Gender difference in perceived loudness: aiming for establishing guidelines for sound scape design

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K16248
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Design science
• Research Institution: Utsunomiya University
• Principal Investigator: Tsusuta Mariko 宇都宮大学, 工学部, 助教 (80748202)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 男女差 / ラウドネス / 間隔尺度 / 比率尺度 / スティーブンスのべき法則

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To clarify the factors affecting the gender difference in perceived loudness, we conducted two experiments: Experiment 1 was conducted with the participants without gender difference in hearing threshold, and Experiment 2 was with insertion type earphones. Experiment 1 showed that the gender difference in perceived loudness was observed only when the participants evaluated the loudness of sound with verbal criteria such as “loud” and “soft”. Gender difference in perceived loudness might be affected by gender that in the verbal criteria. Experiment 2 did not show consistent gender differences. This result suggested that the difference in head size would not affect that in perceived loudness.

Free Research Field

音響心理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

音の大きさの評価に男女差が生じる要因は未だ明らかではなかったが，その要因として言葉による音の大きさの評価基準における男女差が影響している可能性が示唆された。その一方で，聴力レベル，頭などの大きさ，音圧と感覚量の対応関係の男女差の影響は小さいことが示された。なお，中国人を被験者とした場合には音圧と感覚量の対応関係に男女差が認められたこのことから，どのような要因が音の大きさの評価における男女差に大きく影響をするのかは今後の課題で継続して検討する必要がある。