Is wearing active-noise-cancelling headphones in open space offices beneficial for cognitive performance and employee satisfaction? Results of two laboratory studies

A high speech intelligibility in open space offices leads to problems. As a result of the irrelevant sound effect it influences cognitive performance negatively. Roomacoustic measures alone do not lead to improvements if an open space office design is maintained. In two studies it was examined if active noise cancelling headphones influence cognitive performance and the subjective feeling of employees in an open space office. This was done with a cognitive task (serial recall) and a survey after every term. No statistically significant differences between the condition with active noise cancelling headphones switched on and switched off as well as without headphones could be determined. However, active noise cancelling headphones had an influence on subjective ratings.