Psychophysiological responses during cognitively demanding work in subjectively annoying background noise

Abstract

People who work in noisy environments are at greater risk for stress-related diseases, including hypertension and stroke, even when noise levels are too low to damage hearing. Such noise may be harmful, especially to noise-sensitive individuals, because the psychological annoyance that it causes induces physiological stress responses that are damaging to health over the long term. This study was designed to investigate the link between subjective noise annoyance and physiological measures of arousal and displeasure due to the presence of background noise. Cardiovascular, electrodermal, respiratory, and facial muscular activity were recorded from 32 listeners during the completion of a demanding working memory task under different listening conditions. Participants completed four levels of memory task demand in silence and in two different continuous noises similar to that produced by HVAC equipment. Both noises were comparable in terms of loudness and presentation level (54–60 dBA) but differed in perceived annoyance (based on ratings from a panel of listeners in a previous study) and in acoustic properties associated with noise annoyance (roughness, tonality, and sharpness). Behavioral measures of memory task performance, noise sensitivity, personality traits, and subjective effort will be presented and related to physiological measures, and implications for future research will be discussed.