Auditory and Visual Interaction in the Aesthetic Evaluation of Environment

This study examined auditory and visual interaction in the aesthetic evaluation of the environment. Road traffic noise, sounds from leaves, and motion pictures coherent to auditory stimuli were used. There were four conditions: only auditory stimuli were presented in condition A, only visual stimuli in condition V, both auditory and visual stimuli in condition A+V, and after both auditory and visual stimuli were presented together, auditory stimuli were presented alone and judged in condition (V)A. A semantic differential technique indicated that scenery that included green plants contributed to the improvement of the environment even if only shown as an image. A scene with many cars gave a negative impression. However, even if the sound from the cars was audible, visual masking by green plants seemed effective in reducing the negative impression of road traffic noise.