Presentation for the European Conference on Developmental Psychology (31/08/2019), with some photos omitted.

1. Celia Smith, Doctoral researcher
celia.smith@kcl.ac.uk / @celiagrasmi
31st August
European Conference of Developmental Psychology 2019
Influences of household noise
and crowding on autonomic and
cognitive function in infants

2. chaos: ambient noise & crowding
parent-report measure,
multiple indicators,
‘subjective’
vs.
Matheny et al. J. Appl. Dev. 1995;16(3): 429-444. doi: 10.1016/0193-3973(95)90028-4.
Blankson et al., Merrill-Palmer Quarterly. 2015: 264-289. doi: 10.13110/merrpalmquar1982.61.2.0264.
Lillard et al., Dev. Psychol. 2015;51(6): 792-805. doi: 10.1037/a0039097.
continuous, specific
measures, ‘objective’

3. 1. what we know
2. study design
3. downsides
4. upsides
5. summary and thanks

5. 1. Loud noise increases cortisol levels in several species (Kight & Swaddle,
2011), including humans (Evans et al., 2001).
2. Infants exposed to high levels of noise in neonatal intensive care units show
increased heart and respiratory rates (Bremmer et al., 2003).
3. In 10-year-old children, high levels of environmental noise exposure
associated with elevated resting systolic blood pressure and increased heart
rate reactivity in response to the presentation of a novel stressor (Evans et al.,
2001).
4. Children who are from self-reported noisier households show poorer reading
and language skills than matched samples (Evans, 2006; Haines et al., 2001).
we know that…

6. autonomic nervous system

7. 1. Early-life stress confers increased risk of atypical
emotion regulation and poorer cognitive outcomes
(e.g. Conway et al., 2018)
So we asked - could atypical autonomic function be a
common pathway underlying emotional and cognitive
atypicalities?
why examine the ANS?

8. why examine the ANS?
In addition to the downsides that
previous studies have found
regarding noise and crowding, could
there also be upsides that other
studies haven’t found?

9. study design
Creativity103 (CC BY)

10. GPS,
autonomic
activity, skin
temperature
microphone
camera
[photo omitted]

11. • 82 infants and
their parents
from mixed
SES
backgrounds
participated
• Parents and
infant wore
devices for a
day each
• Same infants
attended a
half-day lab
assessment

12. measuring crowding (urban/housing density)

13. downsides

14. less sustained visual attention in the lab
(A) (B)
Wass et al. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2019 Jul 1. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13084.
(p = .024)(p = .38)
red – low noise | blue – high noise

15. increased emotional reactivity in lab task
(A)
(ϱ=.61, p=.007)
red – low density | blue – high densityWass et al. PsyArXiv. 2019. doi: 10.31234/osf.io/7nv34
[photo omitted]

16. more unstable autonomic responsivity at home
Steeper lines = faster rate of change
red – low noise | blue – high noiseWass et al. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2019 Jul 1. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13084.
• low (Z=6.2, p<.001)
• high (Z=6.1, p<.001)
• low vs high (Z=3.2, p =.004)
*

17. upsides
bestpicko (CC BY)

18. increased recognition memory for novel, brief stimuli
 increased housing density associated with superior recognition memory (ϱ=.37,
p=.033)
 predicts working memory during later development
Wass et al. PsyArXiv. 2019. doi: 10.31234/osf.io/7nv34

19. high density infants  more theta power in brief attention task
Wass et al. PsyArXiv. 2019. doi: 10.31234/osf.io/7nv34 red – low density | blue – high density
• theta band: widely
recognised as a neural
marker of cognitive
engagement and attention
during infancy
Begus et al., 2015; Jones, Venema, et al.,
2015; Orekhova et al., 2006

20. faster recovery from emotional stressors in lab and home
red – low noise | blue – high noiseWass et al. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2019 Jul 1. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13084.

21. summary: more crowding and noise associated with…
Downsides Upsides
Less sustained visual attention
in the lab
Increased theta power (associated with
cognitive engagement) to briefly presented
attention stimulus, and increased recognition
memory in lab
as theoretically predicted by Linnell et al.

22. summary: more crowding and noise associated with…
Downsides Upsides
Increased emotional reactivity
following still face paradigm
Faster recovery following naturally
occurring negative emotions in the lab
and at home
this was not expected; no one has looked at
it before this way; our results indicate that
these infants get more stressed more
quickly -- but also recover more quickly
this was expected
based on prior research

23. thank you for listening
find out more
https://www.uel.ac.uk/research/developmental-
psychology/baby-dev-lab
@UEL_BabyDevLab
BLAISE team: Sam Wass (PI), Celia Smith, Farhan Mirza, Kaili
Clackson, Joan Eitzenberger, Caitlin Gibb, Katie Daubney,
Zeynep Suata, Louise Stubbs, Abdul Begum, Annie Strickland