Scaling the annoyance of intrusive sounds

Ten people preoccupied by playing electronic video games were instructed (1) to indicate when sounds of varying detectability were noticed in the presence of background noise, and (2) to rate the annoyance of such sounds. The average level at which people reported noticing intruding sounds was considerably higher than the level at which such sounds could be reliably detected without the distraction provided by the foreground task. Subsequent judgments of the annoyance of intruding sounds on a five point category scale were directly proportional to the detectability of the sounds. It is suggested that criteria for the annoyance of intruding noises may be based on information of this sort.