Noise disturbance in open-plan study environments: a field study on noise sources, student tasks and room acoustic parameters

Abstract

The aim of this study is to gain more insight in the assessment of noise in open-plan study environments and to reveal correlations between noise disturbance experienced by students and the noise sources they perceive, the tasks they perform and the acoustic parameters of the open-plan study environment they work in. Data were collected in five open-plan study environments at universities in the Netherlands. A questionnaire was used to investigate student tasks, perceived sound sources and their perceived disturbance, and sound measurements were performed to determine the room acoustic parameters. This study shows that 38% of the surveyed students are disturbed by background noise in an open-plan study environment. Students are mostly disturbed by speech when performing complex cognitive tasks like studying for an exam, reading and writing. Significant but weak correlations were found between the room acoustic parameters and noise disturbance of students. Practitioner Summary: A field study was conducted to gain more insight in the assessment of noise in open-plan study environments at universities in the Netherlands. More than one third of the students was disturbed by noise. An interaction effect was found for task type, source type and room acoustic parameters.

Evidence for Environmental Noise Effects on Health for the United Kingdom Policy Context: A Systematic Review of the Effects of Environmental Noise on Mental Health, Wellbeing, Quality of Life, Cancer, Dementia, Birth, Reproductive Outcomes, and Cognition

“…The systematic review identified nine studies of associations of environmental noise on cognition [39,48,[84][85][86][87][88][89][90]. Studies examined child and adult samples.…”

“…Two other studies known to the authors were also added [94,95], along with another recent conference paper [93]. Six studies were excluded after data extraction (Appendix A.2) which included two studies which reported experimental studies [84,85]; one that reported on mental health and not cognition and had already been identified in the search for mental health [39]; one which did not report on noise exposure per se [89], and another study which reported an ADHD outcome, which was moved to the mental health review [48]. One study reported on attitudes to noise within the school and did not report a cognitive outcome [90].…”

“…experimental studies [84,85]; one that reported on mental health and not cognition and had already been identified in the search for mental health [39]; one which did not report on noise exposure per se [89], and another study which reported an ADHD outcome, which was moved to the mental health review [48]. One study reported on attitudes to noise within the school and did not report a cognitive outcome [90].…”

Spatial User Experience: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Assessing Physical Settings

“…Researchers in the field have provided empirical evidence regarding the effects of the environment and the setting on performance and health, mainly in the workplace but also in different contexts of human activity. For instance, Dul and Ceylan (2011) studied work environments to foster creativity; Oliveira, Gaspar, André, and Quintela (2014) developed a subjective analysis of working in cold environments; Smith and Bayeh (2003) analyzed the impact of ergonomic improvements in the computer workstation on productivity; and Braat‐Eggen, van Heijst, Hornikx, and Kohlrausch (2017) developed a field study to measure noise disturbance on students in open‐plan study environments. On the other hand, Jordan (2002) argued that Human Factors should evolve to including the users' affective responses along with usability and performance.…”

Identifying factors that influenced wellbeing and learning effectiveness during the sudden transition into eLearning due to the COVID-19 lockdown

“…Furthermore, the house sometimes could not be suitable for smart-working (teaching) or attending eLearning courses; indeed some people have to deal with the bad ergonomics of working at the kitchen table or managing the constraint time for family or children [21]. For example, some distractions could arise, such as television, phone calls, pets wanting attention, barking, climbing on furniture, or being noisy, family visitors, disturbance from doorbells, washing machines, or vacuum cleaners, noise from stereos, radios, tape players, or musical instruments, feelings of tiredness and restlessness [22][23][24][25][26][27]. The use of technology can be a source of distraction [28][29][30][31][32] since technological devices could present an easy outlet for coping with negative experience and boredom during homework completion [29], especially for "multitasking generation" [33].…”