Determining the threshold of acceptability for an interfering audio programme

An experiment was performed in order to establish the threshold of acceptability for an interfering audio programme on a target audio programme, varying the following physical parameters: target programme, interferer programme, interferer location, interferer spectrum, and road noise level. Factors were varied in three levels in a Box-Behnken fractional factorial design. The experiment was performed in three scenarios: information gathering, entertainment, and reading/working. Nine listeners performed a method of adjustment task to determine the threshold values. Produced thresholds were similar in the information and entertainment scenarios, however there were significant differences between subjects, and factor levels also had a significant effect: interferer programme was the most important factor across the three scenarios, whilst interferer location was the least important.