Psychophysiological Responses Of Young People To Soundscapes In Actual Rural And City Environments

To investigate the psychophysiological effects of soundscapes in different actual environments, rural and city landscapes were selected as experimental sites, and 30 students were enrolled in this study. The effects of soundscapes were revealed through measured systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, and electroencephalography of participants before and after introducing soundscape elements to the landscape environment, and the participants rated their preferences. In this study, nature, light music, and symphony soundscape elements decreased systolic and diastolic blood pressure, slowed the heart rate, and increased the beta/alpha index in the participants, while traffic soundscape elements showed the opposite effects. Furthermore, there were certain differences in the psychophysiological effects of soundscape elements in different landscape scenes, manifested by the result that nature soundscape elements had a greater effect on participants in the rural landscape environment, while light music soundscape elements had a greater effect on participants in the city landscape environment. In addition, men and women presented certain differences in psychophysiological responses to soundscape elements; that is, men preferred symphony soundscape elements in the city landscape environment, and women were more susceptible to the negative effects of traffic soundscape elements in rural or city landscape environments.