The effects of environmental and classroom noise on the academic attainments of primary school children

Shield, Bridget; Dockrell, Julie

doi:10.1121/1.2812596

Cited by 287 publications

(218 citation statements)

References 16 publications

(33 reference statements)

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“…The results showed that there was an exposure-effect relationship between noise exposure and performance on reading and math tests, but that this was influenced by socioeconomic factors. There have been less studies that include assessments of the effects of noise exposure within classrooms as well as external noise exposure, although Shield and Dockrell found associations with both sources of noise at school in relation to national tests for primary school children aged 7-11 years [46]. Older children's performance was most affected by external noise.…”

Section: Noise and Cognitive Impairment In Childrenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health Effects of Noise Exposure in Children

Stansfeld

Clark

2015

Curr Envir Health Rpt

144

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Environmental noise exposure, such as road traffic noise and aircraft noise, is associated with a range of health outcomes in children. Children demonstrate annoyance responses to noise, and noise is also related to lower wellbeing and stress responses, such as increased levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline. Noise does not cause more serious mental health problems, but there is growing evidence for an association with increased hyperactivity symptoms. Studies also suggest that noise might cause changes in cardiovascular functioning, and there is some limited evidence for an effect on low birth weight. There is robust evidence for an effect of school noise exposure on children's cognitive skills such as reading and memory, as well as on standardised academic test scores. Environmental noise does not usually reach levels that are likely to affect children's hearing; however, increasing use of personal electronic devices may leave some children exposed to harmful levels of noise.

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Section: Noise and Cognitive Impairment In Childrenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health Effects of Noise Exposure in Children

Stansfeld

Clark

2015

Curr Envir Health Rpt

144

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“…Indeed, it is the case that noise annoyance (the subjective irritation and dismay caused by noise, not its effect on cognitive performance) is related to noise level, with up to 45% of the variance associated with annoyance being accounted for by noise intensity (cf. Shield & Dockrell, 2008). However, it is known from extensive laboratory work that distraction measured by cognitive tasks is not related to intensity (at least in the range of intensities that encompasses everyday sounds); rather, it is related to the acoustic variability of the sound (Hughes & Jones, 2001;Jones et al, 2010).…”

Section: Implications For Lexical Selection In Language Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retrieval from memory: Vulnerable or inviolable?

Jones¹,

Marsh²,

Hughes³

2012

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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We show that retrieval from semantic memory is vulnerable even to the mere presence of speech. Irrelevant speech impairs semantic fluency-namely lexical retrieval cued by a semantic category name-more than meaningless speech (reversed speech or nonwords). Moreover, speech related semantically to the retrieval category is more disruptive than unrelated speech. That phonemic fluency-in which participants are cued with the first letter of words they are to report-was not disrupted by the mere presence of speech, only by speech in a related phonemic category, suggests that distraction is not mediated by executive processing load. The pattern of sensitivity to different properties of sound as a function of the type of retrieval cue is in line with an interference-by-process approach to auditory distraction.Keywords: Auditory Distraction, Lexical Retrieval, Semantic Fluency, Phonemic Fluency Retrieval and Distraction 3 Lexical retrieval is a fundamental capacity of language that underpins oral and written language production, involving the access and selection of context-appropriate lexical items to express an intended meaning. One of the most frequently-used tests of lexical retrieval is semantic fluency, in which a semantic category cue is given (e.g., 'Animals') and the task is to retrieve from long-term semantic memory as many examples as possible from that category (Bousfield & Sedgewick, 1944;Newcombe, 1969). We ask whether this process of search by semantic criterion is vulnerable to the presence of concurrent to-be-ignored sound, given that there is a body of work suggesting that retrieval processes generally are largely inviolable to all but the most attentionally-demanding concurrent tasks (Craik, Govoni, Naveh-Benjamin, & N. D. Anderson, 1996). We also attempt to discover how the lexical and semantic status of the sound's contents determine the degree to which semantic fluency is impaired, with a view to revealing the level of abstraction at which distraction occurs. Phonemic fluency (e.g., Benton, 1968), in which the criterion for production is phonemic, not semantic, is also studied in order to provide baseline conditions that share some processes-including key executive processes-with semantic fluency, but not those related to semantic retrieval. This allows examination of whether semantic auditory distraction has a process-specific effect on semantic retrieval, namely whether it only occurs when the focal task also requires semantic (but not phonemic) retrieval, or whether common (executive) processes are vulnerable.Fluency tasks have not been used to study auditory distraction and the work reported here is the first of its kind. Their attraction as a research tool for students of distraction is that they are relatively process-pure in terms of retrieval. Evidence collected so far relating to disruption by sound of lexical-semantic processing has used, almost exclusively, list-based tasks, ones that are not to the same degree process-pure as the fluency task. Because they are list-based, perform...

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“…In schools, it interferes in the children's concentration and learning. 18 The discomfort that is felt in its presence can be described as indisposition, irritability and stress and is not directly related to the level of exposure. 22 Communication diffi culties have also been described, as well as headaches, sleep alterations, dizziness, hearing loss and tinnitus.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efeito do ruído na voz de educadoras de instituições de educação infantil

2012

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OBJECTIVE:To analyze the association between noise levels present in preschool institutions and vocal disorders among educators. METHODS:Cross-sectional study conducted in 2009 with 28 teachers from three preschool institutions located in the city of São Paulo (Southeastern Brazil). Sound pressure levels were measured according to Brazilian Technical Standards Association, with the use of a sound level meter. The averages were classifi ed according to the levels of comfort, discomfort, and auditory damage proposed by the Pan American Health Organization. The educators underwent voice evaluation: self-assessment with visual analogue scale, auditory perceptual evaluation using the GRBAS scale, and acoustic analysis utilizing the Praat program. To analyze the association between noise and voice evaluation, descriptive statistics and the chi-square test were employed, with signifi cance of 10% due to sample size. RESULTS:The teachers' age ranged between 21 and 56 years. The noise average was 72.7 dB, considered as damage 2. The professionals' vocal self-assessment ranked an average of 5.1 on the scale, being considered as moderate alteration. In the auditory-perceptual assessment, 74% presented vocal alteration, especially hoarseness; of these, 52% were considered mild alterations. In the acoustic assessment the majority presented fundamental frequency below the expected level. Averages for jitter, shimmer and harmonic-noise ratio showed alterations. An association between the presence of noise between the harmonics and vocal disorders was observed. CONCLUSIONS:There is an association between presence of noise between the harmonics and vocal alteration, with high noise levels. Although most teachers presented mild voice alteration, the self-evaluation showed moderate alteration, probably due to the diffi culty in projection.

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The effects of environmental and classroom noise on the academic attainments of primary school children

Cited by 287 publications

References 16 publications

Health Effects of Noise Exposure in Children

Health Effects of Noise Exposure in Children

Retrieval from memory: Vulnerable or inviolable?

Efeito do ruído na voz de educadoras de instituições de educação infantil

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