Effects of Background White Noise on Memory Performance in Inattentive School Children
By Soderlund, Goran B.W.; Sikstrom, Sverker; Loftesnes, Jan M.; Sonuga-Barke, Edmund J.; Behavioral and Brain Functions, Vol. 6, No. 55Publication Date: September 29, 2010
Study investigated how noise influences cognitive performance in attentive and inattentive school children. The study was undertaken in light of a computational model based on the concepts of stochastic resonance and dopamine related internal noise postulating that a moderate amount of auditive noise may benefit individuals in hypodopaminergic states. Participants, 51 Norwegian students aged 11 to 12 years, 26 of whom were girls, were divided into two groups following assessment of their attention abilities. Ten participants identified as having severe attention problems were assigned to an Inattentive Group, while a Comparison Group comprised the remaining 41 children. Participants carried out a 45 minute episodic verbal free recall test in two noise conditions: high noise, in which verb-noun sentences were presented during 78 decibel background white noise, and low noise, in which sentences were presented without noise. Results revealed that exposure to background noise improved performance for participants in the Inattentive Group, worsened performance for those in the Comparison Group, and eliminated episodic memory differences between the attentive and inattentive children. Study limitations and implications for further research are discussed.
Published by: BioMed Central Ltd (Website:http://www.biomedcentral.com)
Link to text: http://www.behavioralandbrainfunctions.com/content/6/1/55/abstract
