People pay more attention to sounds when vision is absent than when it is present. Typically identifying individual sounds of people and objects; activities and scenes; locations and distances. They listen more to sounds for pleasure. For example, to trees whistling, cracking, and hissing in the winter; echoes in narrow places; constantly varying soft sounds; birds singing and the sea. (See our blog for Sensory mismatch, Decay and maintenance of sensory memories, and Using the senses when vision and hearing are impaired). And they describe more emotional perceptions too.
I have invited Professor Christina Eviutami Mediastika, School of Creative Industry, Universitas Ciputra to write this blog post on the emotional perceptions people who are visually impaired and fully sighted describe in soundscapes and soundwalks. Christina E. Mediastika has conducted and published a series of studies on emotional perceptions in parks, on pavements, and inside shopping centres in Surabaya and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. And one study in cinemas.
According to United Nations Development Programme data from 2017, Indonesia has the second largest population of people who are visually impaired (after India), with 1.5% of its population having a visual impairment. The pavements are narrow, damaged, contoured or uneven, and obstructed; the parks are most often located next to major streets, even within roundabouts. And the streets are noisy, polluted, hazardous, and unpleasant. The shopping malls are busy housing a wide variety of offices, and clinics as well as retail.
In our studies, people with visual impairments were encouraged to explore these public facilities and data about their emotional perceptions of each surrounding sound environment was collected. Our studies were based on the ISO 2014 and 2018 Acoustics – Soundscape.
People who are visually impaired describe more emotional perceptions of soundscapes than the fully sighted, especially when outdoors. For example, those with a visual impairment used 56 words and the fully sighted 32 words in urban parks; with “eventfulness” and “pleasantness”, respectively, as the most important emotional perceptions. This finding indicates that engagement with the sonic environment is higher for people who are visually impaired than for those who are fully sighted.
More specifically, for people who are visually impaired the most important aspect is how much data the outdoor sound environment provides, which impacts both their ability to navigate and their feeling of being safe (related to “eventfulness”). In contrast, for the fully sighted the most critical aspect is whether the sonic environment makes them feel comfortable (related to “pleasantness”).
Furthermore, people who are visually impaired associate more words to each perceived emotion than the fully sighted. On pavements, for example, “pleasantness” is the most important emotional perception for the fully sighted and “pleasantness-direction-safety” for those with a visual impairment. The fully sighted associate five words to “pleasantness” – comfort, fun, safe, easy, and clear route. And those with a visual impairment three more to “pleasantness-direction-safety” – clear direction, know the location, and soothing: they find pleasantness when they believe in their direction and feel safe.
Regarding indoor sound environments. Both groups perceive “pleasantness” as their dominant emotion inside shopping malls, using words like happy, comfortable, luxurious, and modern.
Moreover, when people who are visually impaired watch movies with a fully sighted narrator guide, their three most significant emotional perceptions are pleasure, storyline, and sound dynamic. Pleasure is associated with comfort, clear sound, and interest in the story. Storyline dimension is the extent to which the storyline was understood. Sound dynamic is connected to intensity and quality of the soundtrack.
There is a misconception that people who are visually impaired have more sensitive hearing than sighted individuals. Both groups have equally sensitive hearing. However, people who are visually impaired rely on sound for many aspects of their daily lives because they are forced to do so, which trains their hearing to be used to its fullest potential. This includes being aware of their surroundings, understanding the direction, recognising safety or danger, and experiencing enjoyment using their surrounding sounds.
See our blog for Activities; especially 46-48.
Some suggestions for further listening, reading, and watching:
How the sound in your home affects your mood
The Psychology of Sound and Emotions
Urban noise: Why cities need to turn down the volume