Perceptual Differences in Urban Soundscape Assessment Using Protocol Proposed in Method a of the ISO/TS 12913–2: A Cross-Language Comparison between Arabic and French Attributes

Abstract

The urban soundscape contributes significantly to defining human perception and experience. Several standard assessment methods for data collection refer to in situ evaluations to determine how people perceive urban acoustic qualities. These methods, which generally involve soundwalks accompanied by questionnaires, are valuable but need to be validated in different cultural contexts. To address this need, international efforts such as the Soundscape Attribute Translation Project (SATP) are underway to ensure the effectiveness of a data collection standard in non-English-speaking regions. As a part of the SATP project, this study explores potential variations in how people experience urban soundscapes in North Africa. A standardized listening experiment was used to compare how Arabic speakers and French speakers rate the perceived affective qualities (PAQ) of urban soundscapes. Using data collected in public urban spaces in London, participants from both language groups rated 27 recorded urban soundscapes using a PAQ questionnaire. Findings from the Kruskal–Wallis H-test suggest that the perception of pleasant, chaotic, and vibrant are significant, while the dimensions of eventful, monotonous, and quiet show no significant distinctions between the two PAQ groups. Furthermore, opposing Pearson correlations were observed for the attributes of pleasantness and eventfulness, along with contradictions for vibrant, monotonous, and calm. The two-dimensional circumplex models visually map the differences in perceptual responses between the two PAQ groups, displaying distinct circular distortions along the monotone-vibrant axis for Arabic PAQs and the chaotic-calm axis for the French PAQs. The findings of this study suggest that further investigations are needed to understand whether the differences in the urban soundscape perception between these two PAQs are due to linguistic factors or other factors.