Hearing impaired and normal hearing individuals were compared in two within-participant office noise conditions (high noise: 60 L _Aeq and low noise: 30 L _Aeq ). Performance, subjective fatigue, and physiological stress were tested during working on a simulated open-plan office. We also tested two between-participants restoration conditions following the work period with high noise (nature movie or continued office noise). Participants with a hearing impairment (N = 20) were matched with normal hearing participants (N = 18) and undertook one practice session and two counterbalanced experimental sessions. In each experimental session they worked for two hours with basic memory and attention tasks. We also measured physiological stress indicators (cortisol and catecholamines) and self-reports of mood and fatigue. The hearing impaired participants were more affected by high noise than the normal hearing participants, as shown by impaired performance for tasks that involve recall of semantic information. The hearing impaired participants were also more fatigued by high noise exposure than participants with normal hearing, and they tended to have higher stress hormone levels during the high noise compared to the low noise condition. Restoration with a movie increased performance and motivation for the normal hearing participants, while rest with continued noise did not. For the hearing impaired participants, continued noise during rest increased motivation and performance, while the movie did not. In summary, the impact of noise and restorative conditions varied with the hearing characteristics of the participants. The small sample size does however encourage caution when interpreting the results.

The aim of the present study was to investigate cognitive, emotional, and physiological effects of two background noise conditions (high noise: 51 LAeq and low noise: 39 LAeq) during work in a simulated open-plan office, followed by four restoration conditions (river movie with sound, only river sound, silence, and office noise) after the work period. Students (N = 47) went through one practice session and two experimental sessions, one each with the low and high noise conditions. In each experimental session they worked for two hours with tasks involving basic working memory processes. We also took physiological measures of stress (cortisol and catecholamine) and self-reports of mood and fatigue. The results showed that the participants remembered fewer words, rated themselves as more tired and less motivated in high noise compared to low noise. The participants showed high levels of cortisol when they arrived to the experimental session and they had a significant (p <.001) decline in both noise conditions after two hours of work. An identical decline was shown in the norepinephrine levels (p < 0.001). The restoration phase also indicated that the sound conditions may promote different restorative experiences. To conclude, the present study showed that noise level can be of importance for working memory performance and subjective feelings of tiredness and motivation in an open-plan office and that varying sound conditions may promote different restorative experiences.