Interactive effects of noise and neuroticism on recall from semantic memory

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Abstract
Subjects recalled names of countries during 8 or 5 min. (Experiments 1 and 2) or performed a set of brief (40 sec) tasks recalling items from semantic or factual memory (Experiment 3), either in silence or in intermittent white noise (95 dB (A)). Noise interfered consistently with the performance of “neurotic” subjects (i.e., subjects scoring above the median on the EPI scale of neuroticism) but had little effect on that of “stable” ones. Performance was not significantly related to extraversion, nor to self‐rated activation, and it was uncorrelated with neuroticism in the no‐noise condition. An interpretation of the results emphasizing the distracting effects of noise is discussed.