Influence of changes in the sound environment when conversation is interrupted on facilitation of conversation

Abstract

To construct a method for activating meetings on knowledge creative activity by feedback control of the sound environment according to the meeting situation, the experiment simulating a meeting was conducted to examine the facilitation effect of conversation by changing the sound environment at the break in conversation. To form a meeting from subjects with different social attributes, the experiment was conducted in groups of four people including office workers and students. The results of the experiment on the five groups showed that the students tended to improve their evaluations of the ease of conversation and mental burden by changing the sound environment when there was a break in the conversation. Based on the result that students tended to be more nervous than office workers under the experimental condition in which the sound environment was not changed, it is possible that changing the sound environment when conversation is interrupted has a positive effect on people who have higher tension due to relationship with other attendees. On the other hand, it was suggested that students' evaluation of ease of work was more susceptible to changes in the sound environment because they spent more time listening to other subjects' statement than office workers.