Unmasking the effects of masking on performance: The potential of multiple-voice masking in the office environment
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2015

Broadband noise is often used as a masking sound to combat the negative consequences of background speech on performance in open-plan offices. As office workers generally dislike broadband noise, it is important to find alternatives that are more appreciated while being at least not less effective. The purpose of experiment 1 was to compare broadband noise with two alternatives - multiple voices and water waves - in the context of a serial short-term memory task. A single voice impaired memory in comparison with silence, but when the single voice was masked with multiple voices, performance was on level with silence. Experiment 2 explored the benefits of multiple-voice masking in more detail (by comparing one voice, three voices, five voices, and seven voices) in the context of word processed writing (arguably a more office-relevant task). Performance (i.e., writing fluency) increased linearly from worst performance in the one-voice condition to best performance in the seven-voice condition. Psychological mechanisms underpinning these effects are discussed.

Författare

M. Keus Van De Poll

Högskolan i Gävle

Johannes Carlsson

Chalmers, Bygg- och miljöteknik, Teknisk akustik

J. E. Marsh

University of Central Lancashire

R. Ljung

Högskolan i Gävle

J. Odelius

Luleå tekniska universitet

S. J. Schlittmeier

Katholische Universität Eichstätt - Ingolstadt

G. Sundin

Norconsult AB

P. Sörqvist

Högskolan i Gävle

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

0001-4966 (ISSN) 1520-8524 (eISSN)

Vol. 138 2 807-816

Ämneskategorier

Strömningsmekanik och akustik

DOI

10.1121/1.4926904

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2023-11-16