Effects of three activities on annoyance responses to recorded flyovers

Subjects participated in an experiment in which they were engaged in TV viewing, telephone listening, or reverie (no activity) for a 1/2-hour session. During the session, they were exposed to a series of recorded aircraft sounds at the rate of one flight every 2 minutes. Within each session, four levels of flyover noise, separated by 5dB increments, were presented several times in a Latin Square balanced sequence. The peak level of the noisiest flyover in any session was fixed at 95, 90, 85, 75, or 70 dBA. At the end of the test session, subjects recorded their responses to the aircraft sounds, using a bipolar scale which covered the range from 'very pleasant' to 'extremely annoying'. Responses to aircraft noises were found to be significantly affected by the particular activity in which the subjects were engaged. Furthermore, not all subjects found the aircraft sounds to be annoying.