Unmasking the effects of masking on performance: The potential of multiple-voice masking in the office environment.
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.
Department of Building, Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Gävle, Kungsbäcksvägen 47, SE-801 76 Gävle, Sweden.
Marijke
M
Keus van de Poll
Division of Applied Acoustics, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden.
Johannes
J
Carlsson
School of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), DB 115, Darwin Building, Preston, PR1 2HE, United Kingdom.
John E
JE
Marsh
Department of Building, Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Gävle, Kungsbäcksvägen 47, SE-801 76 Gävle, Sweden.
Robert
R
Ljung
Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, Laboratorievägen 14, SE-971 87 Luleå, Sweden.
Johan
J
Odelius
Work, Environmental and Health Psychology, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Ostenstraße 25, 85072 Eichstätt, Germany.
Sabine J
SJ
Schlittmeier
Akustikon Team in Norconsult AB, Hantverkargatan 5, SE-112 21 Stockholm, Sweden.
Gunilla
G
Sundin
Department of Building, Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Gävle, Kungsbäcksvägen 47, SE-801 76 Gävle, Sweden.
Patrik
P
Sörqvist
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall; D009623:Noise, Occupational; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D010700:Phonetics; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014831:Voice; D014867:Water
D014867:Water