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Exposure to noise in everyday urban life is considered to be an environmental stressor. A specific outcome of reactions to environmental stress is a fast pace of life that also includes a faster pedestrian walking speed. The present study examined the effect of listening to annoying acoustical stimuli (traffic noise) compared with relaxation sounds (forest birdsong) on walking speed in a real outdoor urban environment. The participants (N = 83) walked along an urban route of 1.8 km. They listened to either traffic noise or forest birdsong, or they walked without listening to any acoustical stimuli in the control condition. The results showed that participants listening to traffic noise walked significantly faster on the route than both the participants listening to forest birdsong sounds and the participants in the control condition. Participants who listened to forest birdsong walked slightly slower than those under control conditions; however, this difference was not significant. Analysis of the walk experience showed that participants who listened to forest birdsong during the walk liked the route more than those who listened to traffic sounds. The study demonstrated that exposure to traffic noise led to an immediate increase in walking speed. It was also shown that exposure to noise may influence participants’ perception of an environment. The same environment may be more liked in the absence of noise or in the presence of relaxation sounds. The study also documented the positive effect of listening to various kinds of relaxation sounds while walking in an outdoor environment with traffic noise.

Abstract. The present study examined the socio-psychological factors (personality dimensions, motives for car use, and materialistic values) that influence car preference in undergraduate students (N = 383). Preferences for particular car types, properties, and brands were studied. The data indicated only a slight correspondence between the personality dimensions of the Big-Five model and car preference. However, individual motives for car use and materialistic values predict preferences for certain car types and even more for car brands. The results demonstrated a clearly defined group of individuals who prefer cars with high performance. These individuals prefer German cars of "prestigious" brands, such as Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz. For these individuals, affective motives, as well as materialistic values are important cues for car use and preference. These findings are discussed in terms of more sustainable modes of travel and campaigns to promote sustainable travel modes. The potential value shift from cars as objects that represent personal freedom and identity to more recent mobile technologies, which might play the same role in the younger generation, is discussed.

To date, there is insufficient knowledge of how visual exploration of outdoor scenes may be influenced by the simultaneous processing of music. Eye movements during viewing various outdoor scenes while listening to music at either a slow or fast tempo or in silence were measured. Significantly shorter fixations were found for viewing urban scenes compared with natural scenes, but there was no interaction between the type of scene and the acoustic conditions. The results revealed shorter fixation durations in the silent control condition in the range 30 ms, compared to both music conditions but, in contrast to previous studies, these differences were non-significant. Moreover, we did not find differences in eye movements between music conditions with a slow or fast tempo. It is supposed that the type of musical stimuli, the specific tempo, the specific experimental procedure, and the engagement of participants in listening to background music while processing visual information may be important factors that influence attentional processes, which are manifested in eye-movement behavior.

Many studies have explored the effects of auditory and visual stimuli on the perception of an environment. However, there is a lack of investigations examining direct behavioral responses to noise in specific environments. In this study, a behavioral variable, walking speed, was analyzed, as a response to the sounds and visual features of a specific environment. The study examined the effects of birdsongs compared to traffic noise on walking speed in a real outdoor urban environment. It was supposed that the interaction of audition and vision in the perception of an environment may also be shaped by the perceived congruence of the visual and auditory features of the environment. The participants (N = 87 and N = 65), young university students, walked along a 1.8-km urban route. They listened to a soundtrack of crowded city noise or birdsongs, or they walked in the real outdoor environment without listening to any acoustic stimuli. To investigate the effect of the congruence between acoustic and visual stimuli, the experiment was conducted in two different seasons (fall and spring). The results did not show significant differences between the crowded city noise condition and the real outdoor condition. Listening to the soundtrack with birdsongs decreased walking speed, but this effect was significant only in the experiment conducted in spring. These findings can be explained in terms of the congruence between the sounds and the visual environment. The findings raise questions regarding the restorative function of urban greenery during different seasons.

Music may modify the impression of a visual environment. Most studies have explored the effect of music on the perception of various service settings, but the effect of music on the perception of outdoor environments has not yet been adequately explored. Music may make an environment more pleasant and enhance the relaxation effect of outdoor recreational activities. This study investigated the effect of music on the evaluation of urban built and urban natural environments. The participants (N = 94) were asked to evaluate five environments in terms of spatio-cognitive and emotional dimensions while listening to music. Two types of music were selected: music with a fast tempo and music with a slow tempo. In contrast with a previous study by Yamasaki, Yamada & Laukka (2015), our experiment revealed that there was only a slight and not significant influence of music on the evaluation of the environment. The effect of music was mediated by the liking of music, but only in the dimensions of Pleasant and Mystery. The environmental features of the evaluated locations had a stronger effect than music on the evaluation of the environments. Environments with natural elements were perceived as more pleasant, interesting, coherent, and mysterious than urban built environments regardless of the music. It is suggested that the intensity of music may be an important factor in addition to the research methodology, individual variables, and cultural differences.

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