Effects of chatter noise on listening comprehension for primary school students

This study investigated the effect of the number of competing speakers on a sentence comprehension task, and how this effect is modulated by individual factors. Seventy-one primary school children (age range: 10-13 years) completed the task in quiet and in two and four competing speakers (signal-to-noise ratio: +5dB). Outcome measures were accuracy and listening effort. Individual factors (cognitive abilities, noise sensitivity) were assessed in quiet. Results showed that students with low selective attention skills and high noise sensitivity are particularly at risk in the condition with two competing speakers, in which a decrease in performance (lower accuracy, slower response times, increased perceived effort) compared to quiet was observed. Understanding the relationship between individual characteristics and sound environment has practical implications for the acoustic design of inclusive and supportive learning spaces.