Affective Reactions to Interior Aircraft Sounds

This study examined affective reactions to interior aircraft sounds. In Experiment 1, 20 undergraduates rated their affective reactions from listening to 18 interior aircraft sounds. In Experiment 2, another 20 undergraduates rated the cognitive/perceptual dimensions of the same sounds. In Experiment 3, an additional sample of 40 undergraduates rated affective reactions, perceived annoyance and overall quality after listening to 16 sounds. The results suggested that the affective dimensions of valence and activation reliably discriminated between reactions to the sounds. Moreover, affective reactions in terms of the two primary dimensions valence and activation were related to calculated and rated psychoacoustic metrics. Valence was primarily related to perceived loudness, whereas activation was related to sharpness. In addition, both perceived annoyance and rated overall sound quality was related to the valence and activation dimensions. Together, these findings suggest that it may be beneficial to decompose affective reactions to sounds into two dimensions.