International Journal of Occupational Hygiene (Dec 2015)
Effects of Noise and Whole Body Vibration on Individual’s Mental Performance
Abstract
Noise and vibration are the common problems in industrialized countries which can affect individual's job performance. The present study aimed to investigate the combination of the whole body vibration and the noise and their effects on the students' mental performance in the laboratory setting. Twenty male students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran were randomly selected to participate in this experiment. Each participant attended in a test consists of 9 stages through the single exposure to the low frequency noise with two sound pressure levels of 75dB and 85dB and two vibration modes with 0.8 m/s2 and 1.1 m/s2 acceleration. In addition, the combination of the exposure with variable noise and vibration were tested. The control mode that was included the combination of the background noise (35dB) and vibration was studied. Finally, this study examined the relationship between student cognitive functions and exposure with noise as well as whole body vibration in shallow, intermediate and deep level by mathematical calculation test. The results showed that at shallow level, the whole body vibration, the noise as well as their interactions did not affect the mental performance of student. However, in intermediate and deep levels, the differences are statistically significant. Noise and vibration are two affecting factors over individuals’ mental performance. The amounts of exposure to these variables are crucial. Therefore doing activities with more complex mental tasks require lower levels of physical stressors such as noise and vibration in the environment in order to reduce the error rates in the work.
