Does White Noise Help You Learn?

Most people have a problem focusing when there is a distraction. Learning can suffer by distracting background sounds.

A study found that background and office noises decreased the performance of introverts in tasks involving reading comprehension and mental arithmetic. Performance during silence was the same for both personality types, suggesting introverts need silence when studying.

A common solution to noise is to play music or have the TV on. A study showed that white noise could improve focus in young adults when heard in low volume. The study showed slightly improved recognition memory of scene images and scans.

But caution is needed. One problem is that the study used recognition memory ("Do you remember seeing this scene?") instead of recall without cueing. Another problem is the lack of evaluation of the decibel level of white noise.