Perceptual assessment of indoor water sounds over environmental noise through windows

The subjective judgment obtained from laboratory experiments showed that the introduction of water sounds resulted in an improvement of environmental noise entering through windows according to water sound level in four psychoacoustical characteristics, where the perception of annoyance reduced and that of pleasantness, calmness and naturalness increased. Pleasantness was the most sensitive characteristic, and noisiness and loudness were the least sensitive characteristics describing the indoor water effects among the six psychoacoustical characteristics used. In terms of gender difference, it was found that women were more perceptive to the introduction of water sounds than men in the parameters of noisiness, loudness and annoyance.