Short-term noise annoyance and electrodermal response as a function of sound-pressure level, cognitive task load, and noise sensitivity.

INTRODUCTION: Two aspects of noise annoyance were addressed in the present laboratory study: (1) the disturbance produced by vehicle pass-by noise while engaging in a challenging non-auditory task, and (2) the evaluative response elicited by the same sounds while imagining to relax at home in the absence of a primary activity. METHODS AND MATERIAL: In Experiment 1, N = 29 participants were exposed to short (3-6 s) pass-by recordings presented at graded levels between 50 and 70 dB(A). Concurrent with each sound presentation, they performed a visual multiple-object tracking task, and subsequently rated the annoyance of the sounds on a VAS scale. In Experiment 2, N = 30 participants judged the sounds while imagining to relax, without such a cognitive task. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Annoyance was reduced when participants were engaged in the cognitively demanding task, in Experiment 1. Furthermore, when occupied with the task, annoyance slightly, but significantly increased with task load. Across both experiments, the magnitude of simultaneously recorded skin conductance responses in the first 1-4 s after the onset of stimulation increased significantly with sound pressure level. Annoyance ratings tended to be elevated across all sound levels, though significantly only in Experiment 2, in participants classified as noise sensitive based on a 52-item questionnaire. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that noise annoyance depends on the primary activity the listener is engaged in. They demonstrate that phasic skin conductance responses may serve as an objective correlate of the degree of annoyance experienced. Finally, noise sensitivity is once more shown to augment annoyance ratings in an additive fashion.

Memory disruption by irrelevant noise-vocoded speech: Effects of native language and the number of frequency bands.

To investigate the mechanisms by which unattended speech impairs short-term memory performance, speech samples were systematically degraded by means of a noise vocoder. For experiment 1, recordings of German and Japanese sentences were passed through a filter bank dividing the spectrum between 50 and 7000 Hz into 20 critical-band channels or combinations of those, yielding 20, 4, 2, or just 1 channel(s) of noise-vocoded speech. Listening tests conducted with native speakers of both languages showed a monotonic decrease in speech intelligibility as the number of frequency channels was reduced. For experiment 2, 40 native German and 40 native Japanese participants were exposed to speech processed in the same manner while trying to memorize visually presented sequences of digits in the correct order. Half of each sample received the German, the other half received the Japanese speech samples. The results show large irrelevant-speech effects increasing in magnitude with the number of frequency channels. The effects are slightly larger when subjects are exposed to their own native language. The results are neither predicted very well by the speech transmission index, nor by psychoacoustical fluctuation strength, most likely, since both metrics fail to disentangle amplitude and frequency modulations in the signals.

Role-Playing and Real-Time Strategy Games Associated with Greater Probability of Internet Gaming Disorder.

Research indicates that a small subset of those who routinely play video games show signs of pathological habits, with side effects ranging from mild (e.g., being late) to quite severe (e.g., losing a job). However, it is still not clear whether individual types, or genres, of games are most strongly associated with Internet gaming disorder (IGD). A sample of 4,744 University of Wisconsin-Madison undergraduates (Mage=18.9 years; SD=1.9 years; 60.5% female) completed questionnaires on general video game playing habits and on symptoms of IGD. Consistent with previous reports: 5.9-10.8% (depending on classification criteria) of individuals who played video games show signs of pathological play. Furthermore, real-time strategy and role-playing video games were more strongly associated with pathological play, compared with action and other games (e.g., phone games). The current investigation adds support to the idea that not all video games are equal. Instead, certain genres of video games, specifically real-time strategy and role-playing/fantasy games, are disproportionately associated with IGD symptoms.

Octuplicate this interval! Axiomatic examination of the ratio properties of duration perception.

The relationship between the physical intensity of a stimulus and its perceived magnitude can be described by Stevens' power law (Stevens, American Journal of Psychology, 69(1), 1-15, 1956), i.e., a power function with an exponent depending on the sensory modality studied. Direct scaling methods used to determine the power function exponent are based on the assumption that subjects are capable of processing ratios of magnitudes. The present experiments investigate whether this assumption holds for duration perception by empirically testing (Narens, Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 40(2), 109-129, 1996) fundamental axioms of monotonicity, commutativity, and multiplicativity. To determine whether the exponent can be interpreted in a meaningful way, i.e., whether it is invariant under changes of the reference stimulus, two further axioms, invertibility and weak multiplicativity (Augustin, Acta Psychologica, 128(1), 176-185, 2008) are evaluated. N=25 participants were required to adjust the duration of a comparison tone to specific ratios of different standard durations in two experiments. In accordance with previous findings for other sensory continua, monotonicity held for the duration adjustments of most participants. Significant violations of the commutativity axiom were found in 12.5% of all pertinent tests, whereas multiplicativity was violated in 32% of such tests. The axioms of weak multiplicativity and invertibility, however, were violated in over 50% of the tests. These results indicate that even though a ratio scale for perceived duration exists, the numbers as used by the participants cannot always be taken at face value and that even though power functions fit the data quite well, the exponent depends on the size of the standard and therefore cannot always be interpreted in a meaningful way.

Irrelevant speech does not interfere with serial recall in early blind listeners.

Phonological working memory is known be (a) inversely related to the duration of the items to be learned (word-length effect), and (b) impaired by the presence of irrelevant speech-like sounds (irrelevant-speech effect). As it is discussed controversially whether these memory disruptions are subject to attentional control, both effects were studied in sighted participants and in a sample of early blind individuals who are expected to be superior in selectively attending to auditory stimuli. Results show that, while performance depended on word length in both groups, irrelevant speech interfered with recall only in the sighted group, but not in blind participants. This suggests that blind listeners may be able to effectively prevent irrelevant sound from being encoded in the phonological store, presumably due to superior auditory processing. The occurrence of a word-length effect, however, implies that blind and sighted listeners are utilizing the same phonological rehearsal mechanism in order to maintain information in the phonological store.