Crosscultural Effects in Audio-visual Interactions

In this study, the evaluation of audio-visual interaction regarding to the sounds and colours of trains was investigated. Different pictures of trains were modified in their colors and presented on a liquid crystal screen in a sound proof room with the appropriate sound of the train. The subjects judged the loudness of the sound-picture stimuli with the method “free magnitude estimation”. At first, a previous study with German subjects and German trains was repeated under the same conditions with Japanese subjects. Furthermore different experiments with more Japanese trains were performed. To conclude differences between Japanese and German subjects in the estimation of loudness, a semantic differential experiment was arranged. The results show that an influence of the color to the perception of loudness for most subjects does exist while the averaged effect over all subjects is small. In addition an experiment with the semantic differential can explain the different favour of German and Japanese subjects for the most quiet sound.