Effects of Exposure to Noise on Mental Performance and Emotional Well-being of Students in a School in Kaduna, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated exposure to noise, mental performance and emotional wellbeing of students. Two simultaneous field experiments were performed each day for five days. At each experiment, 30 students performed mathematics and English language task in a quiet 38dBA classroom named, ExposureI(ExpI). Simultaneously, another 30 students performed the same mathematics and English language task in a noisy 75dBA classroom, named ExposureII (ExpII). After the tasks were performed, the students were asked to to rate their perceptions of annoyance and task dificulty with respect to the noise levels in the two expermental classrooms. Independent sample t-test and Welch’s test were used to analyse the data. Results from the data analysis showed that, in comparison to ExpI(38dBA),the performance of mental task related to mathematics was signficantly affected in ExpII (75dBA).There was no signfcant effect found in the mental performnce related to English language task between ExpI(38dBA) and ExpII(75dBA). Furthermore, the results from this study show that the students were signficantly annoyed in classroom with a noise level of 75dBA. Lastly, the results from this study suggests that mental tasks can be much difficult in noisy classrooms.The findings from this study highlight the critical need for architects and policy makers to prioritize acoustic considerations in school design and renovation.