NESSTI: norms for environmental sound stimuli

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Auditory Perception

Background:

• Environmental sounds are increasingly used in cognitive and neuroimaging research.
• A lack of comprehensive normative data for these sound stimuli hinders cross-study comparisons.
• Standardized sound stimuli are crucial for advancing research in auditory perception and cognition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish a comprehensive dataset of normative information for 110 environmental sounds.
• To provide data on cognitive and affective dimensions of sounds for research control.
• To facilitate the selection of well-controlled auditory stimuli in experimental settings.

Main Methods:

• Collected identification, categorization, cognitive, and affective data from 162 participants via an online questionnaire.
• Recorded response times to the environmental sounds in a separate experiment.
• Normalized all 110 sound stimuli to a uniform 1-second duration.

Main Results:

• Generated normative data across multiple cognitive and affective dimensions for 110 environmental sounds.
• Provided response time data for the sound stimuli.
• Made sound stimuli and response data freely available for research use.

Conclusions:

• The developed dataset offers valuable normative information for environmental sounds.
• Researchers can utilize this data to select controlled auditory stimuli for cognitive and clinical psychology, and neuroimaging.
• This resource promotes standardization and comparability across studies investigating auditory perception and cognition.