We measured the physiological responses of 17 men in simple calculation work under 5 kinds of light floor-impact sounds with different reverberating time and 3 kinds of sound level, that is, 75, 80 and 85 dB (A). As the results, numbers of correct answers of simple calculation tended to decrease with increasing sound levels. And, with increasing sound levels, EEG θ-activity tended to increase, and EEG β-activity, the increasing rate of average heart rate to average resting level and CV-RR tended to decrease. Moreover, as the results of analyses of different reverberating time by the rate of each physiological response under noise (75 dB(A)) to non-noise, with extremely long reverberating time and short one, EEG β-activity and CV-RR tended to decrease, and EEG θ-activity tended to increase. Thus, the human concentration to simple calculation work tended to decrease with increasing sound levels, and with extremely long reverberating time and short one.
View full abstract