How can soundscapes affect the preferred walking pace?

•Soundscape and feedback sounds affect preferred walking pace.•The soundscapes variability influences stronger preferred tempo than footsteps.•The results can be partially explained by both entrainment and internal clock theory.•More natural and congruent stimuli obtained higher ratings of the ease of walking.•The presented stimuli can be used as a pace-changer in the closed-loop scenarios.

In this paper we describe an experiment whose goal is to investigate the role of the footstep sounds and soundscapes to affect the pace of a person walking in place (mimicking the act of walking without leaving the current position). Subjects were exposed to different simulated footstep sounds and soundscapes, generated in realtime while walking in place. The results show that, indeed, participants adapted their walking pace to the presented sounds, and not only footstep sounds but also soundscapes affect the walking pace. We could observe as well that perceived ease of walking correlates with the perceived naturalness of ambient sounds.