Category: 6. Description, Criteria, and Procedures Used to Determine Human Response to Noise and Vibration

As the level of the noise is increased, it is accompanied by an apparent increase in loudness. Loudness may be considered to be the subjective evaluation of the intensity of a noise when this evaluation is divorced from all the attitudinal, environmental, and emotional factors that may affect the listener’s assessment of the annoying properties…

People are exposed to noise during daytime and nighttime hours. During the day the noise can interfere with various activities and cause annoyance, and at night it can affect sleep. Very intense noise can even lead to hearing damage (see Chapter 4). In the daytime the activities most affected are communications that involve speech between individuals,…