Noise-filled games unnerve subject
By PATRICK BLECK
Of the Emerald
The thought that this particular
experiment dealt with "the effects
of noise on task performance”
furthered my apprehensions as
though I were in a dentist office
awaiting the extraction of all my
wisdom teeth.
Noise is nothing new to me — I
have been to exceedingly bois
terous social functions, lived near
a freeway, and have on occasion
catalyzed excessive verbal vol
ume of an unmentionable con
tent. But all I could recall during
those awesome moments before
going in, was this incredible vivid
flashback to Mutual of Omaha's
Wild Kingdom with Stan confront
ing the last Asiatic elephant
known to man, butterfly net in
hand — “We’ve got him now.”
Having been ushered into a
small room with four separate
seats, each isolated by way of
black curtains suspended on
either side and having signed of
ficial consent, we were given a
toy to play with.
The toy was a labyrinth game,
a box constructed from wood with
both a horizontal and a vertical
knob to control the tilt of the
playing board, which in turn con
trols the roll of a metal ball along
a path dotted with numbered
holes and various blockades.
The object was to maneuver
the ball, through use of the con
trol knobs, without allowing it to
drop into a hole.
Forty-nine holes from start to
finish — a goal which to me
seemed an incredible feat, con
sidering that I managed to accel
erate no further than hole 11.
On to task two.
The objective here was to men
tally retain a set of nonsense syll
ables projected on to a screen.
We viewed the set of eight sylla
bles and were then instructed to
write them down on a index card
in order of appearance. I remem
bered the symbol “cuz” but had
absolutely no idea which slide it
was on, so I filled it in for all of
them.
I was then instructed to repeat
both of these tests with head
phones on. “Oh my God, here
comes the 95 decibels of nerve
numbing noise!” I was convinced
that the thing was going to short
out with a blast of a 1000-plus
decibels, rendering me perman
antly comatose.
As it turned out the intermittent
blasts of 95 decibels, a combina
tion of a typewriter and people
speaking Armenian, was com
parable to subdued rock con
certs. There was one catch in the
second slide show.
Together with the syllables and
the noise, there was a photo
graphic backdrop to some of the
slides, the hypothesis being that
noise would distract subjects
from a visual perception beyond
that of the syllables themselves. It
worked.
There was a final questionnaire
classified as a “Social Reaction
Inventory,” which categorizes in
dividuals as either internals
(those who control their life) or ex
ternals (persons given to fate,
chance, etc.). It was predicted
that there would be a discrepancy
in response between the two per
sonalities.
One of the most difficult factors
involved with psychological ex
perimentation is “creating gin en
vironment that is very much like
the ‘real’ world and still maintain
enough control over the experi
ment to solidify any results,” ac
cording to Lyn Judge, the Ph.D.
student who administered the
test.
Just as I was about to thank
Judge for her time the fire alarm
in Straub went off, creating such
a cacophony that fire or not I was
getting out. Now if that wasn't
slightly above 95 decibels, I’ll eat
my earplugs.
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Princess: “Whats that, a new kind of deodor
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Timmy: (reappears) "Never mind, just give a loud
whistle. My droid, Lassie will get us out of this.
Glurp."
Princess: “Now I remember! I used to watch
reruns ..
Timmy: “Lassie! Oh LAAASie!”
(Timmy’s droid, Lassie, leaps over fence and
joins him in trash compactor.)
Lassie: “Beep, beep."
(The three are miraculously transported out of
the trash compactor. The Evil Dudes, with the
help of THE FORCE and Timmy’s Bat Utility Belt,
are defeated.)
Princess: “Well, Timmy, I can’t fall in love with
you until the sequel comes out, but here’s your
Buck Rogers medal."
Timmy: “Aw, shucks.”
Princess: “We couldn’t have saved the Galaxy
and time eternal without you — and, OF
COURSE, Lassie.
Lassie: "Beep, beep.” (Whistle is heard in back
ground.)
Princess: “Talk about deja vu."
Mood food
If you ever happen to be passing by Mt.
Rainier, and you happen to be hungry and you
happen to have money, you might stop by the
Copper Crack Restaurant.
The Copper Crack comes very dose to being a
tourist trap; but the food is good enough, and the
decor interesting enough to save it from the t.t.
rating.
The restaurant specializes in fresh baked
bread and home-made black or blueberry pie —
the bruise special. Both selections are blah. A
fresh mountain trout dinner with all the fresh
bread you can eat costs a fresh $6. Steak din
ners et cetera can pass the $8 mark. For the
cheaper of wallet, there is hamburger for about
90 cents. For the cheapos who want to go all-out
there is the “Paul Bunyan Burger” a double pat
tie on fresh bread for around $2. I don't know
about the trout, but the hamburger is good.
If you can figure it out, the decor is interesting.
There are a lot of "what-do-you-suppose-that-is”
objects on the wall to keep you from thinking
about the food before it comes. To save you
some time, those big round mud things are wasp
nests, the things that look like letters are sticks,
and that other thing is the waitress.
I don’t know whether my taking notes had any
thing to do with it, but the service was friendly
and prompt.
Don’t go to Mt. Rainier to taste the Paul Bu
nyan Burger. But if you happen to be passing by,
go for it.
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