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Description
The effect of soundscape on cognitive performance remains an active area of inquiry in psychoacoustics, yet few studies combine behavioural measures with continuous physiological monitoring. This study is the first part of an audiovisual experiment which examines whether urban soundscape conditions modulate cognitive load during a digit span task, as reflected in performance outcomes and autonomic physiological responses. Twenty-seven participants (university students and academic staff) performed forward and backward digit span tasks while exposed to four of five urban soundscape conditions, including traffic, traffic masked with water sounds, traffic masked with simple music, traffic masked with sleep music, and traffic with dynamic loudness variations. Each participant was exposed to four of the five soundscape conditions. Electrodermal activity and heart rate were recorded continuously throughout. Task periods were preceded by two-minute silent baseline recordings, enabling baseline-corrected physiological comparison between forward and backward task conditions. Forward and backward digit span scores are compared across soundscape conditions as a measure of short-term memory retention and working memory manipulation, respectively. Skin conductance response frequency and mean heart rate, corrected to a silent baseline, are examined as indicators of autonomic arousal during each task condition. The higher cognitive demand of the backward task is expected to produce both lower performance scores and elevated physiological arousal relative to the forward condition. This methodological framework contributes to understanding how urban soundscapes interact with cognitive load, offering a combined behavioural and physiological perspective relevant to soundscape design in work and study environments.