Investigating soundscape affordances through activity appropriateness

Central to the concept of soundscape is the understanding of the acoustic environment in context. Previous research indicates that people understand soundscapes through their potential for activities. One way to look at activities is through the concept of affordances - defined as the actionable properties of an object. In this study, the object is a location and time in the city. Fifteen participants listened to stereo recordings of 8 outdoor sites in Paris and Montreal. In each trial, they evaluated on a continuous scale how appropriate the soundscapes were for a given activity. Four activities were considered and presented in random order: studying for an exam, meeting up with a friend, riding a bike and relaxing. Participants justified their ratings in free-format comments. A 8(Soundscapes) x 4(Activities) factorial ANOVAs revealed significant effects of Soundscape and Activities and Soundscape*Activities on appropriateness ratings. Certain soundscapes were found to accommodate specific activities only while others were found to potentially accommodate all activities or none (prominent mechanical/traffic noise.) We also analyzed comments to further understand how participants envision utilizing the soundscape/environment and attribute meanings to the various sounds present.