Washing white noise in the class will increase the learning effect of distracted students, but the student who can concentrate from usual will have the opposite effect

Noise (noise) is generally thought to disturb attention from objects to be focused, such as work that requires learning and concentration, but it seems that noise may be useful for concentration in some people.

University of StockholmThrough experiments conducted by researchers in the classroom in children who can not listen to the teacher's story concentratingly with distracting attention usuallyWhite noiseThe learning effect is improved by flowing, while it is obvious that white noise interferes with learning for children with everyday attention from usual. If you can apply it in the field of education, it may be a means to prevent classroom collapse by distracted children.

Details are as below.Abstract | The effects of background white noise on memory performance in inattentive school children

Although noise is usually considered to be a hindrance to concentration, there are cases where the performance of the task improves in an environment with moderate noises not related to the task, and the effect of this noise isADHD (attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder)Children are also reporting. In a recent study,DopamineInternal noise related toStochastic resonanceA theoretical model based on the theory of the theory (the principle that when a white noise is superimposed on a signal of a volume which is too small to be perceived by a human ear, the signal becomes intensified and hears it), dopamine is blocked by blocking dopamine receptor For a person, it is hypothesized that moderate noise contributes to performance improvement.

Computational neuroscienceDifference in performance due to the amount of noise of attentive children (dashed lines) and distracting children (solid lines) predicted by the model.


The psychologist Dr. Göran Söderlund of Stockholm University conducted experiments with 51 students (25 boys and 26 girls) in 2 classes in 7 th graders (11 to 12 years old) in Norway's junior high school. Students are asked 7 levels of teachingRikkato scaleTen students with a score of 6 to 7 were evaluated as "distracted" group, and the other students compared the difference in learning effect due to the presence or absence of white noise as a control group .

White noise is the same intensity at all frequenciesnoiseIn short, it is very irregular noise. You can hear what kind of sound you can hear from the following link.

White_noise.ogg

Although the teacher evaluated that 6 out of 10 people in "distracted" group were "over-active", there were no students who were diagnosed with ADHD or students who received drug treatment . The students were also evaluated at the school and the ability to read comprehension, the cognitive ability general, the learning ability, the short-term memory ability, the reasoning ability and the ability to solve the problem were also measured, and the reading ability was low in the "attentive" student, It is said that there was no difference in ability between distracted group and control group.

In the experiment, we conducted a test to memorize sentences heard by these students. The test involves explanation and exercises etc. In total 45 minutes, I listen to a list containing 12 short sentences in random order and remember that list. The sentence is a short sentence of "noun + verb" such as "ball" + "rolling", and the list includes 8 kinds, totaling 96 sentences.

Speech is a CD recorded in the studio, which consists of four "list containing noise" and four list "no noise", and there is no noise in the response time (the time the students remember the sentences heard in the ear) was. The volume of the white noise is 78Db, The reading volume is 86 dB, this is a sufficient difference in the volume that the students can hear clearly the sentence read aloud and noise is said to affect performance in previous studies Noise with sufficient volume exceeding the threshold.

As a result, there was no difference between the distracted group and the control group when we looked at the results of the whole test (96 sentences), and when we looked at the whole student, there was no difference in performance between "noise present" and "no noise" However, when comparing the results of "with noise" and "no noise" for each group, it is better for "Disturbing group" to have better results, "No Noise" for better control group, better results It is said that it was the result of the opposite of saying.


In addition, each student's "difference in score based on the presence or absence of noise" and "attention evaluated by the teacher" (score in 7 grades) are correlated, and students with higher scores (less attentive) The positive effect was great, the student with a lower score (attentive) had a greater negative effect due to noise. In other words, it seems that students who are usually attentive are more likely to be disturbed by noise.

It is expected that further experiments will be carried out to a large number of subjects at various sound volumes so that noise can be made use of at the site of education. Since it is a counter effect to a child with everyday attention, it seems that it is not always possible to flow white noise during class in a general classroom, but when attending distracted children and teaching with a small group of people Or in case you make homework assignments at home, will not you be able to practice in the near future?