The effects of background white noise on memory performance in inattentive school children

Abstract

BackgroundNoise is typically conceived of as being detrimental for cognitive performance; however, a recent computational model based on the concepts of stochastic resonance and dopamine related internal noise postulates that a moderate amount of auditive noise benefit individuals in hypodopaminergic states. On the basis of this model we predicted that inattentive children would be enhanced by adding background white noise while attentive children's performance would deteriorate.MethodsFifty-one secondary school pupils carried out an episodic verbal free recall test in two noise conditions. In the high noise condition, verb-noun sentences were presented during auditory background noise (white noise, 78 dB), and in the low noise condition sentences were presented without noise.ResultsExposure to background noise improved performance for inattentive children and worsened performance for attentive children and eliminated episodic memory differences between attentive and inattentive school children.ConclusionsConsistent with the model, our data show that cognitive performance can be moderated by external background white noise stimulation in a non-clinical group of inattentive participants. This finding needs replicating in a larger sample using more noise levels but if replicated has great practical applications by offering a non-invasive way to improve school results in children with attentional problems.

Evaluating the Effect of Mozart Music and White Noise on Electroencephalography Pattern toward Visual Memory

“…The simple example to describe this concept is when the weak signal (e.g. visual stimulus) enters the sensory memory it becomes detectable when white noise is added to the signal [7]. The white noise was interacting with the weak stimulus and pushing it or in simple word, it gives motivation to people to give more attention to the required task.…”

“…Some of the researchers reported that listening to it during performing the task able to give a positive influence on cognitive processing [10]. The explanation on how the white noise, improves the cognitive processing represented by the stochastic resonance concept [7]. The simple example to describe this concept is when the weak signal (e.g.…”

“…The effective study environment is the condition that can give the positive influence on student performance. According to Soderlund et al, 2010 the human cognitive performance can be influenced by the auditory stimuli but depends on the human population, types of auditory stimuli and cognitive task involved [7]. They had done a study to investigate the effect of white noise on inattentive and attentive children when performing episodic verbal free recall test.…”

“…Difference influence has been found between these two children groups which are the performance of inattentive children was improved when listened to white noise but not for attentive children. Based on the Soderlund et al, 2010 [7] findings, we are inspired to discover the effect of environmental factors on memory performance for the normal adult population. Knowing from the previous research that the Mozart music and white noise are able to give the positive influence on people's performance, thus, it's were chosen as auditory stimuli in this present study.…”

Hippocampal-cerebellar involvement in enhancement of performance in word-based BRT with the presence of background noise: An initial fMRI study.

“…This is assumed to be due to the competition for attentional resources between the distracting (noise) and the target stimuli (Soderlund et al, 2010). Noise is typically conceived as being detrimental to the complex cognitive performance and the negative effects of noise on cognitive processing especially in attention, working memory (WM), and language have been established by many researchers (Dos Santos Kozou et al, 2005).…”