Contrast with John von Neumann, who "could not work without some noise or at least the possibility of noise. Some of his best work was done in crowded railroad stations and airports, trains, planes, ships, hotel lobbies, lively cocktail parties or even among a bunch of shrieking very minor minors whooping it up."
A very good point. I find myself helped by having the radio (quietly)
on for certain tasks. But for others, only silence will do. I'd love
to see more modern and detailed cognitive studies of this sort of
thing. Many years ago my audio/acoustics students did some bachelors
final projects on "distraction" (focus, concentration and annoyance of
noises) and that was interesting. Some people scored higher on SATS
style tests while pumped up on drum'n'bass, others were totally
destroyed by it, IIRC the most devastating soundtrack was random
cartoon SFX :)
