Taking a Walk on the Wild Side: Effects of Walking in Synchrony with Pitch-Altered Footstep Sounds on Body Perception in Outside the Lab Contexts

Paper Title

Taking a Walk on the Wild Side: Effects of Walking in Synchrony with Pitch-Altered Footstep Sounds on Body Perception in Outside the Lab Contexts

Publication Info

• Topic area: Multisensory body perception and its modulation through auditory feedback in real-world contexts.
• Keywords: Footsteps Illusion, body perception, auditory feedback, synchronization, environmental factors, gait, emotional experience, multisensory interaction, in-the-wild studies, HCI.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Prior studies on the Footsteps Illusion have been confined to controlled laboratory environments, leaving open questions about how environmental and contextual factors influence the illusion in real-world settings. Existing systems for real-time sound manipulation are impractical for outdoor use due to environmental noise interference.
• Significance: Understanding how auditory feedback affects body perception in everyday contexts can inform applications in health, rehabilitation, sports, and entertainment, while advancing knowledge of multisensory body perception.
• Motivation and related work: Previous research demonstrated that pitch-altered footstep sounds can influence perceived body weight, gait, and emotional states. However, these findings are limited to lab settings and rely on complex real-time systems. This study builds on these insights by testing a minimal setup using prerecorded sounds in outdoor environments.

Solution

• Proposed approach: A minimal and portable system using prerecorded pitch-altered footstep sounds to elicit the Footsteps Illusion in outdoor settings, combined with a mixed-methods approach to study contextual influences on body perception.
• Novelty:
  1. Demonstration that prerecorded footstep sounds can replicate the Footsteps Illusion outside the lab.
  2. Introduction of a minimal, portable prototype for studying body perception in real-world contexts.
  3. Insights into how environmental factors (e.g., surfaces, social presence) interact with sound to shape body perception and user experience.
  4. Development of new methodological tools, including a spatial mapping tool and a database of prerecorded footstep sounds.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Experiment 1: Quantitative study where 24 participants walked along a fixed outdoor path while synchronizing with prerecorded footstep sounds (High Frequency, Low Frequency, Control). Measures included gait synchronization, body visualization, and self-reported body/emotional experiences.
  • Experiment 2: Qualitative study with 28 participants walking freely in a campus area while synchronizing with High/Low Frequency sounds. Data were collected via interviews, spatial mapping, and body mapping to explore contextual influences.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Participants perceived their bodies as lighter in High Frequency (HF) and heavier in Low Frequency (LF) conditions.
  • HF sounds led to reduced ground impact force and increased feelings of dominance, while LF sounds elicited greater ground impact and heavier body perceptions.
  • Synchronization with prerecorded sounds was feasible, with asynchronies below 100 ms.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • The minimal setup replicated key effects of the Footsteps Illusion without the need for real-time sound manipulation.
  • Broader applicability in outdoor and real-world contexts compared to prior lab-based systems.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Experiment 1: Controlled outdoor study with fixed paths, assessing synchronization, body visualization, and emotional responses.
  • Experiment 2: Open-ended outdoor study exploring environmental and social influences using qualitative methods.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Limited control over environmental variables in outdoor settings.
  • Fixed pace of prerecorded sounds may not match participants’ natural walking speeds.
  • Future studies should explore broader environments, cultural differences, and long-term effects, as well as compare real-time and prerecorded sound setups.

Summary

This study demonstrates that the Footsteps Illusion can be effectively induced in outdoor settings using a minimal setup with prerecorded pitch-altered footstep sounds. Participants experienced changes in perceived body weight, gait, and emotional states, with HF sounds associated with lightness and dominance, and LF sounds with heaviness. Environmental factors, such as surface type and social presence, modulated these effects. The research introduces a portable prototype, a spatial mapping tool, and a footstep sound database, enabling further exploration of sound-driven body perception in real-world contexts. These findings have implications for health, rehabilitation, sports, and interactive performance applications.