Perceiving temporal rhythms in Sahelian soundscapes of Senegal: A pilot interdisciplinary study bridging psychoacoustics, ecology, and anthropology

At the intersection of ecological, psychoacoustic, and anthropological perspectives, this study examines how listeners living in Senegal's Sahelian region perceive seasonal and diurnal patterns in local soundscapes. Field recordings representing rainy and dry seasons, as well as different times of day, were first characterized using ecoacoustic analyses that revealed differences in spectro-temporal modulations. The recordings were then presented to two groups: Senegalese pastoralists (Peul herders) living in the Ferlo (n = 9) and a French control group with no prior exposure to the region (n = 31). Participants completed an identification task for season and time of day. The Senegalese group also took part in a semi-guided anthropological interview. Both groups failed to assign the correct labels. Individual performances were correlated across tasks, suggesting stable perceptual abilities. Stimulus-level analyses revealed shared perceptual structure for time of day, but not for season. Semi-guided interviews revealed that the Senegalese participants based their responses on biophonic information. This pilot study suggests that soundscape perception of seasonal and temporal variations relies on both shared invariants and culturally mediated variants. It also highlights the value of combining psychoacoustics, anthropology, and ecology to better understand soundscape perception.