Executive Summary

Little research has been done over annoying sounds and it’s affect on cognition. Though, the research that has been done suggests that annoying sounds are not only distracting, but studies show that it causes stress, anxiety, decrease in quality of work, difficulty concentrating, and overall decrease of job satisfaction.

The journals that I researched includes; effects of auditory distraction on cognitive processing of young adults, cognitive, coping with speech noise in modern workplace, and arousal effects of masking office noise, and office noise, satisfaction, and performance. These studies all concur with each other in the fact that people are affected by annoying sounds each and every day.

One study had participants rate distractions (noise, movement, and lights) on a scale from 1-10. Among these ratings, “54% of workers said that they were bothered often by noise, especially by people talking and the telephones ringing” (Sundstrom, Town, Rice, Osborn, & Brill, 1994). The number one annoying sound that people face everyday is chit-chat caused by fellow peers. Other annoying sounds they rated included; typing, talking on phones, phones ringing, copy and printer machines, and air and heating units.

Interestingly enough, most people find it more distracted when someone is causing unnecessary noise like chatting, than someone doing their work with accidental noise like typing on the computer. Either way annoying sounds affect the way we process things in everyday settings.

Another study rated the noise levels of different floor designs. This study found that open office plans are less well-liked than fully enclosed private offices (Becker). This means that open office plans are the noisiest work spaces.

If you are easily distracted by sounds, then I would suggest that you do your work or studying in a quiet room with little to no people present. One study revealed that adults concentrate better in areas with lots of room and wall structures. Children concentrate better in smaller spaces and work well in groups.

There is no absolute solution to stop distracting sounds; though, there are some modifications that can be improved in order to decrease distracting sounds. These may include; having floor to ceiling walls, building sound barriers, installing carpet, and installing doors.