Active noise-cancelling headphones do not improve cognitive performance in office noise environment

Our purpose was to determine the influence of different use settings of on-ear ANC (active noise-cancelling) headphones on performance, experience, and physiological stress in conditions resembling an office where task irrelevant speech is present. Laboratory experiment involved 54 participants, who were exposed to five conditions: 1. No headphones, 2. Headphones without ANC operation, 3. Headphones with ANC operation, 4. Headphones with sound masking playback, 5. Headphones with ANC operation and sound masking playback. In all conditions, speech was present in the room at 52 dB LAeq. Masking was 51 dB LAeq wideband noise played from the headphones. Participants' performance was measured with visual serial recall and 3-back tasks, and physiological stress with heart rate variability. The condition did not influence performances nor physiological stress. The only effects of sound condition were observed in subjective experiences. With masking (conditions 4 and 5), the speech was less annoying than without the headphones (condition 1). Sound environment was estimated to impair performance and disturb concentration less than without the headphones only in condition 5. Therefore, using headphones together with masking and ANC function can improve experience. Using headphones with ANC function alone did not improve performance nor reduce stress level.