Citation

Taylor W, Melloy B, Dharwada P, Gramopadhye A, Toler J. Int. J. Ind. Ergonomics 2004; 34(3): 195-207.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Visual inspection is a commonly used inspection method, but effects of noise on visual inspection have not been studied extensively. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of noise on visual search performance. The effects of continuous, intermittent, and random noise conditions emitted from single and multiple sources on the accuracy of an inspector to perform easy and difficult inspection tasks was examined. When compared to the continuous noise treatment, random and intermittent noise patterns were shown to have negative effects on the easy search task accuracy. Additionally, the results indicate that single source noise enhances search performance of difficult tasks. A larger study would likely detect noxious effects of multiple noise sources on difficult search task performance.Relevance to industryA thorough understanding of inspection is important for continued quality, reliability and safety in manufacturing, maintenance, security and other industries. The results of this study can be applied to inspection tasks conducted in workplace conditions that are similar to those employed in the current study.