Investigation into the Effect of Intermittent Noise of Constant Periodicity Vs. Random Periodicity on the Performance of an Industrial Task

摘要

An investigation of the effect of noise of varying periodicity of presentation on the performance of a task involving a sensorimotor factor and a simple decision factor was performed. The following conclusions regarding this experiment were made: The trials main effect was significant in the analyses of all dependent variables, indicating that a considerable amount of learning took place over the duration of the experimental testing. The main effect of sex was significant in all analyses except that of wrong switches. The effect of noise periodicity on the performance of the experimental task was significant in the analysis of wrong switches. Interactions involving noise type indicated that the random noise produced greater deleterious effects on performance than periodic noise, and that both types of intermittent noise had greater adverse effects on performance than continuous noise. Noise intensity did not have a significant main effect in any of the analyses. The 70 db intensity generally produced the most deleterious effects in males; whereas, the 82 db intensity had this effect on females. Findings regarding age indicated that the younger age group's latencies were predominantly in the late category; whereas, those of the older group were evenly divided between the early and late categories.