Language Comprehension in Background Noise – Effects of Noise Type and Task Modality

In school, children often have to read or listen to spoken language while background noise is present. However, previous studies show a negative influence of background noise on reading and listening comprehension, especially in children. These background noise effects are not solely due to masking effects. Two accounts used to explain background noise effects are the interference-by-process account and the renewed view of age-related distraction. The interference-by-process assumes that the overlap of the processes needed for the background noise and the focal task are of importance, while the renewed view of age-related distraction argues that the modality of the focal task needs to be taken into consideration. In this study a total of 125 fifth grade students completed both listening and reading comprehension tasks under three listening conditions: silence, semantic noise and non-semantic noise. We found significantly lower performance for the semantic background noise condition compared to the silent condition. There was no significant interaction between task modality and background noise. These results are broadly consistent with the interference-by-process account but provide no support for the specific modality-based prediction derived from the renewed view of age-related distraction.