The use of noise cancelling headphones to improve concurrent task performance in a noisy environment

Molesworth, Brett R. C.; Burgess, Marion; Kwon, Daniel

doi:10.1016/j.apacoust.2012.06.015

Cited by 33 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…In a similar manner to previous studies, [10,21] the current study also assessed the change in performance for a cognitive task that is typically encountered in an aircraft cabin, namely recall of the safety briefing. Hence, a simple cued recall task was used where participants were exposed to a series of audio briefs, each lasting approximately 90 s, under varying conditions (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Hence and against an aviation backdrop of high noise levels within the cabin of commercial aircraft, the main aim of the present research is to provide a user-friendly index of the relative impairment associated with noise in the aircraft cabin. A secondary aim of the present research is to build upon previous studies highlighting the benefits on performance from the use of noise cancelling headphones in the noise environment of an airline cabin [10,21] and compare this also with the effects of alcohol on performance. This investigation stemmed from an applied situation where a commercial airline passenger was threatened with refusal of carriage if he continued to use his noise cancelling headphones during the taxi phase of flight.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Using the effect of alcohol as a comparison to illustrate the detrimental effects of noise on performance

2013

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The aim of the present research is to provide a user-friendly index of the relative impairment associated with noise in the aircraft cabin. As such, the relative effect of noise, at a level typical of an aircraft cabin was compared with varying levels of alcohol intoxication in the same subjects. Since the detrimental effect of noise is more pronounced on non-native speakers, both native English and non-native English speakers featured in the study. Noise cancelling headphones were also tested as a simple countermeasure to mitigate the effect of noise on performance. A total of 32 participants, half of which were non-native English speakers, completed a cued recall task in two alcohol conditions (blood alcohol concentration 0.05 and 0.10) and two audio conditions (audio played through the speaker and noise cancelling headphones). The results revealed that aircraft noise at 65 dB (A) negatively affected performance to a level comparable to alcohol intoxication of 0.10. The results also supported previous research that reflects positively on the benefits of noise cancelling headphones in reducing the effects of noise on performance especially for non-native English speakers. These findings provide for personnel involved in the aviation industry, a user-friendly index of the relative impairment associated with noise in the aircraft cabin as compared with the effects of alcohol. They also highlight the benefits of a simple countermeasure such as noise cancelling headphones in mitigating some of the detrimental effects of noise on performance.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Using the effect of alcohol as a comparison to illustrate the detrimental effects of noise on performance

2013

Self Cite

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“…It is these methods that are most relevant to this study. Active noise-cancelling headphones are perhaps the most well-known technology to address this issue and are commonplace in the aviation industry [15] as well as more recently appearing in consumer devices for recreational mobile listening. The complexity of noise-cancelling headphones, however, means that they are generally expensive and, furthermore, noise cancellation may not be desirable in all mobile listening situations.…”

Section: Audio Adaptation For Mobile Listeningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring object-based content adaptation for mobile audio

Walton

Evans²,

Kirk

et al. 2018

Pers Ubiquit Comput

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Mobile devices enable users to consume media with audio content in a wide range of contexts, with environmental noise being present in many of these. Several methods exist that aim to improve the experience of mobile listening by utilising information about the environmental noise, such as volume and dynamic range adaptation. This paper explores a fundamentally different approach to improving the mobile listening experience by using the object-based audio paradigm, where individual audio sources are mixed in response to each specific listening context. Three experimental studies, containing both quantitative and qualitative aspects, are presented which investigate whether environmental noise influences preference of background-foreground audio object balance in a mix. The results indicate that environmental noise can influence the preferred audio mix and that the nature of the adaptations made is dependent upon both audio content and user. Additionally, qualitative analysis provides an understanding of the role of environmental noise on preferred audio mix. It is believed that the content adaptation method explored in this paper is a simple yet useful tool for adapting content to suit both the context and the user.

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“…As expected, the introduction of a concurrent task led to a reduced performance on the primary task, namely the audio brief. The test procedure was able to identify differences between various conditions and discovered that even with a concurrent task, the performance when using noise cancelling headphones was comparable to the performance when there was only a single task with no headphones (Molesworth et al, 2013b). This condition reflects the current situation where passengers are required to remove any headphones to listen to the pre-flight safety brief through the external speaker.…”

Section: Some Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of the role for noise cancelling headphones to assist speech recall in noise

Burgess¹,

Molesworth²

2013

Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics

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There are many situations where it is necessary to hear, comprehend and be able to recall spoken information in less than ideal listening conditions. For example within an aircraft cabin where, despite improvements in modern passenger aircraft, noise generated from aircraft engines and aerodynamic airflow makes it difficult to hear important on-board safety announcements such as the preflight safety brief. The benefits of headphones that incorporate active noise control in such environments are the focus of a series of research studies. In this paper, we discuss the techniques developed to investigate the use of active noise control headphones on the intelligibility and recall of speech generated outside the headphones in noise typical of that in a commercial aircraft cabin. The initial studies were directed towards assessing the effects on the recall for safety announcements. These studies have been extended to investigate if there are any benefits for those for which English is a second language. The results suggest that the use of active noise control headphones can minimise communication errors in a range of situations and this paper will discuss the methodology adopted and summarise the outcomes.

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The use of noise cancelling headphones to improve concurrent task performance in a noisy environment

Cited by 33 publications

References 15 publications

Using the effect of alcohol as a comparison to illustrate the detrimental effects of noise on performance

Using the effect of alcohol as a comparison to illustrate the detrimental effects of noise on performance

Exploring object-based content adaptation for mobile audio

Investigation of the role for noise cancelling headphones to assist speech recall in noise

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