Classroom acoustics and cognition: A review of the effects of noise and reverberation on primary school children’s attention and memory

Abstract

Classroom acoustic conditions are often suboptimal, so how do they affect children’s cognition? This review synthesized research assessing the effect of different classroom acoustic conditions on children’s attention and memory. A comprehensive search of four online databases was conducted in January 2022 using the search term classroom AND (noise* OR reverberat* OR acoustic*) AND (cognit* OR attention OR memory OR processing). The results revealed 21 relevant papers plus an additional 10 from their references. The papers assessed the effect of a range of chronic and acute acoustic exposures on different attention and memory processes. Overall, the majority of studies showed a negative effect or no effect of higher noise levels, longer reverberation times, or lower speech clarity on children’s cognition. It would therefore be beneficial to improve classroom acoustic conditions if possible. Suggestions for future research to more fully understand the effect of different classroom acoustic conditions on children’s cognition are posed.

A Scoping Review of the Effect of Classroom Acoustic Conditions on Primary School Children’s Numeracy Performance and Listening Comprehension

“…Only one study examined the effect of external noise and this was road traffic noise [42]. It may be beneficial to study other types of noise such as aircraft or rail noise which can be heard in classrooms and have been shown to have negative effects on other processes such as reading and cognition (see [2] and [5] for reviews). Though it is important to note from this review that speech distractors had a greater negative affect than classroom noise without speech [40] and unintelligible classroom noise had a greater negative affect than road traffic noise [42].…”

“…If the presentation is in the auditory domain, then it is important to note that speech intelligibility and processing speed can be negatively affected [57,58]. If the presentation is in the visual domain, noise can have a negative effect on children's visual short-term memory, reading, and writing performance (see [4,5], and [2] for reviews). In terms of outcome measures to assess, including both accuracy of solving the mathematical problem and speed of response is useful as included in several of the studies reviewed [33,[36][37][38].…”

“…Noise has been found to affect children's performance on both auditory and non-auditory tasks. Regarding nonauditory tasks, noise can have a negative effect on children's visual short-term memory, reading, and writing performance (see [4,5] and [2] for reviews). Poorer attention control in children compared to adults can result in this poorer performance (see [4] for a review).…”

A scoping review of the effects of classroom acoustic conditions on primary school children’s mental wellbeing

“…These effects can be either from acute exposure, or chronic exposure over a long period of time. Poor classroom acoustic conditions can negatively affect children’s speech perception, 3,4,12,15 comprehension (see Lamotte et al 16 and Schiller 17 for reviews), literacy outcomes (see Mealings 18 for a review), cognition (see Mealings 19 for a review), and physical health (see Mealings 20 for a review). These negative effects on the learning processes can affect children’s academic achievement.…”

Classroom acoustic conditions and primary school children’s behaviour: A scoping review

“…1 Reviews have shown that poor classroom acoustic conditions can affect children's speech perception, comprehension, literacy, numeracy, cognition, learning and even physical health and mental well-being. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] But what effect do different classroom acoustic conditions have on different children's behaviour?…”