Sh Park

Perception and Reaction to Floor Impact Noise in Apartment Buildings: A Qualitative Approach

This study used grounded theory to understand how apartment building residents perceive and react to floor impact noise from upstairs. In-depth interviews with a heterogeneous group of 14 participants were conducted, and the acquired data were analysed to develop a conceptual model for describing perception and reaction to floor impact noise. It was found that floor impact noise had diverse sources, with the majority originating from footsteps. The participants negatively perceived the noise as annoying and disturbing, and sleep disturbance was reported the most frequently. Cognitive and avoidant coping strategies were initially adopted, and complaints were only thereafter registered if the noise persisted. It was also observed that exposure to the noise led to self-reported health problems and concerns. The developed conceptual model highlights potential intervention measures for controlling noise perception and reactions to floor impact noise.

Emotions evoked by exposure to footstep noise in residential buildings

In the present study, the effect of footstep noise on emotions was investigated. This study used noise stimulus of human footsteps throughout the study. First, Korean emotion lexicons were collected from narratives of residents living in multi-family housing buildings. The lexicons were then classified into four emotion clusters, with three expressing negative emotions (anger, dislike, and pain) and the fourth depicting empathy. Since self-reported annoyance has long been investigated as one of the major non-auditory responses to noise, annoyance was measured along with affective responses in a laboratory experiment with varying noise levels. The findings revealed that the emotion and noise annoyance experienced by the participants were significantly affected by noise levels. All clusters expressing negative emotions showed strong correlations with noise annoyance, whereas that representing empathy showed the weakest correlation. Noise sensitivity and attitudes to the noise source were observed as possible moderators in emotional responses and annoyance ratings.