Auditory distraction from low-intensity noise: a review of the consequences for learning and workplace environments

Abstract

The ‘irrelevant sound effect’ in short‐term memory is commonly believed to entail a number of direct consequences for cognitive performance in the office and other workplaces (e.g. S. P. Banbury, S. Tremblay, W. J. Macken, & D. M. Jones, 2001). It may also help to identify what types of sound are most suitable as auditory warning signals. However, the conclusions drawn are based primarily upon evidence from a single task (serial recall) and a single population (young adults). This evidence is reconsidered from the standpoint of different worker populations confronted with common workplace tasks and auditory environments. Recommendations are put forward for factors to be considered when assessing the impact of auditory distraction in the workplace. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The impact of auditory distraction on retrieval of visual memories

“…Notably, the impact of the ISE is absent for unaware sign-wave speech and increases from meaningless speech sounds to natural, intelligible speech (Tremblay et al, 2000), a finding that is similar to the impact of café sounds in the AD condition (i.e., a mixture of ambient restaurant noise and a few decipherable spoken words). An interesting difference is that in the present study, auditory distraction did not negatively impact overall recognition (i.e., AD did not affect d′), yet irrelevant speech diminishes performance in studies of immediate serial recall (Beaman, 2005;Marsh et al, 2009). Moreover, white noise increased mistaken recognition of lures (i.e., false alarms) in the present study but has had no such effect on immediate serial recall (Little et al, 2010;Weisz & Schlittmeier, 2006).…”

“…Research examining the effects of irrelevant background sound on tasks involving working memory (WM) maintenance has revealed a negative impact on immediate serial recall (Beaman, 2005;Campbell, Beaman, & Berry, 2002;Tremblay, Nicholls, Alford, & Jones, 2000), as well as significant changes in neural activity associated with concurrent task-relevant visual processing (Weisz & Schlittmeier, 2006). The irrelevant sound effect (ISE) is the decline in accuracy for immediate memory of serial order when the test is completed in the presence of irrelevant sound, relative to complete silence.…”

The irrelevant sound effect in short-term memory: Is there developmental change?

“…The recall performance is specifically impaired by irrelevant background sounds with a changing state characteristic, i.e., sounds consisting of distinct auditoryÁperceptive objects that vary consecutively. For example, irrelevant sounds consisting of different consonants or tones evoke an ISE, whereas steady state sounds such as continuous broadband noise or repetitions of single syllables or tones have a minor effect or no effect at all (see for a review, Beaman, 2005a;Jones, 1999;Neath, 2000).…”

Effects of Irrelevant Auditory Stimuli on a Text Recognition and Text Recall Task

“…On the contrary, exploring the nature of disruption and identifying its locus in the cognitive process are still controversial, and several major theories have been proposed for these purposes. The latter approach may be more difficult than the previous one because controlling everyday cognitive tasks and specifying the origin of the disruption are not easy (Beaman, 2005).…”

“…One of the reasons for this is that it is easy to experimentally control the acoustic material and observe its affects on cognitive processing (Beaman, 2005). On the contrary, exploring the nature of disruption and identifying its locus in the cognitive process are still controversial, and several major theories have been proposed for these purposes.…”