PREFERRED NOISE-LEVELS WHILE CARRYING OUT MENTAL TASKS

University staff and students (55) carried out a variety of mental tasks and were required to adjust their ambient noise to a comfortable working level. Preferred listening levels while carrying out mental tasks in noise showed very large between-subject[S] differences. Some Ss preferred to work in the quiet and others in deafening noise levels (over 90 dB) yet the latter suffered no deterioration in task performance compared with the former. Preferred listening levels were determined in part by the type of noise, the degree of task difficulty and the personality traits of extroversion and psychoticism, and possibly by noise sensitivity. Such personal differences as sex, age and status of the S did not affect preferred listening levels. These levels were those at which Ss judged a noise over which they have no control to be between quiet and noticeable.