Meng, Q., Zhang, S. and Kang, J. (2017) Effects of typical dining styles on conversation behaviours and acoustic perception in restaurants in China. Building and Environment, 121. pp. 148-157. ISSN 0360-1323
Abstract
The acoustic environment of restaurants is important for diners. Based on acoustic measurements and a questionnaire survey of typical restaurants, differences in diners’ conversation behaviour and acoustic perception were analysed. Three dining styles were compared (centralized, separate, and dispersed), and crowd density and background music were considered. Several interesting findings were gained. First, dining styles affected conversation behaviour. When there were four or more diners per table, conversation increased compared to when there were three or fewer; and background music did not reduce conversation. With the centralized style, the proportion of speech diners heard was greater than for the other two dining styles, even as crowd density increased. Second, dining styles affected sound pressure level. With background music, the separate style decreased sound pressure level more effectively than the other two styles when crowd density was low, and without background music, the separate style decreased sound pressure level more effectively than the other two dining styles irrespective of crowd density. Dining styles also affected acoustic comfort: with the centralized and separate styles, acoustic comfort took on a parabolic shape, first increasing and then decreasing as crowd density increased, while with the dispersed style, as crowd density increased, the acoustic comfort of diners decreased.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 Elsevier. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Building and Environment. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Restaurants; Dining styles; Conversation behaviour; Acoustic perception |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of Architecture (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 04 Jul 2017 09:02 |
Last Modified: | 17 May 2018 00:39 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2017.05.025 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.buildenv.2017.05.025 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:118244 |