1. The Effects of Chronic Versus Acute Noise on Child Learning: A Sub-Study Within the RANCH Project Mark Matheson, Stephen Stansfeld, Staffan Hygge, Charlotte Clark & Mary Haines

2. The RANCH Project The RANCH Project, funded by the European Commission, examined the effects of chronic exposure to aircraft and road traffic noise on children’s health and cognitive performance Cross sectional epidemiological field study of 2844 children aged 9-10 years from 89 schools around three major airports in the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom Dose-response relationships examined

3. The RANCH Project Linear dose-response relationships were found between chronic exposure to aircraft noise and performance on tests of: Reading comprehension Episodic memory (in terms of correctly recalled information, conceptual recall and recognition) No effects found with road traffic noise All testing took place in the normal classroom environment. Acute noise exposure was not controlled.

4. Aims of sub-study This sub-study aimed to examine how 10 to 11 year old children’s performance on certain cognitive tests was affected by chronic and acute noise exposure and whether observed effects can be explained by acute noise exposure Tests examined under acute noise: – Reading Comprehension – Information recall – Conceptual recall – Recognition – Prospective memory

5. Methodology Sample Sub-sample of RANCH field study sample 108 children, aged 10-11 years Taken from highest and lowest aircraft noise groups Excluded: English as additional language, SES Therefore slightly different sample from field study Procedure Sound-attenuated laboratory Recording of aircraft noise Testing in pairs

6. Mobile testing lab

7. Scoring and analysis Tests scored as for field study Independent measures ANOVA Unadjusted Adjusted for age, gender, parental income, IQ

8. Results MSFSig. Suffolk.036.000.982 Suffolk adjusted40.216.924.341 Information64.321.845.360 Information adjusted.467.011.919 Conceptual4.6591.031.312 Conceptual adjusted.418.184.670 Recognition8.9821.937.167 Recognition adjusted1.912.436.512 Prospective1.734.077.782 Prospective adjusted26.4561.184.281

9. Conclusions Exposure to acute noise had no effect on the children’s performance on any of the cognitive performance measures This supports the interpretation of the RANCH field study data as providing evidence for the negative effects of chronic exposure to aircraft noise on cognitive functioning Limitations Sample size Learning effects