Effects of Aircraft Noise on Children’s Cognition and Long Term Memory
16th February, 2000
Important studies show that noise can affects children’s learning.
Staffan Hygge, Kungl Tekniska Högskolan – Royal Institute of Technology, Centre for Built Environment, Laboratory of Applied Psychology, Gävle, Sweden.
FICAN Symposium, February 16, 2000 San Diego, California
Three set of studies:
- Classroom noise experiments on long term memory
- The Munich airport noise study on children
- Laboratory studies on noise and memory
General conclusions:
- There are impairing noise effects on long-term recall, both from acute and chronic noise exposure
- The noise effect on recall is sometimes reversible
- The noise effects on long-term recognition is smaller than for recall
- The noise effects are not mediated by attention
- Aircraft noise is more impairing than road traffic noise and irrelevant speech