Can a hard-to-read font protect text memory from background noise?

Details

The study investigated how background speech, aircraft noise and road traffic noise distract from text memory, and whether a hard-to-read font could protect against their detrimental effects. In an experiment, 56 students read short texts about classes of fictitious creatures—animals, fishes, birds and dinosaurs—under each of the three background sound conditions and in silence. Half saw the texts in the easy-to-read font Times New Roman; the other half saw them in the hard-to-read font Haettenschweiler. The outcome was the proportion of correct answers on multiple-choice tests following each sound condition.

For students using the easy-to-read font, performance was significantly worse under all three background sound conditions than in silence. For those using the hard-to-read font, none of the three background sounds had an effect compared with silence. The researchers suggest that the increased task demand of reading a hard-to-read font protects against distracting sounds by making attention more steadfast and reducing background-sound processing.