Several research studies have examined the ability to recall a sequence of items in background noise. Noise was particularly impactful when the children were exposed to “irrelevant sound,” especially when the sound had a changing-state characteristic (e.g., background speech, as opposed to steady-state white noise).

An example of this in practical terms is the high levels of noise present when students are involved in group work (irrelevant sound), which has a greater effect on memory than the background noise of a fan (steady-state sound). Once again, age was associated with poorer results. Recall performance dropped by 39% in the presence of noise (relative to quiet) in the second graders, compared to an 11% decrease in adults.

Related post: Noisy classrooms may affect the well being of children