Dr. Arline Bronzaft is worried about the effect noise could be having on your health. She’s an environmental psychologist whose research on the impact of noise in New York City has changed noise code policy and brought a lot of attention to the dangers of noise to humans. Her latest collaborative project with the Department of Environmental Protection of New York City is the Sound and Noise Education Module. This module provides interactive, multi-disciplinary, STEM lessons tailored to teach elementary, middle and high school students about sound and noise in their neighborhoods. Activities in each lesson encourage students and teachers to participate in citizen science projects by collecting and analyzing data.
Update
APA just honored Dr. Bronzaft with the Presidential Citation, APACitizen Psychologist™.
For students who are curious about environmental psychology and its application in real-world settings, Arline is a shining example of just how impactful psychological research can be. I asked Arline to share some of her professional milestones with me.
Amanda: Tell me about how you decided to become an environmental psychologist? Did you know in school that you wanted to pursue that career or was it something you discovered later?
When I graduated from Hunter College at 19, I received a teaching assistantship at Hunter College which started my teaching career. By 21, I was a full-time lecturer at Hunter College and I retired at 55 as a Professor Emerita of the City University of New York. I did not know about environmental psychology as a student but did learn about the field in the late 1960s which had its start at the Graduate School of the City University of New York. Early on in my career, I wanted to engage in research areas in which I could have an impact on the population at large. In other words, I did not just want to publish academic articles.
How did you become interested in noise issues and specifically urban noise issues?
Noise, an environmental element, is part of the environmental psychology field and as I was lecturing one day in class on noise at Lehman College in the 1970s, a student informed me that her child was attending school in Inwood near the elevated train track and the students in his class were complaining about the noise intruding on their learning. She told me that the parents of these students were planning to take legal action to correct the problem. I informed her that lawsuits require evidence and we would have to demonstrate that the noise adversely impacted learning. This was the start of my interest in noise. First, I explored the effects of train noise on learning and then I researched the effects of aircraft noise on health and quality of life. Writings in journals, books, and encyclopedias followed this research. In 2011, my four British co-authors and I published our book “Why Noise Matters.” Although I write about noise in less urban areas, much of my attention has focused on urban noise, especially in New York City. For thirty years I have served on the Board of GrowNYC (mayoral, non-paid position, appointed by five New York City mayors) and oversee its noise activities. New York residents with noise problems, especially noise from neighbors, seek my help to resolve their noise issues. I have been involved with the updating of the City’s revised Noise Code and helped the NYC Department of Environmental Protection prepare its online curriculum, entitled Sound and Noise. I also serve as a noise impacts expert on cases in the United States and abroad.
Can you talk a little bit about your research at the school in Inwood? How did that come about and what were the findings? Did you see any policy changes based on the results of that study?
The research conducted in Inwood in the 1970s looked at the impact of passing elevated train noise on children’s learning. The study (conducted with Dennis McCarthy, a former student) found that by the sixth-grade children were nearly a year behind in reading when exposed to the passing train noise compared to the children in classes on the quiet side of the building. About 11% of classroom teaching time was also lost. This study received much attention in the media and by public officials. This interest in the study enabled the principal of the school and me to ask the Board of Education to place acoustical ceilings in the classrooms adjacent to tracks. The Board of Education agreed. I then asked the New York City Transit Authority to test out its new procedure for quieting noise on the tracks by placing rubber resilient pads on the tracks adjacent to the school and the Transit Authority agreed.
When these two noise abatements were in place, I then went back to the school and a later study found that children on both sides of the building were reading at the same level. This study also received good press. The Transit Authority agreed to treat tracks adjacent to other schools with the same abatement but soon realized that with many people living adjacent to the noisy passing trains, it should install rubber resilient pads along all the elevated tracks. The Transit Authority also asked me to consult for the agency on noise and the State passed legislation in 1982 (I published my second study in 1981) requiring the Transit Authority to report to the State on its noise activities.
The two studies I conducted on noise and school learning were also employed by citizens in their demands to the Federal Aviation Agency to abate noises at schools impacted by aircraft noise. The Federal Aviation Administration has indeed funded programs to quiet schools near airports across the country. I also served on a National Academies of Sciences committee, several years ago, that oversaw a study on the effectiveness of the noise abatement at schools impacted by overhead aircraft noise.
Tell me about the Sound and Noise Education Module and the lessons and activities for students and teachers on the study of the New York City sound environment, New York City’s Noise Code, and the public health issues, both mental and physical, associated with noise. How did that come to be? What are you most proud of about this project?
I have worked closely with New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for many years and the Sound and Noise Education Module reflects my good relationship with this agency. When our children’s book “Listen to the Raindrops” (illustrated by Steven Parton) came out, representatives from DEP attended my talks with young school children about noise which included our book. Earlier DEP and I worked together on other school projects involving noise. Now the Sound and Noise curriculum. What I am most proud of is the ability of a researcher and a government agency to work together to educate people, and in this case children, to the beauty of the good sounds around us and the dangers of noise.
Because we are a blog for students and teachers of psychology, what advice do you have for students interested in pursuing a career in environmental psychology or the study of noise?
My original study on the effects of noise on school learning was carried out with a student of mine who then pursued a career in environmental psychology. Today, forty years later after my initial research, many more people have become cognizant of the impacts of aspects of the environment, e.g. space, sounds, views, greenery, etc. on individuals. We now talk of climate change, air pollution and urban density far more than we did when I started working in the field of environmental psychology.
There is a need to educate people to understand climate change, noise pollution, personal space. There is also a need to examine how behavioral changes may lessen the pollutants in our environment or create healthier living space for city dwellers and, as a result, improve the mental and physical health of people. Environmental psychologists can help fulfill these needs. Environmental psychology, from the start, incorporated the idea that research findings can indeed improve mental and physical health and I would think that idea would appeal to many students today.
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