Boundaries of Semantic Distraction: Dominance and Lexicality Act at Retrieval

Three experiments investigated memory for semantic information with the goal of determining boundary conditions for the manifestation of semantic auditory distraction. Irrelevant speech disrupted the free recall of semantic category-exemplars to an equal degree regardless of whether the speech coincided with presentation or test phases of the task (Experiment 1) and occurred regardless of whether it comprised random words or coherent sentences (Experiment 2). The effects of background speech were greater when the irrelevant speech was semantically related to the to-be-remembered material, but only when the irrelevant words were high in output dominance (Experiment 3). The implications of these findings in relation to the processing of task material and the processing of background speech is discussed

The effects of moderate heat stress and open-plan office noise distraction on SBS symptoms and on the performance of office work. Indoor Air 2004;14(Suppl

ABSTRACT Thirty subjects clothed for comfort at 22°C performed simulated office work for 3 hours at 22/26/30°C (7.4 g/kg dry air, i.e. 45/35/28 %RH) in quiet and recorded open-plan office noise (55 dBA) conditions. Warmth decreased perceived air quality (P<0.01) and increased odour intensity (P<0.05) and stuffiness (P<0.01). After 2 hours, forehead sweating was observed on 4/36/76% of subjects (P<0.001), while 0/21/65% felt "warm" or "hot" (P<0.001). Raised temperature increased eye, nose and throat irritation and headache intensity (P<0.05) and decreased concentration (P<0.05) and self-estimated performance (P<0.001). Noise increased fatigue (P<0.05) and decreased concentration (P<0.05) but did not interact with any thermal effects on subjective perception. In an Addition task, noise decreased the workrate by 3% (P<0.05), subjects who felt warm made 56% more errors (P<0.05) and there was a noisetemperature interaction (P<0.01): noise removed the effect of warmth on errors. Noise increased typing speed (P<0.05) and reading speed (P<0.05)

Implementation of multivariate linear mixed-effects models in the analysis of indoor climate performance experiments

The aim of the current study was to apply multivariate mixed-effects modeling to analyze experimental data on the relation between air quality and the performance of office work. The method estimates in one step the effect of the exposure on a multi-dimensional response variable, and yields important information on the correlation between the different dimensions of the response variable, which in this study was composed of both subjective perceptions and a two-dimensional performance task outcome. Such correlation is typically not included in the output from univariate analysis methods. Data originated from three different series of experiments investigating the effects of air quality on performance. The example analyses resulted in a significant and positive correlation between two performance tasks, indicating that the two tasks to some extent measured the same dimension of mental performance. The analysis seems superior to conventional univariate statistics and the information provided may be important for the design of performance experiments in general and for the conclusions that can be based on such studies