Introducing short informational-attentional masking sounds to improve staying in pocket urban parks: a laboratory study

Pocket urban parks are gaining more and more attention from scientists and professionals due to their high accessibility and restorative potential for the local communities. However, a critical aspect of these spaces is that this restorative potential is often threatened by the road traffic noise of the surrounding vehicles and motorcycles pass-by. The introduction of natural sounds or music in such kinds of urban spaces, by taking advantage of the mechanisms of the informational-attentional masking rather than on energetic masking, has been largely investigated as a strategy of improving the visitors’ experience of staying there, demonstrating its effectiveness in different conditions and contexts. However, no studies considered the use of short-time sound cues, limiting the activation when strictly necessary. In this study, the possibility of introducing short (2s) informational-attentional masking sounds (IAMS) to improve the experience of staying in a pocket urban park exposed to road traffic noise pass-by is investigated. This has been evaluated through a laboratory listening test considering 4 typologies of natural sounds (2 water and 2 chirping sounds) at 4 different SNR, automatically activated based on preset thresholds. Main results indicate that, independently of SNR, almost all the short IAMS that were tested significantly improved the existing experience of the participants, increasing their rating in the ISO-Pleasant dimension and in the positive emotional salience.