Effects of soundscape on the visual attention of rural landscape

Although a number of previous studies has been carried out regarding the audiovisual environment of rural landscapes, there is still a lack of studies exploring the visual attention of rural landscapes in evaluations while considering different sounds. In this study, the visual attentions in tranquility and aesthetic evaluations have been examined by eye tracking experiments, using audiovisual materials collected in traditional villages of China. The results show that without sound stimuli, the attention areas in tranquility evaluations are more concentrated, compared with those in visual aesthetic quality evaluations. With sound stimuli, the attention areas of tranquility evaluations disperse significantly from those without sound stimuli, where artificial sounds tend to expand the visual attention area on corresponding artificial landscape elements, whereas natural sounds promote larger attention areas on natural landscape elements. Both with and without sound stimuli, buildings and facilities, the sky, and vegetation are attractive landscape elements.