Can External White Noise Benefits Sustained Attention?
(2019) PSYP01 20191Department of Psychology
- Abstract
- Background: Sustained attention, which is essential for any cognitively planned activity, is very important for everyday life. White noise is typically thought of as a distractor for one’s attention that may be detrimental to cognitive performance. However, recent studies have some counterintuitive findings, indicating proper white noise can improve attention and cognitive performance. In addition, clinical studies have shown that a certain amount of noise can benefit ADHD, and even the improvements caused by noise are greater than those induced by medication. Nevertheless, the mechanism by which white noise enhances attention remains unclear. Especially, recent attention studies have proposed a new fine- grained method to measure... (More)
- Background: Sustained attention, which is essential for any cognitively planned activity, is very important for everyday life. White noise is typically thought of as a distractor for one’s attention that may be detrimental to cognitive performance. However, recent studies have some counterintuitive findings, indicating proper white noise can improve attention and cognitive performance. In addition, clinical studies have shown that a certain amount of noise can benefit ADHD, and even the improvements caused by noise are greater than those induced by medication. Nevertheless, the mechanism by which white noise enhances attention remains unclear. Especially, recent attention studies have proposed a new fine- grained method to measure sustained attention and investigate attention fluctuation. Scholars transform the time series of reaction time (RT) data into the frequency domain to investigate periodic fluctuation of RT and attention fluctuation. Thus, the present study combined these frequency measurements with traditional measurements (i.e., mean RT, accuracy, etc.) to investigate whether the external white noise affects sustained attention and how it affects. Methods: Forty eight healthy college students completed an Eriksen flanker task with and without external white noise. Both time domain measurements and frequency measurements were computed. After finishing tasks, their attention capacity was assessed by the 18-question Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS). Results: The exposure of white noise reduced standard deviation of RT slightly and significantly lower down the fluctuation of RT in Slow-3. The interaction effect between noise and attention level was nearly significant in Slow-5. Conclusions: The exposure of external white noise can reduce intra-individual variability somewhat. Specifically, white noise can reduce the RT fluctuation in a relatively high frequency band (i.e., Slow-3). These findings suggest that white noise can reduce the variation of performance during cognitive tasks and improve sustained attention. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8988423
- author
- Liu, Zanzan LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- PSYP01 20191
- year
- 2019
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- white noise, sustained attention, intra-individual variability
- language
- English
- id
- 8988423
- date added to LUP
- 2019-06-27 08:45:07
- date last changed
- 2019-06-27 08:45:07
@misc{8988423,
abstract = {{Background: Sustained attention, which is essential for any cognitively planned activity, is very important for everyday life. White noise is typically thought of as a distractor for one’s attention that may be detrimental to cognitive performance. However, recent studies have some counterintuitive findings, indicating proper white noise can improve attention and cognitive performance. In addition, clinical studies have shown that a certain amount of noise can benefit ADHD, and even the improvements caused by noise are greater than those induced by medication. Nevertheless, the mechanism by which white noise enhances attention remains unclear. Especially, recent attention studies have proposed a new fine- grained method to measure sustained attention and investigate attention fluctuation. Scholars transform the time series of reaction time (RT) data into the frequency domain to investigate periodic fluctuation of RT and attention fluctuation. Thus, the present study combined these frequency measurements with traditional measurements (i.e., mean RT, accuracy, etc.) to investigate whether the external white noise affects sustained attention and how it affects. Methods: Forty eight healthy college students completed an Eriksen flanker task with and without external white noise. Both time domain measurements and frequency measurements were computed. After finishing tasks, their attention capacity was assessed by the 18-question Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS). Results: The exposure of white noise reduced standard deviation of RT slightly and significantly lower down the fluctuation of RT in Slow-3. The interaction effect between noise and attention level was nearly significant in Slow-5. Conclusions: The exposure of external white noise can reduce intra-individual variability somewhat. Specifically, white noise can reduce the RT fluctuation in a relatively high frequency band (i.e., Slow-3). These findings suggest that white noise can reduce the variation of performance during cognitive tasks and improve sustained attention.}},
author = {{Liu, Zanzan}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Can External White Noise Benefits Sustained Attention?}},
year = {{2019}},
}