The effect of noise on child motivation

The diminished performance in solving cognitive tasks associated with chronic noise exposure outlined in section two may result from cognitive factors exclusively or in combination with motivational factors. M otivation is generally defined as an intervening process that impels or drives an individual into action (Bernstein et al., 1988; Reber, 1985). In this sense it is an energiser of behaviour, but there are slightly differing views on this definition. M any different beliefs and dispositions affect motivation, such as fatigue, arousal, incentives, vicarious learning, and learned helplessness. It is helpful to distinguish between the constructs o f ‘loss of control’, ‘learned helplessness’ and ‘impaired motivation’ to understand how they are related and because the terms are sometimes used interchangeably in the literature. Reduced

motivation can be a behavioural consequence of a learned helplessness belief. Learned helplessness means that the organism learns that the outcomes are independent of its responses (Evans & Lepore, 1993). Thus noise researchers have tended to measure motivation with behavioural tasks that operationalise motivation as susceptibility to learned helplessness.

1.3.1 The research evidence

Uncontrollable noise has been shown to induce helplessness in adults (Hiroto, 1974; Hiroto & Seligman, 1975; Krantz et al., 1974). Experimental studies found that following exposure to uncontrollable noise, adults were less likely to persist with difficult after-effects puzzles than were their counterparts with prior exposure to controllable noise (Cohen, 1980; Glass & Singer, 1972). Similar effects have been found in children chronically exposed to noise and other environmental stressors.

In the Los Angeles Airport Study, motivation was measured as persistence on a difficult cognitive task that was preceded by a success or failure experience (Cohen et al., 1980). They found that children in the high noise exposed schools had poorer performance on soluble and difficult test puzzles and were more likely to give up on a difficult puzzle than the children in quiet schools (Cohen et al., 1980). A year later at follow-up they replicated the puzzle performance results, but did not find a noise effect on rate of giving up (Cohen et al., 1981). W ith a new sample o f school children around Los

Angeles airport, Cohen and colleagues found that children in noisy schools failed a difficult puzzle more frequently and showed greater abdication o f choice of rewards than the children from the quiet schools (Cohen et a l, 1986). In Munich, children chronically exposed to high noise persisted less with an insoluble puzzle (Glass & Singer, 1972) than the control group of low noise exposed children (Evans et al, 1995). They also measured attributions for failure on the initial puzzle with direct questioning and did not find any evidence for sense of helplessness or the influence of aircraft noise (Staffan Hygge personal communication).

Reduced motivation has also been found in some studies of children exposed to other environmental stressors. Rodin (1976) found that children who lived in high residential density (3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom multi-apartment in a low income housing project with 2 - 8 others) were significantly less likely than children who lived in less dense housing to try and control the administration of available outcomes and that their problem solving performance was more affected by an insoluble puzzle. These results indicate that when children live in high density housing it may reduce their feelings of choice and control and hence make them more susceptible to helplessness. High-density housing also seems to be associated with increased helplessness in college students (Fleming et a l, 1987). Saegert (1981), however, did not find any effects of home density on learned helplessness among children. All these results were found in relation to residential density. This may not necessarily mean that these children suffered crowding, which refers to the ratio of people per room in a dwelling. People residing near airports report high levels of annoyance, but they tend not to be motivated to complain to officials or take other actions to reduce noise levels (Jue, Shumaker & Evans, 1993). Teachers in schools chronically exposed to noise report more difficulties in motivating students to perform than do teachers from relatively quieter schools (Crook & Langdon, 1974; Kyzar, 1977; Moch-Sibony, 1984).

1.3.2 Possible mechanisms to account for these noise effects

It has been theorised that these links between chronic noise exposure and motivational processes are mediated by learned helplessness, which may be the result of a sense of loss of environmental control (Cohen et al., 1980; Cohen et a l, 1986; Evans & Cohen, 1987; Evans & Lepore, 1993). The ‘loss of control’ psychological theory has been introduced previously, so here it will be demonstrated how learned helplessness has

been adapted as a mechanism for these specific effects of reduced motivation found in school children exposed to noise.

The reformulated learned helplessness model (Abramson, Seligman & Teasdale, 1978) is a diathesis-stress model, in which a maladaptive explanatory style is viewed as a factor that predisposes the individual to helplessness in the face of bad events. The reformulated helplessness theory offers a strong prediction concerning the causal influence of explanatory style on depression. Following from this theory it would be expected that children who possess an attributional style that habitually leads them to view the causes of bad events as stable in time, global in effect and internal to

themselves will be, once they encounter bad events, especially vulnerable to a defined cluster of helplessness deficits. As predicted by the refined learned helplessness theory, it has been found that children who attribute bad events to internal, stable and global causes were more likely to report depressive symptoms than were children who attributed these events to external, unstable and specific causes (Blumberg &

Izard,1985; Kaslow eta l., 1984; Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 1986; Seligman, eta l., 1984). In further support, the maladaptive explanatory style was significantly correlated with high-depression scores and significantly predicted level of depression six months latter (Seligman, et al., 1984). If this learned helplessness hypothesis is correct, then it is possible that noise exposure might be related to depression in children. (This will be discussed further in the next section).

The main reason why this research on helplessness is important is because children who become helpless may exhibit motivational and cognitive deficits as well as greater susceptibility to depression. These same motivational and cognitive deficits have been found in children chronically exposed to noise. Carol Dweck and associates have found some evidence that children’s vulnerability to learned helplessness is related to the development of school achievements and motivation (see Cohen et al., 1986 for a review). There is evidence from the learned helplessness literature to suggest that attributional style and sense of control are linked to motivational impairments. So learned helplessness has been applied as a mechanism to explain how chronic exposure to noise affects child motivation.

1.3.2.1 Learned helplessness: a mechanism for motivation noise effects

Figure 8 - Learned helplessness as a mechanism to account for noise related motivational deficits

Noise Exposure

Learned

Helplessness Deficits in

Motivation

Given that school children have less control over their physical and social environments than adults, it may be the case that they are more susceptible to feelings of learned helplessness. For example, children can not decide to move away from a noisy neighbourhood. Noise in the home or school environment demand increased effort to performance tasks and induce frustration in children. It has been postulated that

children feel that they have a ‘lack of control’ over their noise exposed environment and develop a learned helplessness state (Cohen et a l, 1980; Evans & Lepore, 1993; Evans et al, 1995). Children may adapt to noise interference during activities by withdrawal strategies or by learning to be helpless in the presence of uncontrollable noise when performing tasks. This learned helplessness may become a generalised learned response that becomes manifest as low motivation during performance of all tasks regardless of the presence of noise.

Although this is an appealing theory there is little empirical evidence from the noise literature in general, let alone from the child research, to support it’s logical links (although there is other evidence for the logical links from the learned helplessness literature). Cohen and colleagues (1980) claimed that both laboratory and community noise research suggests the possibility that high-intensity noise exposure induces feelings of helplessness. It needs to be demonstrated that children chronically exposed to noise actually feel a loss of environmental control, because these children may have a sense of low control for many other reasons (e.g. social disadvantage or past

experiences). The next claim in the theory that learned helplessness is the mechanism responsible for reduced motivation in children chronically exposed to noise also needs

to be directly tested. Reduced motivation might well be the result of a school history o f poor achievement. Individual differences need to be taken into consideration. Just as there may be individual differences in the way children respond to noise, it is also the case that there are individual differences in the way children respond to learned helplessness. It m ay also be valuable to gather preliminary data on other behavioural consequences o f learned helplessness. In adults complaining about aircraft noise has been used as a crude behavioural indicator of learned helplessness. Perhaps other aspects of child behaviour at home and in the classroom may be indicators of learned helplessness. Cohen, Evans, Stokols & Krantz (1986) and Evans & Lepore (1993) suggested that future research into noise and motivation should examine differences in the way children attribute uncontrollable events.

1.3.3 Research rationale

The evidence that chronic exposure to aircraft noise is associated with reduced motivation in school children is suggestive but is not as clear as the cognitive noise effects. This is due to the fact that there are few studies that have measured motivation and because motivation is difficult to measure. M otivational effects warrant further research because the previously found effects (especially Cohen et al., 1980; Evans et al., 1995) need to be replicated and are theoretically plausible. The present research will extend the previous research by: 1) examining these motivation effects on a wider range of perform ance and behavioural measures, 2) testing the learned helplessness model by measuring the attributions children make about uncontrollable events (Cohen et a l, 1986; Evans & Lepore, 1993), and 3) collecting data from parents and teachers on behaviour that m ay be a consequence of learned helplessness.