No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
The psychophysiological effects of the fireplace
Abstract
Fire is closely associated with human life. The purpose of this study was to use a probe stimulus/dual task methodology to investigate the psychophysiological effects of the fireplace. Participants made auditory discriminations during an "odd-ball task", while also looking at a lit fireplace. ERPs, button press performance, alpha power and questionnaire responses were measured or assessed. The amplitudes of the N2 components elicited by target and deviant stimuli were significantly decreased during later sessions. In contrast, there were no P3 component and reaction time to the target differences. Furthermore, alpha power increased through the sessions. Attention during the early stages of a trial was transfixed by the fireplace, as reflected in decreased N2 amplitudes. In addition, watching the fireplace appears to have induced relaxation, as indexed by increased alpha power. Real fire as a natural element may have some tranquil effects.
... First, although these theories are usually used to study plant-enriched environments, they may also have the potential to explain the health benefits of other types of environments , and even some nonlandscape elements. For example, Tamakoshi et al. (2011) collected some clues about the relaxation effect of viewing the fire. Tamakoshi et al. (2011) used ART to explain that flames with natural and unexpected movements are able to fix involuntary attention. ...
... For example, Tamakoshi et al. (2011) collected some clues about the relaxation effect of viewing the fire. Tamakoshi et al. (2011) used ART to explain that flames with natural and unexpected movements are able to fix involuntary attention. This finding is not surprising, as the fascination of fire has been mentioned long ago by Kaplan and Kaplan (1989). ...
Plant-enriched environments, the most common terrestrial landscapes, are usually coded as “green space” in urban studies. To understand how these natural environments can benefit human health, many theories have been developed, such as the well-known Attention Restoration Theory. Nowadays, more theories are emerging with regard to various and complex health dimensions. In this context, we searched online databases (from 2000 to 2022) and conducted a narrative review aiming to introduce relevant theories concerning psychological (e.g. Perceptual Fluency Account and Conditioned Restoration Theory), physiological (e.g. volatile organic compounds and environmental microbiomes), and behavioural (e.g. physical activity and social contact) perspectives. We also slightly mentioned some limitations and directions to be considered when using these theories. These results may offer general readers insights into the value of nature exposure and also help relevant researchers with study design and result interpretation.
... Recent research suggests several psychological benefits from watching a fire. Watching a controlled fire is associated with relaxation in terms of lowered blood pressure [34], a relaxing effect on the brain [35] and some mental patients even report tension release in association with fire-setting [36]. Furthermore, socializing around an evening bonfire seems to promote more friendly and creative discussions (e.g., storytelling, "big picture" and theory of mind) compared to socialization during daytime (e.g., complaints, economic matters and jokes) [37]. ...
... Regarding emotions associated with the fire making process, our results suggest that fire making can be considered an emotional regulation process with a transition from unpleasant stress and anger to joy when watching a fire. This is line with previous research on psychological benefits of fire [34][35][36]. These results are also compatible with the idea that stress reduction from nature [33] corresponds to an emotional transition from anger to joy in Zhan's model and that cognitive restoration from nature [29] corresponds to the emotional transition when joy turns into thinking in Zhan's model. ...
Fireplaces are popular in Northern Europe. However, particle emissions from fireplaces have been identified as an environmental problem and a health problem. User behaviors affect particle emissions and the success of particle reducing technologies to a large extent. This interdisciplinary study aims to investigate why and how people use their fireplaces, including what emotions people associate with fire, and their interest in learning more about fire making and changing behavior related to fire making. It does so by applying an emotion regulation model in a novel way. In total, 146 Swedish individuals owning a fireplace (the majority had wood stoves, a few had tiled stoves, boilers or other types of fireplaces) participated in an online questionnaire about motives, behaviors, knowledge, and interest in learning and changing behavior. The most common motives for using a fireplace in this sample were complementary heating and “cozy fire making”. Our results suggest that watching a fire can aid in regulating emotions from unpleasant stress towards joy and provide a pleasant atmosphere for socialization, and that wood fuel may be a preferred complementary energy choice because it provides beautiful light, comfortable warmth, beautiful design and safety. People reporting emotional motives for using a fireplace also reported an interest in changing behavior.
... In the past, it was difficult to conduct studies on extreme situations or those with risk factors such as fire, emergency escape and lifesaving due to economic and ethical issues caused to subjects. However, these constraints in reality can be overcome with VR technologies, and dangerous situations such as mazes and fires can be indirectly experienced through the technologies (Seiji and Satoshi, 2011). In this study, flickering arrows were marked on the floor to ensure subjects can see in smoke in the event of fire and quickly respond to the situation. ...
... VR experience was used with VR device (HTC VIVE Pro Virtual Reality Headset htc). According to a study by Seiji and Satoshi (2011), the similarity between virtual fire scene and real fire scene is proportional to the screen color and naturalness of screen motion. In this study, to improve the similarity with actual fire scene, VR headset with 1,440× 1,600 pixel and 90 Hz refresh frequency per eye was used to design the color and movement of the screen as close to reality as possible. ...
In this study, the buildings of the republican period, specific to the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Turkey, have been analyzed in Ankara, the capital of the founding of the republic.
Following its selection as the capital city, Ankara has undergone a major development and has become a leader in Turkey's structural and urban development. After the proclamation of the Republic and the decision to make Ankara a capital city, the restructuring efforts across the country gained momentum, but the development of Ankara as a modern capital city was prioritized in these efforts. In the early years of the Republic, special housing policies were implemented to meet the housing needs of local and foreign bureaucrats who would settle in Ankara and to create a modern lifestyle. This process holds an important place among the achievements of the Turkish Republic. In this study, the apartment building number 19 on Cinnah Street, one of the buildings of the Republican period in Ankara, which is also characterized as Utopian according to the period in which it was built in terms of architecture, has been selected. Looking at the world in general, "Cinnah 19" is similar to the Unite d'Habitation structure, which is a mass housing complex built by Le Corbusier, and it is thought that this comparison should be examined in more detail.
Wood stoves emit particulate matter when used for domestic heating. Consequently, the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning in Sweden enforced a prohibition of new installations of old wood stoves in 2017 to protect the public health. The prohibition caused a public backlash that organized itself as a “wood stove rising”, eventually leading to a cancellation of the new legislation in 2019. We performed comprehensive interviews with 11 signatories of the original appeal to analyze the underlying motives for combating the implementation of this pro-environmental energy policy. We find that domestic heating through fire-making is an age-old human behavior that is deeply connected to several social and emotional human needs, but also to survival in remote areas with cold climate. The likelihood of policy observance and acceptance is higher if the policy is not perceived as being in direct conflict with these needs: basic emotion regulation, sensations of tradition and connection to other people, and means of crisis management for the individual. We also find that the protesters acted out of a sustainability perspective, albeit one where the continued use of functional devices was valued more than the perceived wear-and-tear of replacing outdated technology.
A study was performed to examine the utility of an ERP-based irrelevant probe technique for the assessment of variations in mental workload. Ten highly trained Navy radar operators performed a simulated radar-monitoring task which varied in the density and type of targets to be detected and identified. This task was performed in the presence of a series of irrelevant auditory probes which the radar operators were instructed to ignore. Prior to performing the radar-monitoring task the subjects performed a block of auditory detection trials in which they were asked to respond to the occurrence of one of two low probability tones and ignore the other low probability tone along with a higher probability standard tone. ERPs were recorded from the occurrence of the tones in both the baseline and low and high workload radar-monitoring conditions. The amplitude of the N100, N200, and early and late mismatch negativity (MMN) components decreased from the baseline to the low load radar-monitoring task and again with an increase in the difficulty of the radar-monitoring task. P300 amplitude was sensitive only to the introduction of the radar-monitoring task. These results are interpreted with respect to the phenomenon of attentional capture and suggest that the ERP-based irrelevant-probe technique might prove an effective method for the nonintrusive evaluation of increases in mental workload in complex tasks.
Directed attention plays an important role in human information processing; its fatigue, in turn, has far-reaching consequences. Attention Restoration Theory provides an analysis of the kinds of experiences that lead to recovery from such fatigue. Natural environments turn out to be particularly rich in the characteristics necessary for restorative experiences. An integrative framework is proposed that places both directed attention and stress in the larger context of human-environment relationships.
It is well known that the amplitude and latency of P300 in event-related brain potentials (ERPs) evoked by performing the oddball paradigm reflect the extent of individuals' selective attention. The purpose of this study was to examine whether P300 is a reliable measure for evaluating mental fatigue. In addition to the measurement of auditory ERPs derived from Fz, Cz and Pz, the concentrations of lactic acid, cortisol in plasma and the reaction time of the oddball paradigm, which are believed to reflect fatigue, were measured. In an attempt to cause mental fatigue, 12 healthy college students (8 males, 4 females; 19.5 +/- 0.5 yr; mean +/- S.D.) were forced to perform a continuous addition task using the Uchida-Kreperin test paper for about 2 h. Before the task, the latencies of P300 in Fz, Cz and Pz were 295.6 +/- 8.7 msec, 298.8 +/- 8.5 msec and 297.5 +/- 7.2 msec (mean +/- S.D.), respectively, and after the task they were 312.6 +/- 11.2 msec, 314.6 +/- 10.1 msec and 315.8 +/- 8.7 msec, respectively. A significant difference in the latency before and after the task was detected (p<0.01). In all subjects, the latency of P300 was prolonged in all recording positions, Fz, Cz and Pz. In a control experiment where the continuous addition task was not loaded, a significant change of the latency was not detected. The amplitude of P300 didn't change significantly in all recording positions after the task. In the control experiment, the amplitude of P300 did not change significantly. On the other hand, the changes in the concentrations of lactic acid and cortisol and the reaction time were not induced by the continuous addition task. The prolongation of the latency of P300 would originate from a decline in brain function. In this study, a prolongation of the latency of P300 after the task was detected in all subjects. It is well known that the value of P300 changes with modification of the recording condition, therefore a recording of P300 under the same conditions is required for qualitative evaluation.