The Semantic Space of Vehicle Sounds - An Approach to Develop a Semantic Differential in View of Customer Perceptions
M. Ercan Altinsoy, Michael Ferling, Ute Jekosch · 2010
Sound quality evaluation of the vehicle sound is a complex process. Physical measures are not sufficient to describe and understand this process and they can only give superficial cues. Psychoacoustical parameters and measurements also do not allow a general description of the vehicle sound quality. The quality evaluation of the customers is based on their perception, interpretation and expectations. The aim of this study is to generate the semantic space of vehicle sounds. In other words, a number of attributes relating to the perception and quality of vehicle sound will be elicited. This semantic space will be the basis of the development of attribute scales (Semantic Differential). Therefore our aim is to find the common descriptive language of the customers which is appropriate for the vehicle sound quality evaluation. An approach was developed and applied in this study. The steps of this approach include a thinking aloud test (free verbal remarking interview), the evaluation of the terms according to their suitability in describing acoustically perceptible vehicle properties by all subjects, testing the understandability of the attributes for all subjects, control the completeness of the semantic database to describe the vehicle sounds conducting a similarity experiment, testing the relevance and the redundancy of the attributes. At the end of the investigation eight different sets of attributes were developed for eight different driving conditions. Each set contains 18 to 36 attributes. Index Terms: Vehicle sounds, semantic differential, perception.