UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

The Psychophysiological Implications of Soundscape: A Systematic Review of Empirical Literature and a Research Agenda

Erfanian, M; Mitchell, A; Kang, J; Aletta, F; (2019) The Psychophysiological Implications of Soundscape: A Systematic Review of Empirical Literature and a Research Agenda. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health , 16 , Article 3533. 10.3390/ijerph16193533. Green open access

[thumbnail of 71_Erfanian_Mitchell_Kang_Aletta_2019.pdf]
Preview
Text
71_Erfanian_Mitchell_Kang_Aletta_2019.pdf - Published Version

Download (730kB) | Preview

Abstract

The soundscape is defined by the International Standard Organization (ISO) 12913-1 as the human’s perception of the acoustic environment, in context, accompanying physiological and psychological responses. Previous research is synthesized with studies designed to investigate soundscape at the ‘unconscious’ level in an effort to more specifically conceptualize biomarkers of the soundscape. This review aims firstly, to investigate the consistency of methodologies applied for the investigation of physiological aspects of soundscape; secondly, to underline the feasibility of physiological markers as biomarkers of soundscape; and finally, to explore the association between the physiological responses and the well-founded psychological components of the soundscape which are continually advancing. For this review, Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, and PsycINFO were searched for peer-reviewed articles published in English with combinations of the keywords ‘soundscape’, ‘environmental noise/sound’, ‘physiology/physiological’, ‘psychology/psychological’, and ‘perceptual attributes/affective/subjective assessment/appraisals’. Previous research suggests that Electrocardiography (ECG) and Vectorcardiography (VCG) biometrics quantifying Heart Rate (HR), stimulus-locked experimental design, and passive listening with homogeneous populations are predominantly applied to characterize the psychophysiology underlying the soundscape. Pleasantness and arousal are the most frequent psychological descriptors for soundscape subjective appraisals. Likewise, acoustic environments are reported to inconsistently evoke physiological responses with great variability among studies. The link between the perceptual attributes and physiological responses of soundscape vary within and among existing literature. While a few studies detected a link between physiological manifestations of soundscape and the perceptual attributes, the others failed to validate this link. Additionally, the majority of the study findings were limited to one or two physiological responses.

Type: Article
Title: The Psychophysiological Implications of Soundscape: A Systematic Review of Empirical Literature and a Research Agenda
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph16193533
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16193533
Language: English
Additional information: This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords: Soundscape; physiology; acoustic environment; perceptual attributes; auditory; noise
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > Bartlett School Env, Energy and Resources
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10082080
Downloads since deposit
154Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item