{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]],"date-time":"2026-08-21T18:27:32Z","timestamp":1787336852002,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]],"date-time":"2026-08-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787270400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\">\n                    <jats:title>Purpose<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>This study aimed to provide normative affective ratings for middle-aged to older adults with normal hearing using the Marcell database. The database includes 120 diverse environmental sounds representing various real-world acoustic events, such as those produced by animals, humans, musical instruments, tools, signals, and liquids. Secondary aims were to examine the relationship between valence and arousal, and whether factors such as age, gender, hearing-related lifestyle, hearing demands, and self-reported hearing difficulties influence these affective evaluations.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec002\">\n                    <jats:title>Study sample<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Ninety participants (mean age: 54\u2009\u00b1\u20099 years) with self-reported normal hearing.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec003\">\n                    <jats:title>Data collection and analysis<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The study was conducted online. Participants rated each sound token in the Marcell database in terms of valence (pleasantness) and arousal (intensity). They also completed a hearing-related lifestyle questionnaire assessing the frequency, importance, and difficulty of hearing in everyday situations. Normative data for valence and arousal were calculated as means and standard deviations across participants for each individual sound token. To explore the relationship between valence and arousal, correlation analyses were performed. Furthermore, mixed-effects linear regression was used to examine whether any of the measured variables could predict participants\u2019 affective responses to the sounds.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec004\">\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Normative data for each individual sound token were obtained and reported. A moderately strong negative correlation was found between valence and arousal ratings, indicating that pleasant sounds were generally perceived as calming, while unpleasant sounds were seen as more arousing. Regression analyses revealed that age, gender, hearing-related lifestyle, hearing demands, and self-reported hearing difficulties did not significantly predict valence or arousal ratings in the current dataset of middle-aged to older adults.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec005\">\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The normative data presented in this study offer a benchmark for the hearing research community when examining emotional responses across middle-aged to older adult populations.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0356295","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]],"date-time":"2026-08-21T17:33:31Z","timestamp":1787333611000},"page":"e0356295","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Normative emotional responses to environmental sounds in middle-aged to older adults with normal hearing: Stimuli from the Marcell database"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5818-2191","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Dina","family":"Lelic","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7933-1798","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Frederic","family":"Marmel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]]},"reference":[{"issue":"47","key":"pone.0356295.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"14563","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1515087112","article-title":"Human emotions track changes in the acoustic environment","volume":"112","author":"W Ma","year":"2015","journal-title":"Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A"},{"issue":"6","key":"pone.0356295.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1144","DOI":"10.1080\/02699931.2023.2225850","article-title":"Children across cultures respond emotionally to the acoustic environment","volume":"37","author":"W Ma","year":"2023","journal-title":"Cogn Emot"},{"key":"pone.0356295.ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"573041","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2020.573041","article-title":"Assessments of acoustic environments by emotions - the application of emotion theory in soundscape","volume":"11","author":"A Fiebig","year":"2020","journal-title":"Front Psychol"},{"key":"pone.0356295.ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"23312165221083091","DOI":"10.1177\/23312165221083091","article-title":"Emotional responses to non-speech sounds for hearing-aid and bimodal cochlear-implant listeners","volume":"26","author":"MM Tawdrous","year":"2022","journal-title":"Trends Hear"},{"issue":"5","key":"pone.0356295.ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1233","DOI":"10.1044\/2016_JSLHR-H-15-0231","article-title":"How hearing loss and age affect emotional responses to nonspeech sounds","volume":"59","author":"EM Picou","year":"2016","journal-title":"J Speech Lang Hear Res"},{"key":"pone.0356295.ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"23312165211049938","DOI":"10.1177\/23312165211049938","article-title":"Effects of increasing the overall level or fitting hearing aids on emotional responses to sounds","volume":"25","author":"EM Picou","year":"2021","journal-title":"Trends Hear"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0356295.ref007","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"34","DOI":"10.1097\/AUD.0000000000001561","article-title":"Effect of sound genre on emotional responses for adults with and without hearing loss","volume":"46","author":"SC Marcrum","year":"2025","journal-title":"Ear Hear"},{"key":"pone.0356295.ref008","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"10","DOI":"10.3389\/fnsys.2014.00010","article-title":"The effect of mild-to-moderate hearing loss on auditory and emotion processing networks","volume":"8","author":"FT Husain","year":"2014","journal-title":"Front Syst Neurosci"},{"key":"pone.0356295.ref009","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2331216518813243","DOI":"10.1177\/2331216518813243","article-title":"Emotional responses to pleasant sounds are related to social disconnectedness and loneliness independent of hearing loss","volume":"22","author":"EM Picou","year":"2018","journal-title":"Trends Hear"},{"issue":"6","key":"pone.0356295.ref010","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1161","DOI":"10.1037\/h0077714","article-title":"A circumplex model of affect","volume":"39","author":"JA Russell","year":"1980","journal-title":"J Pers Soc Psychol"},{"key":"pone.0356295.ref011","article-title":"The International Affective Digitized Sounds (2nd Edition; IADS-2): affective ratings of sounds and instruction manual. 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