An Initial Attempt to Build a Natural Sounds Library Based on Heuristic Evaluation

Abstract

Attention restoration theory (ART) predicts that the natural environment can restore consumed attentional resources. Previous studies also found presenting natural scenes visually can also have such an effect but whether natural sounds may also have this effect has not been fully examined. In this study, we used an exploratory approach to build a library of natural sounds. We surveyed 204 people by asking them to name ten different types of ‘natural’ sounds and the ten types of ‘relaxing’ sounds. The collected more than 1,800 answers were then coded according to the source and the characteristics. Finally, twenty-one categories of sounds emerged from these responses. Among them, six categories were considered to be both relaxing and natural (e.g. birds’ songs). For other categories, they were only natural (e.g. thunder) or only relaxing (e.g. music). We discussed how to use this sound library in future studies.