Effects of background noise and extraversion on reading comprehension performance.

This study was concerned with the effects of acoustic distraction at work. Using a within-subject study we aimed to investigate the effect of background distraction on cognitive performance. In the presence of silence, white noise, and sirens, 55 fluent English speakers completed three equivalent va...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Ergonomics Vol. 64; no. 5; pp. 593 - 600
Autores principales: Gheewalla, Fatema, McClelland, Alastair, Furnham, Adrian
Formato: research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd May2021
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: May2021
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      pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd
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        10.1080/00140139.2020.1854352
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        atl: Effects of background noise and extraversion on reading comprehension performance.
      aug:
        au:
          Gheewalla, Fatema
          McClelland, Alastair
          Furnham, Adrian
        affil: Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK
      sug:
        subj:
          Noise Adverse Effects
          Personality
          Readability Evaluation
          Language Processing
          Task Performance and Analysis
          Distraction Adverse Effects
          Work Environment
          Cognition Evaluation
          Human
          Arousal
          Sound
      ab: This study was concerned with the effects of acoustic distraction at work. Using a within-subject study we aimed to investigate the effect of background distraction on cognitive performance. In the presence of silence, white noise, and sirens, 55 fluent English speakers completed three equivalent variations of a reading comprehension task. As predicted, there was a significant main effect of background sound, with poorer performance in the presence of distraction (particularly sirens), but no interaction was found between distraction and extraversion. Thus, the findings partially replicated previous research in terms of distraction but were inconsistent with regard to the Eysenckian theory of arousal differences between introverts and extraverts. Implications of the effect of sirens on those they are not designed to alert are considered. Limitations of this study are also considered. Practitioner Summary: This study was concerned with whether white noise and the sound of sirens affects reading comprehension. We found that compared to doing a highly involving and demanding cognitive task in silence, siren noise has the most significant negative effect on performance. Compared to working silence, white noise also reduced the efficiency of text comprehension. There were no introvert–extravert effects.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
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      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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