Psychoacoustic correlates of individual noise sensitivity

In environmental noise surveys, self-reported noise sensitivity, a stable p ersonality trait covering attitudes toward a wide range of environmental so unds, is a major predictor of individual noise-annoyance reactions. Its rel ationship to basic measures of auditory functioning, however, has not been systematically explored. Therefore, in the present investigation, a sample of 61 unselected listeners was subjected to a battery of psychoacoustic pro cedures ranging from threshold determinations to loudness scaling tasks. No significant differences in absolute thresholds, intensity discrimination, simple auditory reaction time, or power-function exponents for loudness eme rged, when the sample was split along the median into two groups of ''low'' vs ''high" noise sensitivity on the basis of scores obtained from a psycho metrically evaluated questionnaire [Zimmer and Ellermeier, Diagnostica 44, 11-20 (1998)]. Small, but systematic differences were found in verbal loudn ess estimates. and in ratings of the unpleasantness of natural sounds, thus suggesting that self-reported noise sensitivity captures evaluative rather than sensory aspects of auditory processing. (C) 2001 Acoustical Society o f America.