Effects of different natural soundscapes on human psychophysiology in national forest park
Summary & key facts
Researchers studied visitors at Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in China. They measured brain signals (EEG) and used a short mood scale (POMS). Listening to natural sounds led to clear, positive changes in both psychological and physiological measures (p = 0.001). A combined multi-element natural soundscape worked best overall, outperforming single-element sounds. Gender usually did not change the effect, except for one sound type (wind). The study used cluster analysis and ridge regression to compare sound types and build recovery models.
Key facts:
- The study took place in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, China, and used EEG recordings plus the POMS short-form to measure responses to sounds.
- After listening to each part of the natural soundscapes, participants showed significant positive changes in psychological and physiological indices (reported p = 0.001).
- Five soundscape conditions were tested: four single-element natural sounds and one multi-element combination; the multi-element combination ranked first for restorative effect.
- The multi-element sound combination provided better restorative effects than the single-element sounds, according to the study’s overall ranking.
- Gender generally did not have a significant effect on the restorative outcomes; the only significant gender difference was found for the Windy Sound condition.
- The researchers used cluster analysis to group the five soundscape types by recovery ability and used ridge regression to build mathematical models of psychological and physiological recovery.
Topics
Noise Effects and Management Urban Green Space and Health Urban Heat Island MitigationCategories
Health Professions Health Sciences Speech and HearingTags
Acoustics Active listening Archaeology Cognitive psychology Communication Computer science Geography National park Natural (archaeology) Natural sounds Physics Psychology Sound (geography) Soundscape Speech recognitionSummaries and links are for general information and education only. They are not a substitute for reading the original publication or for professional medical, legal, or other advice. Always refer to the linked source for the full study.
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