Background discontinuous speech increases perceived difficulty of a language-based task

Current office designs frequently arrange several workstations in one open room. While this office design may reduce costs, background speech in this environment may hinder an operator's ability to -do one of the most · coi:nmon office tasks - reading. Background irrelevant speech combined with relevant linguistic processing may contribute to. higher levels of mental workload. Prior cognitive research indicates that background speech degrades performance in reading comprehension tasks. This experiment examined whether background conversation affects perceptions of difficulty of another kind of linguistic processing task, a computer-based proof-reading task. There were three auditory background conditions: quiet, continuous speech (a conversation between two persons) and discontinuous speech (with one or the other person in the conversation, simulating a phone conversation). Results indicated that discontinuous speech is perceived as significantly more difficult than quiet. It is suggested that the greater disturbance by discontinuous speech is due to the combination of the distraction of speech and its unpredictable onset and off set. Implications for office work settings are discussed. 93 Computers have become a necessary and common element in office environments. Much of the research in human-computer interaction (HCI) relates to interactions on a molecular level between the human and the computer, and the interface between the two. Besides displays and input devices - the areas usually studied in HCI research, other variables play a role. These macro-level variables can be dispositional or situational, and could facilitate or hinder performance or satisfaction with the work environment. can be developed that contribute to more successful utilization of office technology. Since office designs introduce macro-level factors to HCI, · it is necessary to identify those variables that may affect task difficulty. By isolating environmental office factors that degrade performance and satisfaction, workplace designs In many office environments, computers are used to perform tasks which frequently involve linguistic processing, including reading and editing. It has become common to have groups of individuals work in the same room, sometimes separated by partitions that neither reach the ceiling nor block out sound (the open plan office). Although the open plan office is less expensive to construct and produces a more egalitarian atmosphere, this design introduces a critical noise factor that is not apparent in closed office designs .. Moderate noise levels may interfere with the user's ability to process information. Specifically, background speech noise may impair PROCEEDINGS of the SILICON VALLEY ERGONOMICS CONFERENCE & EXPOSITION, ErgoCon'97 94 performance on tasks such as document preparation, electronic mail reading and production, and any other tasks that are dependent upon linguistic processing resources. Young and Berry ( 1979) found that speech was considered by office workers to be the most undesirable type of noise.