Comparison between effects of low and high frequency noise on mental performance

Abstract

PurposeThere are few and controversial findings about adverse effects between the low frequency noise (LFN) and high frequency noise (HFN) on human. Although noise is presumed as a distracting stimulus, regarding controversial findings between performance effects of LFN and HFN, and scarcely studies on dissimilar effects of them, the present study was conducted to answer the following questions: is there any difference between LFN and HFN impacts on mental performance at a moderate noise level? And, how do LFN and HFN affect mental performance? MethodsThis experimental study was carried out with 89 students (54 males and 35 females) of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. All participants performed the Stroop and Cognitrone tests in quiet condition, when exposing to LFN and HFN at both 50 and 70dBA. ResultsIt was found that both LFN and HFN augmented the performance through increasing sum hits and sum correct rejection and also decreasing working time of the Cognitrone test. The findings of the present study showed that not only LFN and HFN had no negative effects on the performance but also performance speed improved. ConclusionThis experiment study showed no differences between LFN and HFN effects on the performance; moreover, both LFN and HFN improved the participants’ performance. Of course, more researches are suggested in this issue.