Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA.
USC Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA.
Sci Rep. 2022 Aug 26;12(1):14566. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-18862-w.
Noise is often considered a distractor; however recent studies suggest that sub-attentive individuals or individuals diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder can benefit from white noise to enhance their cognitive performance. Research regarding the effect of white noise on neurotypical adults presents mixed results, thus the implications of white noise on the neurotypical population remain unclear. Thus, this study investigates the effect of 2 white noise conditions, white noise level at 45 dB and white noise level at 65 dB, on the cognitive performance, creativity, and stress levels of neurotypical young adults in a private office space. These conditions are compared to a baseline condition where participants are exposed to the office ambient noise. Our findings showed that the white noise level at 45 dB resulted in better cognitive performance in terms of sustained attention, accuracy, and speed of performance as well as enhanced creativity and lower stress levels. On the other hand, the 65 dB white noise condition led to improved working memory but higher stress levels, which leads to the conclusion that different tasks might require different noise levels for optimal performance. These results lay the foundation for the integration of white noise into office workspaces as a tool to enhance office workers' performance.
噪音通常被认为是一种干扰物；然而，最近的研究表明，注意力不集中的个体或被诊断患有注意力缺陷多动障碍的个体可以受益于白噪声来提高他们的认知表现。关于白噪声对神经典型成年人影响的研究结果喜忧参半，因此白噪声对神经典型人群的影响仍不清楚。因此，本研究调查了两种白噪声条件（45 分贝的白噪声和 65 分贝的白噪声）对私人办公空间中神经典型年轻成年人的认知表现、创造力和压力水平的影响。这些条件与参与者暴露在办公室环境噪声中的基线条件进行了比较。我们的研究结果表明，45 分贝的白噪声水平在维持注意力、准确性和反应速度方面的认知表现更好，同时提高了创造力，降低了压力水平。另一方面，65 分贝的白噪声条件导致工作记忆提高，但压力水平升高，这表明不同的任务可能需要不同的噪声水平才能达到最佳表现。这些结果为将白噪声整合到办公空间中作为提高办公人员绩效的工具奠定了基础。
