Auditory Information in the Soundscape of a Train Station

This paper's issues are (1) to reveal people's ability to collect information in the soundscape of a train station, and (2) to indicate how this information is involved in the recognition of the different types of space (platform, hall, etc.). In a first study, two listening experiments are carried out on a set of recorded soundscape samples. Three types of acoustical information are revealed by the first experiment: sound sources, human activities, and room effects. The second experiment shows that people were able to recognize the type of space just by listening to its soundscape. Then, the auditory information involved in the space recognition is found by comparing the two experiments. In a second study, an in situ questionnaire survey asked the travellers to describe the soundscape of the space in which they were situated. The results show that the same kind of auditory information is used as those found in the laboratory.