They show how traffic noise is harming school performance in Barcelona

study, which found that However, noise levels in the home do not affect Working memory and attention capacity tests were conducted in 38 schools in Barcelona.

The main result of the research, traffic noise in schools has a detrimental effect on memory development Study and attention span of primary school students.

The study was led by researchers Maria Foraster and Jordi Sunyer at ISGlobal, a center sponsored by the La Caixa Foundation, and participation of 2,680 boys and girls aged seven to ten.

To assess the possible impact of traffic noise on cognitive development, scientists focused on two skills that develop rapidly in the pre-adolescent period. and they are essential for learning and school performance: attention span and working memory.

According to researchers, attention span makes it possible to selectively attend to certain stimuli working memory or operative memory is the system that allows you to preserve and manipulate information in short periods of time.

traffic in barcelona Newspaper

Also, when the information stored in working memory needs to be processed continuously and efficiently, it is called complex working memory.

The fieldwork, which lasted 12 months between 2012 and 2013, had students run cognitive tests four times and scientists measured noise outside 38 schools in parallel, both in courtyards and classrooms.

More problems where there is more noise

After one year of training, progression of working memory, complex working memory and attention span were slower In students attending schools with higher traffic noise.

For example, an increase of 5 decibels in external noise levels, 11.4% slower running memory improvement and 23.5% lower than average in the development of complex working memory.

Likewise, exposure to an additional 5 decibels of external traffic noise, 4.8% slower attention span development above average.

“Our study strengthens the hypothesis that childhood is a sensitive period when external stimuli such as noise can influence the rapid cognitive development process that takes place before puberty,” said Jordi Sunyer.

Primary school agencies

Based on the road traffic noise map of the city of Barcelona for 2012, the researchers found that also estimated average noise levels in the home of each participant. However, in this case, they did not observe any relationship between residential noise and cognitive development.

This may be because exposure to noise at school is more harmful as it affects delicate concentration and learning processes. On the other hand, when measuring noise in schools, estimations were made based on a noise map that may be less sensitive at home and reflects only outside noise,” he said.

This work, Evidence for the effects of transportation on children’s cognitive development observed so far in schools exposed to aircraft noise and for schools exposed to air pollution from road traffic.

Reference work: https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004001

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