Comparison of Performance with Headphone and Free-Field Noise.

摘要

Fourteen naval ratings and 1 housewives performed the 5 choice serial reaction task for 40 min under each of the following 4 conditions: (1) continous broadband noise with equal energy per octave, presented through headphones at a sound pressure level of 95 dBC. (2) The same noise presented in a free field without headphones. (3 and 4) The broadband noise presented with and without headphones at 70 dBc. In the noise there were more gaps of 1.5 sec between responses. The headphone noise produced more gaps than the freefield noise. There were also more errors in the noise. The increase in errors occurred at once in the free field noise, but only in the last 20 min of the 40 min period with the headphone noise. The earlier and more marked effect in the free field is probably due to the greater apparent loudness of the noise, with the consequent increase in annoyance.