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

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 completed mathematics and English language tasks in a quiet 38 dBA classroom called, Exposure I (ExpI). Simultaneously, another 30 students completed the same mathematics and English language tasks in a noisy 75 dBA classroom, called Exposure II (ExpII). After the tasks were completed, the students were asked to rate their perceptions of annoyance and task dificulty with respect to the noise levels in the two experimental classrooms. Independent samples t-tests and Welch’s test were used to analyse the data. Results from the data analysis showed that, in comparison to ExpI (38 dBA), the performance of mental tasks related to mathematics was significantly affected in ExpII (75 dBA). There was no signfcant effect found in the mental performnce related to the English language task between ExpI (38 dBA) and ExpII (75 dBA). Furthermore, the results from this study showed that the students were signficantly annoyed in classroom with a noise level of 75 dBA. The results from this study suggest that mental tasks can be much more difficult in noisy classrooms. The study highlights the critical need for architects and policymakers to prioritise acoustic considerations in school design and renovation.