The Impact of Eliminating Extraneous Sound and Light on Students' Achievement: An Empirical Study

• Main Author: Mangipudy, Rajarajeswari Venkata Surya
• Format: Others
• Published: FIU Digital Commons 2010
• Subjects: Cognitive load; extraneous load; minimizing; light; sound; impact; gender; age; interaction; significance; Curriculum and Instruction
• Online Access: http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/269; http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1333&context=etd

The impact of eliminating extraneous sound and light on students’ achievement was investigated under four conditions: Light and Sound controlled, Sound Only controlled, Light Only controlled and neither Light nor Sound controlled. Group, age and gender were the control variables. Four randomly selected groups of high school freshmen students with different backgrounds were the participants in this study. Academic achievement was the dependent variable measured on a pretest, a posttest and a post-posttest, each separated by an interval of 15 days. ANOVA was used to test the various hypotheses related to the impact of eliminating sound and light on student learning. Independent sample T tests on the effect of gender indicated a significant effect while age was non- significant. Follow up analysis indicated that sound and light are not potential sources of extraneous load when tested individually.