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2014
Conference Paper
Titel
Transferability of the results from laboratory basic research on cognitive impairment by background sound to real life offices
Abstract
The Irrelevant Sound Effect (ISE) is considered to be of great practical importance to real-life work tasks, like in open-plan offices. The knowledge about the physical parameters determining the ISE has also been implemented in national and international standards determining the physical set values for the acoustic design of open-plan offices. However, it may be questioned whether this phenomenon, which stems from basic research in cognitive psychology, can easily be generalized to office environments. Simplifications and means of control applied to laboratory experiments guarantee for reliability and internal validity of the experimental results. However, external validity may be questioned. Details of the real life environment must be properly considered. This paper focusses on the relevance of specific sound conditions. Results are reported which address the relevance of the number, gender and location of speakers for the ISE to arise.