Does background sounds distort concentration and verbal reasoning performance in open-plan office?

Sound distraction is often seen as an enemy of productivity, especially in the open-plan office. The present study involves a laboratory experiment exploring the effect of six kinds of typical background sound in the office on concentration and verbal reasoning performance. The six different sound were classified into the music group, including running water sound (RW), pure classic music (PM), classic music with lyrics (ML), and noise group, including intelligible speech (IS), mechanical noise of keyboard and printer (MN), and telephone ring (TR). During the experiment, they were presented at three different levels: 40 dBA, 50 dBA, and 60 dBA. Additionally, ambient sound at 30 dBA was designed as the control group. A total of 79 subjects were recruited to conduct a neurobehavioral experiment. Feature match (FM) tests and grammatical reasoning (GR) tests were used respectively to detect subjects' concentration level and verbal reasoning performance, including accuracy and efficiency. After each subtest, subjects were invited to rate their activation and annoyance for the test. Results indicated that sound type and sound intensity both had significant effects on the accuracy and efficiency of concentration and verbal reasoning. 1) the noise group exhibited higher task performance loss than the music group, especially the IS. 2) High intensity generally brought higher accuracy and verbal reasoning loss. 3) Background sound brought higher activation while sound at 60 dBA brought a negative activation rating. 4)Background sound bright high annoyance when the intensity was over 50 dBA. 5) PM was more favorable for the enhancement of concentration and verbal reasoning than ML. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study found that the type and intensity of sound have significant effects on the accuracy and efficiency of concentration and verbal reasoning; the noise group showed higher performance loss compared to the music group, and high intensity sound usually leads to higher accuracy loss; background sound increases activation, but sound at 60 dBA brings negative activation rating.