Benfield, J.A., Nurse, G.A., Jakubowski, R., Gibson, A., Taff, D ...

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12 Environment and BehaviorXX(X) Materials and Measures Sound clips. A set of five audio clips was created using natural and aircraft sounds recorded within the national parks system. Each sound clip was equivalent in length (48 s) and depicted a natural environment during an air tour overflight. The clips differed in the level of noise energy created by the overflight, with each clip representing a gain of 7 dBA based on Leq (ranging from 36 to 64 dBA). Leq is a measure of sound pressure level that is averaged over a time period to provide a summary of the general loudness of a particular location. In the context of this research, an Leq of 36 dB represents an environment that is on average quieter than an office when no one is talking. An Leq of 64 dB represents an environment that is similar to a room where many people are talking at once or a lecturer is projecting his or her voice in a large lecture hall. Acceptability scale and visitor survey. Participants were asked to rate each audio clip based on the acceptability of the event occurring during a visit to the park. These acceptability ratings were measured using a single item ranging from −4 = very unacceptable to +4 = very acceptable that has been used extensively within the acceptability literature (see Vaske & Shelby, 2008, for a review). Participants also completed a general park visitation survey that contained the NSS-SF and demographic questions as well as a set of items concerning the importance of different visitation motives, such as “enjoying time with family,” “experiencing peace and quiet,” or “learning about Native American culture and history.” Those items were rated using a 0 to 4 scale (not at all important to extremely important). Procedure. Participants were recruited from the Tuolumne Meadows region of California’s Yosemite National Park between July 10, 2010 and August 6, 2010. Those agreeing to participate were given the visitor survey containing the NSS-SF, demographics, and the importance of visitation motives questions. They were then given an MP3 player to listen to the five audio clips and the acceptability rating sheet. Three separate orders of the audio clips were used to prevent order effects; participants were randomly assigned to the different orders. After completing the entire visitor packet and the audio recording rating task, participants were debriefed and thanked for their time. Results and Discussion Correlations were run between the NSS-SF and the responses to the visitor motives questions. As shown in Table 3, NSS-SF score positively correlated with the importance of sound-related motives, such as getting away from the
<strong>Benfield</strong> et al. 13 crowds (r = .26, p = .001), experiencing solitude (r = .22, p = .005), and hearing the sounds of nature (r = .19, p = .019). NSS-SF score was not correlated with other motives such as getting exercise, viewing the night sky without light pollution, or learning about Native American culture/history. To test the relationship between NSS-SF score and sound clip acceptability ratings, five multiple regressions were run with demographic variables (age, sex) and NSS-SF score used as predictors of each clip’s acceptability rating. As shown in Table 4, NSS-SF score significantly related to decreased acceptability ratings of sound clips, but only at the higher volume conditions (i.e., 57 and 64 dBA). The general trend of the data suggests that as clip volume increased, the importance of NSS-SF also increased. As the final two audio clips were also the only clips that had acceptability ratings in the “unacceptable” range (i.e., −4 to −1), the results suggest that the predictive value of the NSS-SF is particularly meaningful when unwanted sounds (the definition of noise) are in the unacceptable range, but not when the sounds are acceptable (i.e., are not considered noise). Such findings support the construct validity of the NSS-SF. When taken together, the results of this study provide additional evidence of the NSS-SF’s validity and usability in research contexts. Results showed that the scale relates to more positive visitor attitudes toward sound-specific visitation motives but not sound-unrelated motives. In addition, this study showed that the NSS-SF is predictive for noise conditions (i.e., for unwanted/unacceptable sounds), but not for acceptable sounds (i.e., nonnoise) in a field setting, which is what one would want for a noise sensitivity measure. General Discussion Across five studies and seven different samples that included students, adults, and national park visitors, this project created a five-item version of one of the most widely used measures of noise sensitivity—Weinstein’s NSS. This field friendly version of the NSS is structurally identical to the original with comparable levels of internal consistency and temporal stability. It is highly correlated with the original NSS as well as being associated with constructs such as extraversion and neuroticism. It also relates to a host of noise-related attitudes and outcomes such as more negative attitudes toward human-caused noise as well as more positive attitudes toward soundrelated motives for visiting national parks. In short, the NSS-SF represents the original measure remarkably well and improves on its research value by being more practical in item-limited, real-world applications.
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