This theoretical paper addresses the cognitive functions via which quiet and in general pleasurable sounds promote and annoying sounds impede health. The article comprises a literature analysis and an interpretation of how the bidirectional influence of appraising the environment and the feelings of the perceiver can be understood in terms of core affect and motivation. This conceptual basis allows the formulation of a detailed cognitive model describing how sonic content, related to indicators of safety and danger, either allows full freedom over mind-states or forces the activation of a vigilance function with associated arousal. The model leads to a number of detailed predictions that can be used to provide existing soundscape approaches with a solid cognitive science foundation that may lead to novel approaches to soundscape design. These will take into account that louder sounds typically contribute to distal situational awareness while subtle environmental sounds provide proximal situational awareness. The role of safety indicators, mediated by proximal situational awareness and subtle sounds, should become more important in future soundscape research.

Cognitive skills, such as processing speed, memory functioning, and the ability to divide attention, are known to diminish with aging. The present study shows that, despite these changes, older adults can successfully compensate for degradations in speech perception. Critically, the older participants of this study were not pre-selected for high performance on cognitive tasks, but only screened for normal hearing. We measured the compensation for speech degradation using phonemic restoration, where intelligibility of degraded speech is enhanced using top-down repair mechanisms. Linguistic knowledge, Gestalt principles of perception, and expectations based on situational and linguistic context are used to effectively fill in the inaudible masked speech portions. A positive compensation effect was previously observed only with young normal hearing people, but not with older hearing-impaired populations, leaving the question whether the lack of compensation was due to aging or due to age-related hearing problems. Older participants in the present study showed poorer intelligibility of degraded speech than the younger group, as expected from previous reports of aging effects. However, in conditions that induce top-down restoration, a robust compensation was observed. Speech perception by the older group was enhanced, and the enhancement effect was similar to that observed with the younger group. This effect was even stronger with slowed-down speech, which gives more time for cognitive processing. Based on previous research, the likely explanations for these observations are that older adults can overcome age-related cognitive deterioration by relying on linguistic skills and vocabulary that they have accumulated over their lifetime. Alternatively, or simultaneously, they may use different cerebral activation patterns or exert more mental effort. This positive finding on top-down restoration skills by the older individuals suggests that new cognitive training methods can teach older adults to effectively use compensatory mechanisms to cope with the complex listening environments of everyday life.

This paper presents a smart surveillance system named CASSANDRA, aimed at detecting instances of aggressive human behavior in public environments. A distinguishing aspect of CASSANDRA is the exploitation of the complimentary nature of audio and video sensing to disambiguate scene activity in real-life, noisy and dynamic environments. At the lower level, independent analysis of the audio and video streams yields intermediate descriptors of a scene like: "scream", "passing train" or "articulation energy". At the higher level, a Dynamic Bayesian Network is used as a fusion mechanism that produces an aggregate aggression indication for the current scene. Our prototype system is validated on a set of scenarios performed by professional actors at an actual train station to ensure a realistic audio and video noise setting.

Background Previous research indicates that there is a relationship between the auditory environment and the core affects (or mood) of people with severe or profound intellectual disability. We conducted a systematic study to further explore this relationship. Method Thirteen participants with severe or profound intellectual disability and challenging behaviour were presented with 5 different soundscapes (Beach, Forest, Urban, Music, and Silence) in a dedicated room. Direct support professionals made core affect observations before and after each trial. Results A trend was visible in the core affect observations, with a prominent and consistent increase in the frequency of observations of a Relaxed core affect across conditions. However, a greater increase in the frequency of observations of a Relaxed core affect and a greater decrease in the frequency of observations of an Interested core affect were associated with the natural conditions (Forest and Beach) rather than the non-natural conditions (Urban and Music). Conclusion This pilot study could serve an important role in raising awareness and stimulating further research regarding the auditory environments of people with severe or profound intellectual disability.

Attention to the auditory environment of people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) is limited, both in research and practice. As there is a dynamic interplay between the quality of the auditory environment and well‐being, a study was undertaken to test the validity of the theoretical framework regarding the role of sound in homes for people with PIMD. The framework was formulated using techniques from soundscape and emotion research and resulted in a taxonomy of auditory environments, or soundscapes, including an important role for audible safety. A convenience sample of 34 healthcare professionals from various organizational layers volunteered to participate in a focus group study. During this expert meeting their latent knowledge was examined to see if it corresponded to the proposed theoretical framework. The answers given by the participants were grouped in five categories, Influencing behavior, Atmosphere, Clarity, Structure, Safety, and Recognition, showing a strong consistency between the knowledge and experience of the professionals and the theoretical framework. Results suggest the participants working on a strategic level have a less comprehensive understanding of the role of sound in the daily care. The authors’ recommended the increase of awareness amongst the staff of organizations caring for people with PIMD of the role of sound in the environment so as to enhance psychological well‐being and quality of life and thus reduce the prevalence of behavioral problems.