Psychology Department Conducts Construction Noise Experiment
Last Tuesday, the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences provided an update on the groundbreaking experiment being conducted in the Psychology building this semester. Known as DISRUPT for short, the novel research project is measuring the effect of constant construction noise on students’ academic performance.
“We knew we would have to remodel the Psychology building eventually,” said department head Sherry Vader. “But we didn’t expect the construction would provide such a great opportunity to study how excessive noise affects attention and information retention in student populations. We definitely killed two birds with one stone.”
Out of courtesy to students and faculty, the construction company prohibits ceiling drilling from 11 a.m. to 11:35 a.m. during the week. The construction project aims to create more lab space for research faculty and has been ongoing since the spring 2019 semester. Because the basement level of the building is being renovated, construction noise is able to permeate most classrooms on the first, second, and third floors. It is especially noticeable in PSYC 338, the building’s largest lecture hall.
DISRUPT participants have observed some interesting effects. “There was one exam where I was really struggling to remember whether cognitive-behavioral therapy or psychodynamic therapy was more effective for the treatment of mood disorders,” said senior psychology major Andre Vena. “But then the same jackhammer that went off during lecture last week started up again, and I immediately remembered the answer.”
“I feel weird now whenever I lecture in a moderately quiet classroom,” said Dr. Bailey Berton, who teaches Psychology of Learning. ”I guess the constant hammering, sawing, and drilling has really grown on me over the past year.”
Preliminary data analysis indicates student test performance has decreased by an average of 5.3 points since construction began. PSYC 301 students have been tasked with determining whether such a difference is statistically significant.
— Heldenfalls
Once an average student eons ago, Heldenfalls committed some unknown sin against the Aggie gods and has since been burdened with a strange punishment: She is forced to carry her backpack to the top of the infamous Heldenfels stairs only to fall back to the bottom again over and over for all eternity. Though this may seem like a horrible fate, the philosophy department argues that Heldenfalls’ endless task represents the absurd heroism of the human condition. Each atom of that backpack, each mineral flake of those concrete stairs, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a woman’s heart. One must imagine Heldenfalls happy.