Do active noise-cancelling headphones’ influence performance, stress, or experience in office context?

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Active noise-cancelling (ANC) headphones are often used in open-plan offices as individual noise control devices. We examined the influence of different use settings of ANC headphones on performance, experience, and physiological stress in conditions resembling an open-plan office with task irrelevant speech. Laboratory experiment involved 54 participants, who were exposed to speech presented at sound level 52 dB LAeq in five conditions created by use settings: 1. No headphones, 2. Headphones, 3. Headphones + ANC, 4. Headphones + masking, 5. Headphones + ANC + masking. ANC headphones had an on-ear design. Condition 1 was a reference condition to which all other conditions were compared. Masking was 51 dB LAeq wideband noise (315−5000 Hz with −5 dB per octave slope) played from the headphones. Performance was measured with serial recall and n-back tasks, and physiological stress-related biomarker measured was heart rate variability. The condition did not influence performance or heart rate variability, but it influenced experience. With masking (conditions 4 and 5), speech was less annoying, and noise was more annoying than without the headphones (condition 1). With ANC function (condition 3), the sound environment was more pleasant than without the headphones. However, only with both ANC and masking, the sound environment was estimated to impair performance and disturb concentration less than without the headphones. Therefore, using headphones with masking and ANC function can improve experience, but headphones cannot be used as the only measure against speech in offices as they did not improve performance nor stress-related physiological measures.