Impairing effects of noise in high and low noise sensitive persons working on different mental tasks

Sandrock, Stephan; Schütte, Martin; Griefahn, Barbara

doi:10.1007/s00420-008-0379-0

Cited by 30 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…[2] Another study on mental tasks reports not only higher annoyance among noise sensitive subjects, but also higher levels of strain. [13] Annoyance, cardiovascular responses, work stress -all these results suggest an association between noise sensitivity and health, but a causal relationship has not yet been shown. Only in the follow-up of a Finnish case-control study on noise and hypertension, a significantly increased cardiovascular mortality was found among noise-sensitive women, but not among men.…”

Section: Personalitymentioning

confidence: 92%

Patterns of physiological and affective responses to vehicle pass-by noises

et al. 2013

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Traffic noise is considered causing annoyance and severe health effects like cardiovascular disease (CVD). The present laboratory study examines the importance of individual factors, namely age, gender and personality traits on short term physiological and affective response to vehicle pass-by noises. Four groups of subjects (20-30 vs. 40-55 year-old male or female, n = 66 in total) were exposed to a series of vehicle pass-by noises. Physiological responses (finger-pulse amplitude [FPA], skin conductance level [SCL]) were registered during the exposure; affective responses and judgements regarding the sounds were assessed by questionnaires. Noise sensitivity and sensation seeking were measured by validated questionnaires. The results show different patterns of response depending on age, gender and personality. The strongest sympathetic stress reaction as measured by SCL was found for the older female group. In regression analysis, the SCL response was predicted by the female gender and low score of sensation seeking only (adjusted R2 = 0.139). The FPA response was strongest among the young men and age was the only significant predictor. For affective responses of pleasantness and activation, regression analysis proved noise sensitivity and sensation seeking to be significant predictors (adjusted R2 = 0.187 respectively 0.154). Age, gender and personality influence physiological and affective reactions to traffic noise, which might affect health conditions. Especially, a potential risk of older women for CVD owing to noise should be investigated further. Individual sensitiveness in terms of noise sensitivity or sensation seeking proves to be important for explaining differences in response to noise.

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Section: Personalitymentioning

confidence: 92%

Patterns of physiological and affective responses to vehicle pass-by noises

et al. 2013

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“…[20] High noise sensitivity has also been shown to be associated with poor performance on cognitive tasks during noise exposure. [21] It has been suggested that intrinsic sensitivity to noise can be conceived as a dispositional or vulnerability variable. [22] It seems reasonable that a vulnerable disposition would also result in an environmental hypersensitivity of a more general character.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress and odor sensitivity in persons with noise sensitivity

et al. 2013

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Previous research has indicated that sensory sensitivity/intolerance to a specific modality may be part of a more general environmental hypersensitivity, and possibly mediated by stress. This study investigated the relationship between noise sensitivity, perceived stress, and odor sensitivity in a group of men. A quasi-experimental design was used. One-hundred and thirty-four male undergraduate students completed Weinstein's noise sensitivity scale from which a low-sensitivity group (n = 16) and a high-sensitivity (n = 16) group were formed. These two groups were screened for loss in auditory and olfactory detection sensitivity, and completed the perceived stress questionnaire (PSQ) and the chemical sensitivity scale (CSS). One-way analysis of variance and Spearman correlational analyses were performed. Significantly higher scores on the PSQ (P < 0.05) and the CSS (P < 0.05) were found in the high noise-sensitivity group compared to the low noise-sensitivity group. These findings raise the question of whether the relation between noise and odor sensitivity reflects a general environmental sensitivity.

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“…Although the findings of other experiments (e.g. Sandrock et al 2009) verify an influence of noise sensitivity on strain, it must be considered that in those studies the selection of noise-sensitive and noiseinsensitive persons was based on the noise sensitivity scores of the 25th and 75th percentile of the norm sample. Therefore, the assumption seems to be justified that persons characterised by an extreme level of noise sensitivity additionally report a higher level of strain.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Mental strain and annoyance during cognitive performance in different traffic noise conditions

Sandrock

Schütte²,

Griefahn³

2010

Ergonomics

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In built-up areas, an increasing number of persons are affected by road traffic noise while performing mental work. This experimental study focused on annoyance and mental strain due to various noise scenarios. A total of 102 healthy, young persons (51 women, 51 men, aged 18-31 years) were randomly assigned to one of five experimental conditions determined by traffic flow (even, lumped) and traffic composition (20%, 40% heavy vehicles). While exposed to noise they performed a grammatical reasoning and a mathematical processing task. Performance and mental strain were not affected by any of the five noisy conditions. Individuals with high noise sensitivity were partially more annoyed and performed less than persons with low sensitivity. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: The present study provides information about mental strain due to tasks with different cognitive demands and the role of noise sensitivity in various traffic noise conditions. The results show that measures aiming at the reduction of the proportion of heavy vehicles should additionally consider particular traffic flow.

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Impairing effects of noise in high and low noise sensitive persons working on different mental tasks

Abstract: Noise sensitive persons are more distracted by noise than insensitive persons. Furthermore the results suggest that noise sensitive subjects do not only evaluate a noisy situation as more annoying but experience higher levels of strain than insensitive persons.

Cited by 30 publications

References 22 publications

Patterns of physiological and affective responses to vehicle pass-by noises

Patterns of physiological and affective responses to vehicle pass-by noises

Stress and odor sensitivity in persons with noise sensitivity

Mental strain and annoyance during cognitive performance in different traffic noise conditions

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