How Pleasant Sounds Promote and Annoying Sounds Impede Health: A Cognitive Approach

Tjeerd C. Andringa and J. Jolie L. Lanser
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Tjeerd C. Andringa: ALICE Institute, Artificial Intelligence, University of Groningen, Broerstraat 4. Groningen 9747 AG, The Netherlands
J. Jolie L. Lanser: ALICE Institute, Artificial Intelligence, University of Groningen, Broerstraat 4. Groningen 9747 AG, The Netherlands

IJERPH, 2013, vol. 10, issue 4, 1-23

Abstract: This theoretical paper addresses the cognitive functions via which quiet and in general pleasurable sounds promote and annoying sounds impede health. The article comprises a literature analysis and an interpretation of how the bidirectional influence of appraising the environment and the feelings of the perceiver can be understood in terms of core affect and motivation. This conceptual basis allows the formulation of a detailed cognitive model describing how sonic content, related to indicators of safety and danger, either allows full freedom over mind-states or forces the activation of a vigilance function with associated arousal. The model leads to a number of detailed predictions that can be used to provide existing soundscape approaches with a solid cognitive science foundation that may lead to novel approaches to soundscape design. These will take into account that louder sounds typically contribute to distal situational awareness while subtle environmental sounds provide proximal situational awareness. The role of safety indicators, mediated by proximal situational awareness and subtle sounds, should become more important in future soundscape research.

Keywords: quietness; quiet areas; quality-of-life; soundscape; mind-states; pleasure; annoyance; needs; arousal; attention; audition; core affect; motivation; safety (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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