Affective evaluations of and reactions to exterior and interior vehicle auditory quality

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Affective evaluations of and reactions to exterior and interior vehicle auditory quality

Vastfjäll, D. / Gulbol, M.A. / Kleiner, M. / Gärling, T.

Affective reactions to and evaluations of auditory stimuli are fundamental components of human perception. In three experiments, participants rated their affective reactions (how pleasant I feel) and preferences for these affective reactions (how much I like the way I feel) as well as affective evaluations (how pleasant the sound is) to interior and exterior binaurally recorded vehicle sounds varying in physical properties. Consistent with previous research, it was found that the orthogonal affect dimensions of valence (unpleasant-pleasant) and arousal or activation (deactivation-activation) discriminated between affective reactions induced by the different qualities of the sounds. Only loudness was related to valence ratings. Tonality and roughness were, however, significantly related to activation, and overall loudness to valence ratings. Moreover, preference for affective reactions was related to both valence and activation. Affective evaluations (powerful-powerless/ passive-active and unpleasant-pleasant) correlated significantly with affective reactions to the same sounds in both within-subjects and between-subjects designs. Standard sound quality metrics derived from the sounds correlated, however, poorly with the affective ratings of interior sounds and only moderately with affective ratings of exterior sounds. Participants preference ratings were directly related to sound quality metrics, with preference or liking decreasing for increased loudness and tonality. Taken together, the results suggest that affect is an important component in product auditory quality optimization.