Women process background noise and speech differently than men. Research by Ruytjens indicates women are more responsive to white noise.

Men are not only less sensitive to white noise, but, in addition, are better at suppressing distracting noise in pursuit of a goal (thought to be linked to hunting pursuits).

When considering structured sound (e.g., speech or siren), such noises are meant to communicate information or capture attention. Female and male brains are designed to recognize patterns and respond to anomalous noises exceeding background levels. Hence, what goes bump in the night wakes you.

Why Cell Phone Conversations are Annoying

With cell phones nearly ubiquitous and most residents living in populated environments, one-sided conversations, termed halfalogues, are particularly annoying.

The brain is the best pattern recognition device known to man. Patterned sound engages your PAC and your brain works hard to construct a dialogue from a cell phone halfalogue.

Whether half a face or half a conversation, the brain is working to recognize, complete, and synthesize information. Missing at least half the information necessary for a complete conversation, cell phone conversations make your unwilling listeners unhappy.

The Cubical Environment?

Private office structures have changed to cubicle layouts, which, supposedly, create a more collaborative environment. While open formats make a collegial approach easier, researchers found above background noise levels spiked significantly after a private office to cubicle layout change. Sound variability increased worker distractions and reduced concentration. As a result, workers reported poorer productivity.

The study concludes the open office environment advantages failed to appear. Workers reported cooperation to be less pleasant and no increase in information sharing occurred. In professional environments requiring significant cognitive function, the open office format is unattractive.

Results are consistent with human physiology. The PAC responds strongly to noise above background. Social colleagues and halfalogues make regular distraction probable and difficult to ignore.

Find Serenity: Here's What You Can Do

Remove the noise source. If the noise is spectrally unique, this is imperative. Your brain has a hard time ignoring unique sounds.

Attenuate the sound. Use noise dampening materials and devices to reduce noise levels. Headphones can bring you much solace and are portable. Two great sites providing testing and detailed information are headphoneinfo.com and earphonesolutions.com

Figure 2 is important. It shows noise in the spectrally significant region from 100 to 1000 Hz can be significantly reduced with headphones. Bose® & Shure® products can reduce noise, such as speech, from ~60 dB(A) to ~30 dB(A)   (close to a quiet room).

This reduction is key. It brings the noise down to a level where your primary auditory cortex is less engaged. Ear plugs can have an even greater effect.

Figure 2. How much noise can headphones block? Acoustic decibel reduction vs. frequency for Bose® & Shure® compared to 60 dB(A) speech. A 30 dB(A) reduction makes you feel like you're in a quiet room.

You can also move away from the source. Sounds disperse over distance. Moving 10 meters away (outdoors) reduces the sound intensity by ~90%. Moving 100 meters reduces the noise intensity by ~99% (assuming no reflections).

If nothing else, increase your background noise level to reduce your innate tendency to pay attention to structured sound (speech, lawn mowers, truck traffic). A fan is an easy way to generate white background noise.

Peace be with you.

         

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