Using Active Noise Cancelling Headphones to Reduce the Effects of Masking in Commercial Aviation

作者：Molesworth Brett R C^*; Burgess Marion; Chung Amy

来源：Acta Acustica United with Acustica, 2013, 99(5): 822-827.

DOI：10.3813/AAA.918660

Audio acuity in any communication system is important to facilitate the extraction of pertinent information, none more so than in the aviation industry where safety is paramount. The present research investigates the effects of both active noise reduction headphones and passive noise attenuation headphones on intelligibility with two types of maskers; namely aircraft engine noise and audio music containing lyrics. 36 participants (21 male), all with normal hearing and with an average age of 21 years listened to six different audio briefs under six different audio conditions, presented in a balanced Latin square design. At the conclusion of each audio file, participants completed a short test designed to examine their recall of the information presented in the audio brief. A series of planned comparisons revealed that participants were able to recognise more items correctly after using active noise reduction headphones compared to other conditions. Interestingly, there was no difference in terms of performance between a condition where no headphones were used, which is the common practice in many airlines, and a condition which involved using active noise reduction headphones for listening to music at low volume. These results are discussed from an applied and theoretical perspective.

• 出版日期2013-10