Iran Occupational Health

  Background and aims : The most important factors that influence human performance are accuracy, speed and ability to perform the skills by individuals. Given the importance of human productivity in improving the production and quality, This study examines the impact of noise on error rate, speed and ability to perform the manual skills.

  Methods : This experimental study was conducted on 96 students. Sampling was conducted with a Randomized block design. Controlling exposure factors of sound intensity and duration of exposure, the accuracy and speed of performance of the test subjects were evaluated using Two-hand coordination test. Data was analyzed by SPSS18 software using descriptive and analytical statistical methods by ANCOVA repeated measure.

  Results : The results showed that the increasing of sound level pressure from 65 dBA to 95 dBA increased the work speed significantly (P<0.05). Increasing the exposure time (zero to 40 minutes) and gender (men and woman), did not show a statistically significant difference in the performance rate (P<0.05). The error rate was statistically significant with increasing the sound intensity (P<0.05).

  Conclusion: Results indicate that with increasing the sound level pressure,performance rate and human error were increased and following exposure to sound levels less than 85 db performance was initially decreased then with low incline was increased.