Comparison between perceived and felt emotions in the soundscape evaluation of urban open spaces

Abstract

In the current study on soundscape, the distinction between felt emotion and perceived emotion in soundscape measurement has not been addressed as much as that in music studies. This research was conducted to investigate perceived and felt emotions associated with soundscape evaluation in urban open spaces through a laboratory audio-visual experiment using photographs and binaural recordings of 16 urban open locations across Harbin, China. In total, 46 participants were required to assess both the “perceived emotion” and “felt emotion” of the soundscapes using a questionnaire (in Chinese). First, five felt emotions and seven perceived emotions associated with the soundscape were identified, among which the dominant factors were enjoyment and excitement for felt emotions and comfortable and festive for perceived emotions. Second, when comparing perceived and felt emotions, the holistic soundscape descriptor “preference” is more suitable for predicting through felt emotion, while the holistic soundscape descriptor “appropriateness” is more suitable for predicting through perceived emotion. Third, preference is a more stringent soundscape descriptor than appropriateness, indicating a higher level of requirement in its definition. Meanwhile, preference is a more emotional soundscape descriptor than appropriateness. It may be inferred that for evaluating soundscapes, the more emotional the descriptor, the greater its stringency.