Acoustical issues complicate workplace design. Yadav and colleagues have learned that solutions based on “international standard, ISO 3382-3 aren’t always effective for the short conversational distances in open-plan offices…‘The local acoustic treatment we’ve studied so far includes the use of high-back chairs – with or without sound absorption near the head – and ‘retroreflective ceilings’ that reflect sound back in the direction of the source, which allows you to hear your own voice reflected back to your ears much louder than is possible with flat or other types of hard ceiling surfaces or absorptive ceilings,” Yadav said. (Manuj Yadav, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Sydney)
People tend to ‘simply put, lower their voices when they receive some support in the form of reflections from the room and nearby surfaces,’ Yadav said…Yadav and colleagues have found that their local acoustic treatment ‘can, in many cases, provide substantial enhancement for speech communication at short distances and reduce the disturbance due to ambient noise when you’re trying to concentrate.’”
“Can ‘Local Acoustic Treatment’ Reduce Speech Distraction Within Open-Plan Offices?” 2018. Press release, Acoustical Society of America, http://www.sciencenewsline.com/news/2018050721040007.html
Sally Augustin, PhD,a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.