Dogs Barking and Babies Crying: The Effect of Environmental Noise on Physiological State and Cognitive Performance

Abstract

The exposure to some environmental sounds is known to have detrimental effects on health and might affect the performance in some cognitive tasks. In this study we analyze specifically the effect of neighborhood noises, such as a baby crying and dogs barking, on the autonomic response and cognitive function. More specifically, 20 participants were exposed, in separate sessions, to either white noise, a baby crying, a small dog barking, or a large dog barking. During each session, heart rate, skin conductance, reaction times, spatial memory and mathematical processing measures were taken. It was found that the baby crying and dog barking sounds led to significantly higher heart rates and skin conductance levels as opposed to exposure to white noise. Results were not as consistent with exposure to barking as they were to the baby. Exposure to the baby crying and dogs barking led to faster reaction times, possibly as a consequence of a facilitation by the autonomic system activation. No significant effect on spatial memory were found. Conversely, participants performed significantly worse and slower in a mathematical task when exposed to the dog and baby sounds, than when exposed to control noise.

Keywords: Noise, environmental, neighbourhood, cognition, impact, human