Knowledge of the effect of noise on performance is limited and is generally inconclusive. Examination of previous research indicated the need for a systematic and concurrent investigation of the effects of psychological set, type of task, task complexity (single or dual task), and noise intensity. Three states of psychological set were established by telling groups of eight subjects each that noise degrades, facilitates, or has no effect on performance. A control group was told nothing about noise effects. Three intensities of broad-band white noise (55, 70, 85 dBA) were presented over loudspeakers to each subject during the completion of a four-task, adaptive-criterion battery. The only significant main effect of noise was a facilitation of tracking performance. There were several significant interactions of noise with the other independent variables.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Arnoult, M. D., and Voorhees, J. W.Effects of aircraft noise on an intelligibility task. Human Factors, 1980, 22, 183–188.
2.
Bachman, J. C.The effect of non-traumatic audible stress on learning of two motor skills. Journal of Motor Behavior, 1977, 9, 243–245.
3.
Baker, M. A., Loeb, M., and Holding, D. H.Noise. Paper presented at the Psychonomics Society Meeting, San Antonio, TX, November, 1978.
4.
Basow, S. A.The effect of white noise on physiological arousal and attention as a function of manifest anxiety. Dissertation Abstracts International, 1973, 34, 386B.
5.
Berrien, F. K.The effects of noise. Psychological Bulletin, 1946, 43, 141–161.
6.
Boggs, D. H., and Simon, J. R.Differential effect of noise on tasks of varying complexity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1968, 52, 148–153.
7.
Broadbent, D. E.Noise, paced performance and vigilance tasks. British Journal of Psychology, 1953, 44, 295–303.
8.
Broadbent, D. E.Some effects of noise on visual performance. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1954, 6, 1–5.
9.
Broadbent, D. E.Effects of noises of high and low frequency on behaviour. Ergonomics, 1957, 1, 21–29. (a)
10.
Broadbent, D. E.Effects of noise on behaviour. In C. M. Harris (Ed.) Handbook of Noise Control. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1957. (b)
11.
Broadbent, D. E.Effect of noise on an "intellectual" task. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1958, 30, 824–827.
12.
Broadbent, D. E.The current state of noise research: Reply to Poulton. Psychological Bulletin, 1978, 95, 1052–1067.
13.
Broadbent, D. E., and Gregory, M.Vigilance considered as a statistical decision. British Journal of Psychology, 1963, 54, 309–323.
14.
Broussard, I. G., Walker, R. Y., and Roberts, E. E., Jr.Influence of noise on the visual contrast threshold. Fort Knox, KY: Army Medical Research Laboratory, Report USAMRL-IOI, November, 1952.
15.
Cassel, E. E., and Dallenbach, K. M.The effect of auditory distraction upon sensory reaction. American Journal of Psychology, 1918, 29, 129–143.
16.
Clevenson, S. A., and Leatherwood, J. D.Effect of noise spectra and a listening task upon passenger annoyance in a helicopter interior noise environment. Hampton, VA: NASA Langley Research Center, NASA TP-1590, December, 1979.
17.
Cohen, S., Evans, G. W., Krantz, D. S., and Stokols, D.Physiological, motivational, and cognitive effects of aircraft noise on children. American Psychologist, 1980, 35, 231–243.
18.
Corcoran, D. W. J.Noise and loss of sleep. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1962, 14, 178–182.
19.
Davies, D. R.Physiological and psychological effects of exposure to high intensity noise. Applied Acoustics, 1968, 1, 215–233.
20.
Davies, D. R., and Hockey, G. R.The effects of noise and doubling the signal frequency on individual differences in visual vigilance performance. British Journal of Psychology, 1966, 57,381–389.
21.
Edsell, R. D.Noise and social interaction as simultaneous stressors. Perceptual and Motor Skills1976, 42, 1123–1129.
22.
Eldredge, D., and Busch, A. C.Proactive inhibition, recency, and limited-channel capacity under acoustic stress. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1967, 25, 85–91.
23.
Epp, S., and Konz, S.Home appliance noise: Annoyance and speech interference. Home Economics Research Journal, 1975, 3, 205–209.
24.
Eschenbrenner, A. J.Effects of intermittent noise on the performance of a complex psychomotor task. Human Factors, 1971, 13, 59–63.
25.
Finkelman, J. M., Zeitlin, L. R., Romoff, R. A., Friend, M. A., and Brown, L. S.Conjoint effect of physical stress and noise stress on information processing performance and cardiac response. Human Factors, 1979, 21, 1–6.
26.
Glass, D. C., and Singer, J. E.Urban stress: Experiments on noise and social stressors. New York: Academic Press, 1972.
27.
Graham, F. K., and Slaby, D. A.Differential heart rate changes to equally intense white noise and tone. Psychophysiology, 1973, 10, 347–362.
28.
Hamilton, P., Hockey, R., and Rejman, M.The place of the concept of activation in human information processing theory: An integrative approach. In S. Dornic (Ed.), Attention and performance VI. London: Academic Press, 1977.
29.
Hanley, T. D., and Williamson, R. J.The effect of various noise levels on performance of three mental tasks. Lafayette, IN: Purdue Research Foundation, SPECDEVCEN 104221, December, 1950.
30.
Harmon, F. L.The effects of noise upon certain psychological and physiological processes. Archives of Psychology, 1933, (147), 81.
31.
Hawel, W.Investigation of psychological and psychophysiological effects of repeated intermittent pink noise lasting four hours. Zeitschrift fur Experimentelle und Angwandte Psychologie, 1975, 22, 613–629. (Psychological Abstracts, 1976, 55, No. 13739).
32.
Hockey, G. R.Effect of loud noise on attentional selectivity. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1970, 22,28–36.
33.
Hockey, G. R. J., and Hamilton, P.Arousal and information selection in short-term memory. Nature, 1970, 226, 866–867.
34.
Hockey, R.Changes in information-selection patterns in multisource monitoring as a function in induced arousal shifts. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1973, 101,35–42.
35.
Holding, D. H., Baker, M. A., and Loeb, M.Noise, time of day, and unpaced arithmetic. Paper presented at the Psychonomics Society Annual Meeting, Phoenix, AZ, November, 1979.
36.
Houston, B. K.Inhibition and the facilitating effect of noise on interference tasks. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1968, 27, 947–950.
37.
Houston, B. K., and Jones, T. M.Distraction and Stoop color-word performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology1967, 74,54–56.
38.
Jerison, H. J.Paced performance on a complex counting task under noise and fatigue conditions. American Psychologist, 1954, 9, 399–400.
39.
Jerison, H. J.Effects of noise on human performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1959, 43, 96–101.
40.
Jerison, H. J., and Wallis, R. A.Experiments on vigilance, II: Performance on a simple vigilance task in noise and quiet. Wright-Patterson AFB, OH: USAF WADC, TR No. 57–318, 1957.
41.
Kallman, W. M., and Isaac, W.Altering arousal in humans by varying ambient sensory conditions. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1977, 44, 19–22.
42.
Konz, S.Work environments noise abatement and control Part I-Occupational noise. Bulletin of Association of Operative Millers, 1973, 3417–3421.
43.
Kyriakides, K., and Leventhall, H. G.Some effects of infrasound on task performance. Journal of Sound and Vibration, 1977, 50, 369–388.
44.
Luckiesh, M.Visual efficiency in quiet and noisy workplaces. Electrical World, 1931, 98, 472–473.
45.
McCormick, E. J.Human factors in engineering and design (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hili, 1976.
46.
Mech, E. V.Factors influencing routine performance under noise: I. The influence of "set."Journal of Psychology, 1953, 35, 283–298.
47.
Morgan, J. J. B.The overcoming of distraction and other resistances. Archives of Psychology, 1916, 5(35), 84.
48.
North, R. A.Task components and demands as factors in dual-task performance. Savoy, IL: University of Illinois, Aviation Research Laboratory, Technical Report ARL-77–2/AFOSR-77–2, January, 1977.
49.
North, R. A., Gopher, D., and Roscoe, S. N.Manipulation and measurement of concurrent-task performances. In S. N. Roscoe, Aviation Psychology.Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1980.
50.
Obata, J., Morita, S., Hirose, K. I., and Matsumoto, H.The effects of noise upon human efficiency. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1934, 5, 255–261.
51.
Ou, P., Gough, H., and Konz, S.Annoyance and speech interference from noise. Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 23rd Annual Meeting, Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society, 1979, 88–91.
52.
Park, J. F., Jr., and Payne, M. C., Jr.Effects of noise level and difficulty of task in performing division. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1963, 47, 367–368.
53.
Pearsons, K. S., and Bennett, R. L.Effects of interior aircraft noise on speech-intelligibility and annoyance. Hampton, VA: NASA, Langley Research Center, NASA CR-145203, August, 1977.
54.
Percival, L., and Loeb, M.Influence of noise characteristics on behavioral aftereffects. Human Factors, 1980, 22, 341–352.
55.
Poulton, E. C.Continuous intense noise masks auditory feedback and inner speech. Psychological Bulletin, 1977, 84, 977–1001.
56.
Poulton, E. C., and Edwards, R. S.Interactions and range effects in experiments on pairs of stresses: Mild heat and low-frequency noise. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1974, 102, 627–628.
57.
Rieck, A. M., Ogden, G. D., and Anderson, N. S.An investigation of varying amounts of component-task practice on dual-task performance. Human Factors, 1980, 22, 373–384.
58.
Simpson, G. C., Cox, T., and Rothschild, D. R.The effects of noise stress on blood glucose level and skilled performance. Ergonomics, 1974, 17, 481–487.
59.
Smith, K. R.Intermittent loud noise and mental performance. Science, 1951, 114, 132–133.
60.
Stave, A. M.The effects of cockpit environment on longterm pilot performance. Human Factors, 1977, 19, 503–514.
61.
Stevens, S. S.Stability of human performance under intense noise. Journal of Sound and Vibration, 1972, 21, 35–56.
62.
Teichner, W. H., Arees, E., and Reilly, R.Noise and human performance, a psychophysiological approach. Ergonomics, 1963, 6, 83–97.
63.
Theologus, G. C., Wheaton, G. R., and Fleishman, E. A.Effects of intermittent, moderate intensity noise stress on human performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1974, 59, 539–547.
64.
Tinker, M. A.Intelligence in an intelligence test with an auditory distractor. American Journal of Psychology, 1925, 36, 467–468.
65.
Viteles, M. S., and Smith, K. R.An experimental investigation of the effect of change in atmospheric conditions and noise upon performance. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers, New York, NY, January, 1946.
66.
Warner, H. D., and Heimstra, N. W.Effects of voice intensity on visual target-detection performance. Human Factors, 1972, 14, 181–185.
67.
Watkins, W. H.Effect of certain noises upon detection of visual signals. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1964, 67, 72–75.
68.
Wilkinson, R. T.Interaction of noise with knowledge of results and sleep deprivation. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1963, 66, 332–337.
69.
Wohlwill, J. F., Nasar, J. L., DeJoy, D. M., and Foruzani, H. H.Behavioral effects of a noisy environment: Task involvement versus passive exposure. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1976, 61, 67–74.
70.
Woodhead, M. M.The effect of bursts of noise on an arithmetic task. American Journal of Psychology, 1964, 77, 627–633.
