Oh, the distractions!

Most people would agree that loud sudden noises can be disrupting. For example, no one looks forward to hearing a baby cry if they are on a plane ride, or wants to hear a car alarm go off outside their window. These types of noises are distracting and generally displeasing. If a person experiences one of these sounds while performing a task, there are a few ways that the situation can be handled. The person can either continue working, or stop until he can no longer hear the noise. So how does avoiding or accepting the noise affect the magnitude that the person is disrupted?

Luciano et al. tested this idea on a group of 38 undergraduate students from the University of Almeria. Each participant was asked to play various computer games consisting of logical series, puzzles and memory cards. These games came in 4-minute blocks consisting solely of one of the three categories. During each 4-minute block, the participant was able to earn points by completing each game.

While playing these games, sounds consisting of some combination of a baby crying, a car horning, a phone and fax ringing, and a drill punching. Luciano et al. even switched up the order of these noises so that the participant would not become adjusted to them. Throughout each 4-minute interval, the sounds played for varying lengths of time which add up to two and a half minutes.

These sounds were, however, administered in two different ways. In one task, the participant must simply work through the sounds. In this case, the participant is accepting the noise. In the second task, the mouse would actually become locked whenever the sounds were played. The participant could only unlock the mouse by waiting for the sounds to stop playing and then pressing the spacebar. This task forces the participant to avoid working while the noises are playing.

The results showed that the students had a lower level of discomfort when they did not have to stop and wait for the sounds to end. This shows that if something is being a disturbance, the person will be most productive if they choose to accept the disturbance as part of the task rather than periodically stopping to avoid the discomfort.