons why only Japanese speech was used in The stimuli were reproduced with a DAT recorder every country are that physical values may differ if in Japan and China, a PCM recorder in Sweden and the speech of each country is used and that Japanese U.S., and a reel-to-reel tape recorder in Germany. is a foreign language for all the subjects in the other They were presented to subjects in random order four countries except for Japanese subjects. *2 The sound sources used in this experiment were pre through an amplifier and loudspeakers. The num sentedat the same levels as they were recorded as berof loudspeakers used in the experiment was much as possible except for speech. The levels of varied from one to four. They were placed so that speech were changed using an attenuator. the sound levels at the position of each subject might 20 S. NAMBA et al.:VERBAL EXPRESSION OF EMOTIONAL IMPRESSION OF SOUND Table 2 List of adjectives. be similar to each other. 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 2.4 Procedure 3.1 Cluster Analysis Subjects were given a list on which the 32 adjec The phi coefficient between adjectives were cal tives were presented and they marked adjectives- culated on the basis of the matrix of commonly- which they thought were appropriate for expressing selected adjectives within the third rank. Using their impression of each stimulus. They were asked the matrix of the phi coefficient between adjectives, to rank three adjectives for each stimulus. The 32 cluster analysis was conducted. In this matrix, the adjectives were presented in three sets, each with a higher value of phi coefficient means that the distance different order. between the adjectives is closer. Examples of the results are shown in Figs. 1-10. 2.5 Subjects 3.1.1 Sound sources 302 college students, all aged about 18 or 19, were Dendrogram for sound sources in the five countries adopted as subjects in Japan, 120 students in Sweden, are shown in Figs. 1-5. It was found that in all 102 in Germany, 138 in China and 144 in the U.S. the five countries noise sources with high sound levels are grouped together in the left hand corner of the clusters and the noise sources are not differ -21 J. Acoust. Soc. Jpn.(E) 12, 1 (1991) Fig. 1 The result of cluster analysis for sound sources in Japan. Fig. 2 The result of cluster analysis for sound sources in Sweden. entiated. Noise sources with low sound levels are among noise sources with low sound levels in Ger also grouped. Speech has a group of its own re many.In the U.S. sound level seems to have a gardlessof the sound levels except for the speech greater effect on the classification than the sound with the highest level in the U.S. sources. Though there are some exceptions, it was In the three countries except for Japan and U.S., found that the 24 stimuli were fairly systematically music and speech are closely grouped, while in Japan classified on the basis of their sound levels and kinds noises with low sound levels are grouped between of sound source. music and speech. It is also noted that construction 3.1.2 Adjectives noise is uniquely located:one with the lowest sound Dendrograms for adjectives in the five countries level is located between music and speech in China are shown in Figs. 6-10. It was found that in and Sweden, one with low sound level is located Japan "loud" is located in the same group as "power among other noise sources with high sound levels in ful"and "magnificent," and in the different group China, and one with high sound level is located from "noisy" or "annoying," which confirms that 22 S. NAMBA et al.:VERBAL EXPRESSION OF EMOTIONAL IMPRESSION OF SOUND Fig. 3 The result of cluster analysis for sound sources in West Germany. Fig. 4 The result of cluster analysis for sound sources in China. "noisy" and "annoying "loud" in Japanese does not have negative image. ," which indicates that "loud" "Noisy" and "annoying" are located very closely, has negative image. In the U.S."loud" is closer which indicates that these two adjectives are syn to "annoying" and "noisy" than to "powerful" or "magnificent onymsin Japan. In Sweden also,"loud,""power ." This suggests that "loud" has nega ful"and "magnificent" belong to the same group tiveimage in the U.S."Loud,""annoying" and "noisy" in the U and are close to the group "pleasing" and "beauti .S. are close to each other, but ful."This suggests that "loud" in Sweden does not equally separated and so they seem to have different have negative image, either.
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