Noise and Mental Performance

I have just been reading a really interesting report into Noise and Mental Performance by a team of researchers from the University of Belgrade.

They bring together evidence demonstrating that exposure to background noise has a detrimental affect on our ability to carry out mental tasks, but go further to explain how different personality traits tend to react differently to noise.

Those with more extrovert personalities tend to have a higher threshold and can perform mental tasks with a relative amount of background noise without showing signs of reduced performance. Whereas the mental performance of those with more introvert personalities tend to suffer at a much lower level.

They go on to explain how this can cause less extrovert people to perform worse at work, firstly by affecting their ability to think and act and secondly by encouraging them to finish tasks quicker and less thoroughly to escape the uncomfortable situation.

There are many other factors to take into consideration but it is interesting to think about the various components that contribute to our differing personalities and how these in turn can help and hinder us in life.

Click here for the full report