Analyzing Neighborly Noise Differences

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the differing reactions to noise from a neighbor's dog and motorcycle, exploring the reasons behind individual preferences and physiological or psychological responses to various sounds. It touches on personal experiences, potential evolutionary aspects, and the impact of aging on sound perception.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Conceptual clarification, Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses frustration with a neighbor's dog noise, contrasting it with their enjoyment of motorcycle sounds, while noting that their son has the opposite reaction.
  • Another participant suggests that certain sounds may be unpleasant due to their proximity to the threshold of pain in human hearing, indicating that personal preferences play a significant role in noise irritation.
  • A participant mentions that aging can lead to a loss of high-frequency hearing, although they are uncertain how this relates to the specific noises in question.
  • It is noted that deep low-frequency sounds can trigger fear responses, adding another layer to the psychological effects of sound.
  • A reference is made to a controversial practice of using high-pitched sounds to deter teenagers, which some participants recall as an annoying ringtone phenomenon.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree that personal preferences influence reactions to noise, but there are multiple competing views regarding the physiological and psychological factors at play, leaving the discussion unresolved.

Contextual Notes

Some assumptions about the relationship between sound frequency and psychological responses remain unexamined, and the discussion does not resolve how aging specifically affects individual noise preferences.

Tregg Smith
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analyze please?

Our neighbor has a noisy dog and a Sportster. Niether is louder than the other or actually very loud at all. I don't mind the bike but the dog really gets me upset because there is a history of her and the dog being much worse and I've had to call the police. I like motorcycles.
My son doesn't mind the dog at all but is upset by the motorcycle. Just personal preferences yes but isn't there something more like why is one person bothered by the one noise and the other not and vise versa? Any thoughts on this?
 
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Some sounds (such as nails on a chalk board) are unpleasant because they are apparently close to the threshold of pain in human hearing.

wikipedia has an OK explanation of this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshold_of_pain

As for different noises being irritated that really is personal preferences. To my knowledge there are no sounds that cause specific physiological responses but they are bound to cause psychological ones. An interesting study would be to determine why things such as babies crying cause the effects they do, it would be interesting to see if we have evolved to produce specific responses to the sound of a baby crying.
 


one physiological change of aging is that you will lose some of your frequency spectrum. mostly high frequencies, i think. i have no idea how this would relate to dogs vs. motorcycles tho.

another psychological response is that very deep (low frequency) sounds can trigger a fear response.
 


Proton Soup said:
one physiological change of aging is that you will lose some of your frequency spectrum. mostly high frequencies, i think. i have no idea how this would relate to dogs vs. motorcycles tho.

another psychological response is that very deep (low frequency) sounds can trigger a fear response.

Indeed. A few years ago there was quiet a lot of stir because shops were thinking about putting high-pitched speakers* up to force teenagers away. The sound specifically can't be heard by adults but annoys/hurts people younger. At the time I was in school and kids started using it as the worlds most annoying ringtone.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mosquito
 

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