Noise levels analysis based on sensorial perception as a strategy to boost critical thinking Academic Article in Scopus uri icon

abstract

  • © 2019 IEEE.Soundscapes study as a strategy to boost critical thinking is relatively new and there is barely information about it. The main goal of this research is to emotionally involve the students with this experience to develop and enhance a critical thinking, aimed by the acoustic experimentation and the emotional interpretation. In order to achieve the goal, a study area of 3.4 km in a section of the Atoyac River in the municipality of Puebla, Mexico was defined. Noise level measurements were held in 16 strategic points of the defined area. At the same time 640 emotional inquiries were applied to people in the site to identified their perception. The inquiries have a Likert scale from 1 to 5 and have 6 categories for their perception of the place: safer, livelier, interesting, wealthier, exciting and beautiful. Finally, the student asked the people to identify the place with a color of the Lüscher scale for emotions and if they like the place, also with a Likert scale from 1 to 5. The noise levels were related to the emotional perception. The information was plotted into emotional maps where the levels of sound and emotions can be graphically and geographically noticed. Results' analysis showed that to lower noise levels there are higher beautiful coefficients. On the other hand, to higher noise levels there are higher security coefficients. In resume, students were able to identify links and patterns between noise and emotional perception that can be applied to the design of soundscapes in the city, within the purpose to acquire skills to develop critical thinking; for this, its conceptualization is presented, the relevance it has in decision-making, the ways to develop it y and the analysis of the results.

publication date

  • December 1, 2019