Distraction from the background environment while performing concentrationdemanding tasks is a common issue for office employees in shared work areas. However, few field studies have been conducted on the effects of different office types and work areas on objective measurements of cognitive performance. The first aim of the present field study was to investigate, before relocation to an activity-based workplace (ABW), differences in performance on a concentration-demanding cognitive task between individuals in shared/open-plan offices compared to cell offices. The second aim was to investigate, after relocation, how performance differs (withinperson) between different work areas within the ABW. This study included employees from five offices (n = 113), of which four relocated into an ABW. An acoustician measured the equivalent sound levels of the work areas. Data were analyzed using linear regression (aim 1) and mixed models (aim 2). Before relocation, employees working in shared/open-plan offices performed significantly worse (14%) than those in cell-offices, which had a 15 LAeq lower noise level. After relocation, employees performed significantly worse in the active zone without noise restrictions, compared to all other work areas. When shifting open-plan area from the active zone to the quiet zone cognitive performance increased significantly by 16.9 %, and switching to individual working rooms increased performance by 21.9 %. The results clearly demonstrate the importance for organizations to provide quiet areas or rooms with few distractions for employees working on tasks that demand concentration in an ABW. A daily drop in performance for each employee may be expensive for the organization in the long run.

中文翻译：

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基于活动的工作场所和传统办公室类型的认知表现的客观测量

在执行需要集中注意力的任务时，注意力从背景环境中分心是共享工作区办公室员工的常见问题。然而，很少有关于不同办公室类型和工作区域对认知表现客观测量的影响的实地研究。本实地研究的第一个目的是在搬迁到基于活动的工作场所 (ABW) 之前调查共享/开放式办公室中的个人与单元办公室相比，在要求集中注意力的认知任务上的表现差异。第二个目标是调查搬迁后 ABW 内不同工作区域之间的绩效差异（内部）。这项研究包括来自五个办公室 (n = 113) 的员工，其中四名搬迁到 ABW。一名声学家测量了工作区域的等效声级。使用线性回归（目标 1）和混合模型（目标 2）分析数据。在搬迁之前，在共享/开放式办公室工作的员工的表现 (14%) 明显低于单元办公室的员工，后者的噪音水平低 15 LAeq。搬迁后，与所有其他工作区域相比，员工在没有噪音限制的活动区域中的表现要差得多。当将开放式区域从活跃区转移到安静区时，认知表现显着提高了 16.9%，而切换到独立工作室时，认知表现提高了 21.9%。结果清楚地表明组织为从事需要在 ABW 中集中注意力的任务的员工提供安静的区域或房间以减少干扰的重要性。