Road Traffic Noise and Its Repercussions on Working Adults’ Reaction Time

Abstract ―​

Traffic Noise can affect performance by impeding the processing of information. It can also impair cognitive functions such as memory, focus, concentration, and reaction time. This study determined whether road traffic noise affects the reaction time of working individuals in order to answer the research question, "Does road traffic pollution have a significant effect on road traffic accidents?". The researchers utilized the Zoomh1n model as proposed by one of the validators to record road traffic noise, while the digital sound level meter GM1357 was used to determine the noise level range of road traffic in decibels. In getting the reaction time of the subjects, a standardized task by Psytoolkit. This standardized task was used in three stages: No background noise, non rush hour, and rush hour of recorded road traffic noise. Mann-Whitney Test, Kruskal-Wallis Test, and Friedman Test were used to analyze and interpret the collected data. After thorough data interpretation, it was revealed that the working adults had the slowest reaction time on both simple and choice reaction time tasks without road traffic noise, and they had the fastest average reaction time with road traffic noise during non-rush hour. In the Simple Reaction Time Task, there were statistically significant differences in the means of the subjects' overall reaction time. In the third stage of the simple reaction time task, statistically significant differences in reaction time were discovered when subjects were grouped according to sex. Additionally, significant differences were illustrated in the first stage of both simple and choice reaction time tasks when grouped according to their age.