Showing 2 results for Psychoacoustic
Azar Mehrabi Matin, Mahsa Alefi, Mohammad Reza Monazzam, Adel Mazloumi, Kamal Azam,
Volume 12, Issue 1 (3-2022)
Abstract
Introduction: The noise could affect some aspects of human health, including the cognitive performance. In addition to sound pressure level and exposure time, the psychoacoustic features of noise may cause destructive effects on humans. A few recent studies have been conducted on effect of sound quality on cognitive performance. This study aims to find the noise loudness and sharpness levels as the most destructive effects on human cognitive performance.
Material and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study on 10 male students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The Noises were generated in two channels that the left channel produced the pink noise as a background noise. The pink noise loudness and sharpness were 19.7 sone and 2.49 acum, respectively. The right channel generated noises with different loudness and sharpness levels the noise loudness ranged from 8.87 to 67.9 sone and the noise sharpness ranged from 1.07 to 6.4 acum. Finally, ten noises with different loudness and sharpness were applied. The students were exposed to ten different types of noise and a silent condition. The Mathematical Problem Solving Task (MPST) test was performed to assess cognitive performance. The reaction time and the accuracy rate were measured after 5 minutes of noise exposure. Data were analyzed by SPSS (ver. 22). P< 0.05 was considered as significant level.
Results: The mean reaction time and the mean accuracy rate increased with the sharpness level. However, alteration in the loudness and sharpness levels had no significant effect on the speed and accuracy of students. Performance speed increased in noise 3 with the highest loudness (L=67.9, SH=1.07) in comparison with the silent condition (p-value=0.05). The mean accuracy rate in exposure to the noise 9 reduced in comparison with silence (p-value=0.04)
Conclusion: Different levels of psychoacoustic features had no significant effect on the cognitive performance parameters. Although, the accuracy rate and the reaction time decreased in noises 9, the sharpest noise, and 3, the loudest noise, in comparison to the silence, respectively.
Shoaib Ghasemi, Fatemeh Fasih-Ramandi, Mohammad Reza Monazzam-Esmaeelpour, Soheila Khodakarim Ardakani,
Volume 12, Issue 3 (9-2022)
Abstract
Introduction: The study of noise has always been of interest to occupational health professionals as a harmful physical factor in the workplace. However, the psychological and psychoacoustic aspects of noise in the workplace have been less studied. This study has dealt with different colors of noise and their applications in psychoacoustics.
Material and Methods: This review study was conducted by searching the databases of Google Scholar, ProQuest, Science Direct, PubMed, and Scopus to extract the articles related to the research subject within a 50-year interval from 1970 to 2020.
Results: Based on the results of the present study, colored noises and white noise seem to have the potential to be used as acoustic stimuli to improve the sleep of employees, especially shift workers, to improve memory and attention, especially in jobs that require high care and attention. Colored noise and white noise have potential applications to improve cognitive function in different occupations to reduce the activity of the sympathetic nervous system and anxiety and stress, especially in jobs with high job stress. Also, these noises are helpful for people’s privacy, especially in the open workplace, for noise masking and noise control purposes, as well as for medicine and treatment of disorders such as tinnitus, ADHD, and hyperacusis.
Conclusion: Paying attention to the colors of noise and their psychoacoustic impacts shows us that the noise impacts are not limited to their undesirable and damaging effects. Instead, their positive and applied aspects should also note. Familiarity with such aspects and their introduction can identify the existing information gaps in this field and pave the way to fill them.
