Communication Interference

Noise pollution can have a considerable effect on communication. According to Berglund and Hassmen (1996), "there can be no doubt that noise can mask speech" (p. 2994). And as Miller (1979a) points out, even when speech is accurately understood, background noise may result in "greater pains on the part of the talker and listener than otherwise would be needed" (p. 124).

Many factors contribute to the effect of noise on communication interference. For example, according to Berglund and Hassmen (1996), noise that has a similar frequency to speech will mask it better than noise at other frequencies, especially higher frequencies, since lower frequency noise is capable of an "upward spread" (p. 2994) that is rather effective at masking speech.

Miller (1979a) discusses several other factors affecting noise-induced speech interference. For example, communication that involves a higher ratio of speech intensity to noise intensity is more likely to be understood. In addition, speech content is also important, since a person that is trying to convey personal information is less likely to raise his or her voice to compensate for background noise. As a result, personal information is less likely to be understood. This also relates to another influencing factor, culture, which governs how close two people can be to each other. Since two people who are close together have a higher speech to noise intensity ratio than two people who are farther apart, people in cultures that emphasize personal space are more likely to encounter communication difficulties in noisy situations.

Another factor influencing communication interference is the age of the people involved. Specifically, because children have poorer articulation skills than adults, "their lack of vocabulary or different concepts of the rules of language may render speech unintelligible when some of the cues in the speech stream are lost" (Miller, 1979a, p. 125). Thus, noisy conditions are more likely to interfere with the speech of children than with that of adults. Additionally, the ability to understand partially masked or distorted speech appears to begin deteriorating at around the age of 30. Thus, "the older the listener, the lower the background noise must be for practical or satisfactory communication" (p. 125).

Spatial factors also contribute to communication interference, in that noises that are produced in areas containing highly reverberant materials become less localized, resulting in greater interference with communication. Further, situational factors are also important in their influence on message predictability and on the availability of non-verbal cues. That is, predictable messages can often be understood despite highly noisy backgrounds, such as the snap count of an NFL quarterback in a noisy stadium, whereas less predictable messages are more poorly understood, such as speech about unexpected situations that firemen encounter during a fire. Though forms of non-verbal communication such as lip-reading or bodily gestures are often utilized to compensate for such noisy environments, these again are more efficient in conveying predictable information, and may not be very useful regarding unexpected events. Further, some situations preclude the use of such forms of communication, such as situations often encountered by firemen in which their visibility is limited due to smoke and as a result lip-reading and gesturing are useless. (Miller, 1979a)

Noise can obviously be very hazardous, in that it can preclude the conveyance of vital life-saving information. However, it is the more benign, everyday conversation that is more often what is disrupted by noise. This is not to say, though, that such disruption is not damaging. On the contrary, everyday conversation disruptions can lead to increased annoyance and anxiety (Bragdon, 1972), and as result may indirectly contribute to physiological complications such as the non-auditory physiological effects discussed previously.

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