A Systematic Review of the Effects of Noise Characteristics on Human Mental Performance

Abstract

AbstractThere is a substantial effect of noise on human performance, especially for the tasks involving visual and mental concentration and/or cognition. This study aimed to systematically review the available literature related to the effect of noise on human cognitive performance. The literature search was performed on four electronic databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar, and after applying the inclusion/exclusion criteria to 147 citations, 31 articles were finally selected for review. While exposure to noise had significant effect on the human cognitive performance, the size of the effect considerably depended on the nature of the noise and characteristics of the task. The noise type, frequency and intensity level were found to be the significant factors that influence human cognitive task performance, in terms of reaction time/time taken to complete a task and/or the count/percentage of errors. However, there is a limited research that evaluated the interaction effects of the noise characteristics on human cognitive performance. Hence, a more comprehensive research towards understanding the interaction effects of noise characteristics on human cognitive performance may be recommended.KeywordsNoiseCognitive performanceNoise typeNoise intensityCognitive ergonomics