Open-Plan Offices: Comparison of Methods for Measuring Psychoacoustic Intelligibility Parameters

Abstract

The acoustic conditions of open-plan office spaces influence the well-being and productivity perceived by users. However, with an inadequate evaluation of the workspace, acoustic design in open-plan offices can be a factor that alters user performance. Such is the case in Mexico, where there are no adequate standards to evaluate specific acoustic conditions such as intelligibility. For this reason, this case study aims to evaluate different types of measurement methods for intelligibility. This study was carried out at a university in northern Mexico. The sound measurements were based on the Mexican standard for noise analysis and the ISO 3382-part 3 standards for acoustic measurements for open-plan offices. The psychoacoustic parameters evaluated were reverberation and intelligibility, using objective methods determined on S/N and subjective methods based on loss of consonant, where it was analyzed the distance between the sound source and zones classified by building design characteristics. The results indicated at which points the intelligibility effects increased. We also observed that reverberation remained stable in this office and that the subjective methods presented a larger measured sound effect than the objective methods. This finding establishes that subjective methods conform to Lognormal behavior, which is applicable to other linguistic elements describing speech behavior.