Effects of cab noise environment on the hearing perception of agricultural tractor drivers

✍ Scribed by J.D.C. Talamo

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1979
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 538 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0003-682X
• DOI: 10.1016/0003-682x(79)90030-6

✦ Synopsis

The ability of tractor drivers to perceive tonal signals has been measured in a range of tractor and cab noise environments. These include a tractor with a simple open safety frame, a tractor with an experimental noise excluding cab, a noisy partially enclosed cab with a rigidly attached safety frame and sheet metal cladding and the latter condition with the driver wearing hearing defenders. The effects of cab attenuation and noise masking are shown separately and in combination. Both noise reducing cabs and hearing defenders are shown to have relatively minor effects on tonal signal detectability. The effect of the same working environments on the ability of drivers to detect shouted warnings and to identify their direction of origin are then compared. The low probability of a driver hearing a warning shouted from distances greater than three metres is demonstrated. In this condition hearing defenders are shown to decrease detectability slightly but to increase directional errors.