THE CORRELATION OF SUBJECTIVE RESPONSE DATA WITH MEASURED NOISE INDEXES OF LOW-FREQUENCY MODULATED NOISE

A subjective rating experiment was conducted to investigate human resp onse to low pass, broad band random noise signals that were modulated by envelope functions. Subjects listened to signals presented to them in pairs, and they were asked to select which sound was more annoying. By using the Bradley Terry Luce model for paired comparisons, these r esponses were converted into a scaled annoyance rating. The subjective response results were compared to existing noise measurement and mode ling techniques for the annoyance of noise. It was found that some of these recently developed models are more highly correlated to subjecti ve response data than the more commonly used noise measurement paramet ers. Additionally, increased correlation to subjective response data c an be achieved by including duty factor as a variable in the models th at predict annoyance.