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Effects of an indoor plant on creative task performance and mood
Abstract
In this study, we investigated the effect of an indoor plant on task performance and on mood. Three room arrangements were used as independent variables: a room with (1) a plant, or (2) a magazine rack with magazines placed in front of the participants, or (3) a room with neither of these objects. Undergraduate students (M= 35, F= 55) performed a task of associating up to 30 words with each of 20 specified words in a room with one of the three room arrangements. Task performance scores showed that female participants performed better in view of the plant in comparison to the magazine rack (p < 0.05). Moreover, mood was better with the plant or the magazine rack in the room compared to the no object condition (p < 0.05). However, the difference in task performance was highly influenced by the evaluation about the plant or the magazine rack. It is suggested that the compatibility between task demand and the environment is an important factor in facilitating task performances.
... This provided valuable insights on common themes and focus points in the field of indoor plants and their impact on the well-being of occupants. Figure 3 shows that "Indoor plants" [34,37,[43][44][45][46][47][48] emerged as the most frequently mentioned keyword, highlighting a substantial focus on the general impact of indoor flora. Additionally, "People-plant interactions" [43,45] and "Human issues in horticulture" [28,43,45,49] surfaced as recurrent themes, indicating a considerable interest in understanding human experiences concerning indoor plants. ...
... Keywords such as "Task performance," [31,44] "Productivity," [28,50] "Mood," [48,51] and "Mental fatigue" [45,48] underscored a notable interest in cognitive aspects, emotional states, and overall wellbeing influenced by indoor plants. Notably, "Educational building" [46,47] suggested specific research inquiries within educational settings, while "Indoor environment quality" [46,47] depicted an exploration of the overall indoor space quality. ...
... Upon analyzing figure 4, it becomes evident that some authors and studies consistently appear across multiple years. Works authored by S. Shibata et al. [44,48,53] span multiple years, so is by R.K. Raanaas'et al. [45,50] . The highest cited study includes by Larsen et al. [51] and M Niwuwenhuis [30] , and are influential within the dataset, in terems of their relevance relevance. ...
... Human responses to natural and built environments have been studied by various researchers. Responses to natural environments or scenes are generally recorded as positive, beneficial, and healthful (Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989;Parsons, 1991;Shibata & Suzuki, 2004;van den Berg et al., 2003). Responses to the built environment are either negative or mixed, depending on the experience provided by the scene (Ulrich, 1979). ...
... Wang et al (2016) concluded that an iVGS has various benefits, ranging from being aesthetically pleasurable to its ability to remove contaminants by filtering the air. Various studies have been conducted on the contributions made by indoor greenery, and have found it reduces classroom misbehavior (Han, 2008), increases work performance (Shibata & Suzuki, 2004), and improves indoor air quality (Fjeld et al., 1998). Findings on how indoor greenery and indoor UGI attenuates sound contrasts with that from outdoor greenery: VGS prevents 2 to 8% of sound from entering indoors (Fernández-Bregón et al., 2012); on the other hand iVGS has no effective sound mitigation (Wang et al., 2016). ...
... One respondent provided a negative response, with the iVGS not evoking any feelings or thoughts (Table 4). As identified by previous studies, greenery can generate negative effects (Grinde & Patil, 2009;Larsen et al., 1998;Shibata & Suzuki, 2004) and the possible explanation for this contrary response is that people prefer scenes with an abundance of nature (Han, 2007). The iVGS installation is clearly just a small extension of nature. ...
Physical or virtual contact with greenery has positive impacts on human health. The presence of urban green spaces provides recreational opportunities, while for viewers the contact influences emotional states. For locations with limited floor space, green infrastructure such as a green roofs or vertical greenery can multiply exposure opportunities. In this case study, we sought to understand the responses of occupants to an indoor vertical greenery system (iVGS). This study explored the responses to the iVGS using a survey based on the Short-Version Revised Restoration Scale (SRRS), with responses collected onsite and online. The study examined the differences in responses between the respondents who were physically present at the iVGS (onsite) and those who viewed photographs of the iVGS online. The study also presents data on the number of passers-by before and after the iVGS was installed. Both online and onsite results revealed mostly positive responses towards the installation of the iVGS, with the onsite respondents giving higher scores than the online respondents. The restoration scores of iVGS demonstrates that it refreshes cognitive energy and brings positive impact and emotions. Responses to the SRSS provides tentative evidence that iVGS may have some restorative benefits, which is consistent with our understanding of the benefits of vertical greenery more generally. However, more research is required to confirm this.
... Lee et al.'s [67] findings indicate that active interaction with indoor plants can reduce physiological and psychological stress by suppressing sympathetic nervous system activity and lowering diastolic blood pressure. Female participants exhibited improved task performance when a plant was present in the room [128]; this enhancement was found to be attributed to a positive change in mood [128,129]. Reduced depressive and anxiety symptoms were also associated with the abundance of greenery visible from the home and with an increasing number of indoor plants when students felt isolated during the COVID-19 pandemic [130]. ...
... Lee et al.'s [67] findings indicate that active interaction with indoor plants can reduce physiological and psychological stress by suppressing sympathetic nervous system activity and lowering diastolic blood pressure. Female participants exhibited improved task performance when a plant was present in the room [128]; this enhancement was found to be attributed to a positive change in mood [128,129]. Reduced depressive and anxiety symptoms were also associated with the abundance of greenery visible from the home and with an increasing number of indoor plants when students felt isolated during the COVID-19 pandemic [130]. This study built on that foundation by having participants engage with the plants and reveal the personal reasoning behind these effects. ...
Stressful life events are often undesirable, inevitable, and significant changes in one’s life, often triggering rumination and posing risks to mental health. However, these risks can be managed through coping strategies. Contact with nature has been shown to reduce rumination and enhance mental well-being. The current study investigated the effectiveness of a one-month nature-based intervention in enhancing psychological well-being and building resilience to manage rumination following a stressful life event. In this mixed-method study, 26 participants were randomly allocated to either an experimental group (n = 13), which tended to the Zamioculcas zamiifolia indoor plant for one month, or a waitlist control group (n = 13). Quantitative findings showed that tending to indoor plants was significantly effective in reducing depressive symptoms (p = 0.003), perceived stress (p < 0.001), negative affect (p = 0.017), and rumination (p = 0.015), as well as in enhancing resilience (p = 0.03) compared to the control group post-intervention. Qualitative findings provided insight into how the nature-based intervention fosters rumination resilience, the mediating effects of tending to an indoor plant, and the contribution it makes to psychological well-being. ‘Offers a slice of nature by bringing the outside, in’ demonstrates how caring for indoor plants creates a bridge for connection with nature. ‘Fosters an emotionally regulating personal sanctuary’ captures how tending to indoor plants can help manage emotions and provide a sense of empowerment that helps mitigate the tendency to ruminate. ‘Plants seeds for improving self-care, personal growth and introspection’ highlights indoor plants as a symbolic representation of resilience and renewal. A narrative emerges: as indoor plants grow and thrive with attention, so too does the individual, forming a deep, reciprocal relationship between nature and personal well-being. This study demonstrates nature’s role in coping with stressful life events and developing rumination resilience, paving the way for further research to explore its caveats and refine and expand nature-based interventions.
... Of the four constructs that involved affective aspects, mood (measured in two independent studies) was the only one that was primarily affective. The temperature and illumination of lights in a room (Lan et al., 2021) and the presence of plants (Shibata and Suzuki, 2004) have been said to improve mood and creativity in turn. However, the role of mood in enhancing creativity is not elaborated upon further. ...
... A second implication is that interventions can have an unexpected influence on outcomes via multiple mediators. For example, the provision of views via windows may provide information (Shibata and Suzuki, 2004) or stimulation (Stone and Irvine, 1994). However, if that window is also square or rectangular, with multiple intersecting lines creating sharp corners, it may also elicit avoidance motivation compared with a round window. ...
Workspaces can enhance the creativity of the designers that occupy them. Here, we review experimental studies of creative spaces to identify constructs that mediate (explain) the relationship between physical spaces and creative performance. Through a literature review of 8 journal articles comprising 13 experiments, we identify 14 constructs involving cognitive, affective and physiological components. Knowledge of these mediators can help researchers to formulate hypotheses, select control variables, and develop conceptual models and theories of creative spaces in design.
... For instance, participants who simply viewed videos of natural environments performed better on divergent thinking tasks as compared to viewing videos of urban scenes [35]. Other studies have also demonstrated that nature can benefit creativity across a wide variety of methods that immerse one in nature, including viewing images of nature [36,37] or simply having an indoor plant visible in a room as compared to a magazine rack [38]. In addition, Palanica et al. [35] found that viewing a 2-dimensional video of nature without audio was just as effective in improving creativity as physical exposure to an outdoor park environment. ...
Immersion in nature has been linked to wide-ranging benefits on mental health and cognitive functions, from reducing stress to enhancing creativity. However, a walk in nature is not always feasible, and whether a proxy for nature immersion via a mental walk in nature can elicit the same benefits as a physical walk remains largely unknown. Accordingly, the current study utilized guided imagery to examine whether a mental walk in nature would improve creativity in general and when compared to a mental walk in an urban environment. We implemented a within-subjects design, wherein participants completed both mental walk conditions (in a nature and urban environment) at least five days apart in counterbalanced order on an online platform. During each session, participants (N = 97) completed two pre-walk tasks assessing convergent (measured by the Remote Associates Test) and divergent creative thinking (measured by the Alternate Uses Test), followed by a mental walk in either a nature or urban environment, then finally the identical two post-walk creativity tasks. After five days, they repeated the same procedure with a mental walk in the other environment. While comparisons of post-walk creativity scores between the nature and urban environment did not significantly differ from each other, the comparisons between the pre- and post-walk creativity scores revealed a significant improvement in convergent creative thinking in the nature environment condition, but not the urban environment condition. Our results suggest that taking a mental walk in nature can enhance at least one aspect of creativity, therefore providing preliminary evidence for the potential to access the creative benefits of mentally immersing ourselves in nature. These findings have important implications for those who wish to enjoy the benefits of nature but are unable to readily access nature physically.
... For instance, Kweon et al. [42] discovered that nature images in an office environment significantly reduced stress and anger in male participants yet failed to produce a significant effect among female participants. In contrast, Shibata and Suzuki [43] found that incorporating indoor plants in an office setting improved the task performance of female respondents but did not significantly affect male participants' task performance. These findings indicate that responses to natural environments may vary based on gender, highlighting the need for caution in generalizing these results to broader populations or to other settings. ...
Natural environments have been discovered to promote restoration from mental fatigue and improve cognitive performance. In hotels, patrons creating these restorative environments is of great importance to ensure a truly rejuvenating stay for patrons. However, luxury hotels in Nigeria often struggle to effectively incorporate restorative elements that cater to their diverse international clientele, which leads to suboptimal guest experiences. This study examines the impact of biophilic design strategies on creating restorative spaces in luxury hotels in Abuja, Nigeria, and how demographic variables moderate these effects. It adopts Attention Restoration Theory (ART) as a conceptual framework and employs a quantitative approach to evaluate the influence of biophilic elements on perceived restorativeness. Data was gathered from a survey of 415 hotel guests in Abuja. Major findings indicate that visual connections with nature, spacious environments, and a balance of complexity and order significantly contribute to attention restoration. Age and cultural background were identified as significant moderators, with older adults and non-Nigerian guests perceiving higher levels of restoration in certain aspects. In contrast, gender did not substantially affect the association between biophilic elements and perceived restorativeness. The study therefore highlights the importance of tailoring hotel environments to diverse demographic needs to enhance guest well-being. The findings provide a practical framework for hotel designers to integrate biophilic design principles efficiently and it emphasizes the design of environments that cater to the distinctive preferences of different age groups and cultural backgrounds. Recommendations include strategic placement of natural elements, advocating for sustainable design policies, and further research into optimizing biophilic interventions for various hotel types.
... Indoor greening has been receiving attention because it provides many benefits such as the improvement of task performance and attention (Raanaas et al. 2011;Shibata and Suzuki 2004) and general increases in wellbeing as a result of stress reduction (Rhee et al. 2023) and cleaner air (Rabito et al. 2024). Humans have a close relationship with nature; therefore, integrating nature into indoor space could effectively increase their engagement with nature, which may benefit their health and comfort. ...
Indoor greening is becoming popular because it provides many benefits for people. However, plant selection for indoor greening is limited to shade-tolerant tropical plants internationally, and little research has been performed to expand the use of native herb plant species. The aim of this research was to study growth characteristics of Japanese native herbs under common light intensity regimes in office buildings. Eight species of Japanese native herbs ( Acorus gramineus , Cameilla sinensis , Farfugium japonicum , Gynostemma pentaphyllum , Perilla frutescens var. crispa f. viridis , Petasites japonicus , Sasa veitchii , and Saxifraga stolonifera ) were examined in an open growth chamber with light-emitting diode light tape under three light intensities [photosynthetic photon flux densities of 3 µmol·m ⁻² ·s ⁻¹ (250 lx), 6 µmol·m ⁻² ·s ⁻¹ (500 lx), and 12 µmol·m ⁻² ·s ⁻¹ (750 lx)] from 8 AM to 10 PM every day from Jun 2021 to Oct 2021 in an office. Farfugium japonicum and Saxifraga stolonifera were as shade-tolerant as typical tropical plants and grew well under all light intensities. Sasa veitchii performed well under high and medium light intensity. The other plant species require supplemental lightning to achieve sufficient growth indoors.
... Previous studies have shown that when engaged in a creative task, natural landscapes may promote the production of positive emotions. Creativity increases when people are in a positive mood, and this change in mood affects task performance and learning efficiency [52,66,67]. The word association task required participants to generate up to 30 words for each adjective listed. ...
Observing peaceful natural environments has been shown to restore cognitive abilities and reduce stress. As a result, visual access to natural environments is becoming increasingly common in educational settings. However, most current research on classroom window views has examined classroom environments in elementary and secondary schools, and only some university classrooms have been used as study sites. This study investigated the relationship between the naturalness of university classroom window views and physiological and emotional responses and standardized tests of attentional focus (learning efficiency) in university students. Thirty participants (undergraduates 21.16 ± 1.01 years old) viewed architectural window views and natural window views for 3 min each, and physiological measures of EEG, HRV index, and psychometric measures of Semantic Differences Questionnaire and Emotional State Questionnaire generated data. Measurements were generated. The results indicated that the natural window view significantly enhanced theta, alpha, and beta waves of brain activity, provided a sense of comfort, relaxation, and pleasure, and increased learning efficiency compared to the architectural window view. The findings support the beneficial associations between window views on university campuses and students’ mood and learning efficiency, emphasizing the importance of considering natural window views in the planning and designing of university classrooms.
... Nieuwenhuis et al. [29] showed improvements in perceived concentration, speed of completion and accuracy in task execution after introducing plants in the office. This is consistent with Shibata and Suzuki [30,31], Raanaas [25] and Hähn [32] who reported higher task performance scores in plant-based offices. ...
The human-nature connection should be a key component in the design of supportive and comfortable indoor environments. An interest in introducing Nature Based Solutions indoor via Biophilic Design (BD) intervention recently emerged. Related benefits for work efficiency have been identified in lab-studies without the possibility to perform preliminary design assessments. Recently, VR has been adopted thanks to its advantages for data collection in highly realistic environments. To date, most of the research on BD has been focused on the visual connection with nature even if people experience multiple senses simultaneously. In this paper, a new design approach for preliminary assessment of BD intervention in VR is presented. A 3x3 between-subjects design study is presented, comparing three office layouts (Indoor Green, Outdoor Green and Non-Biophilic) and three acoustic scenarios (Office, Office + Traffic and Office + Nature). 198 participants performed one test session completing three cognitive tasks for each acoustic condition, and survey. The results of the sense of presence and immersivity (visual), the sensory congruency (acoustic) and cybersickness disorders suggested that VR is an effective tool to preliminary evaluate the potential of BD interventions (ecological validity). The findings of the cognitive tests revealed that audio-visual connection with nature can positively influence working memory, inhibition and task-switching performance. The acoustic factor exhibited a higher improvement effect compared to the visual factor, between 23 % and 71 % against 12 %–39 %. Moreover, the Natural sound in the Indoor Green condition was the most supportive visual*acoustic condition while Traffic in the Non-Biophilic environment was the most disruptive one.
... To examine the effects of plant color, questionnaire survey and subjective scale evaluation methods have been widely used in previous studies. For example, Ulrich (1984), Behe et al. (1999), Kaufman and Lohr (2004), and Shibata and Suzuki (2004) used subjective evaluation to confirm that green plants exert a positive impact on the completion of creative tasks, and can improve mood and learning efficiency. Saito (1996) reported that the use of plants with yellow flowers in interior decoration can help people maintain focus. ...
Exposure to plants has been reported to promote health and reduce stress, and plant color has direct impacts on physical and mental health. We used images of common types of tended plant communities in Shenyang, China, with combinations of yellow, green, and red foliage, as experimental stimuli. A total of 27 images were used as visual stimuli. We used electroencephalography to measure α wave activity (8–13 Hz) in 40 subjects while they viewed visual stimuli. These data were combined with subjective questionnaire data to analyze the relaxing effect of images of tended plant communities with different color types and proportions on people. The results revealed that, although there were slight differences between the electroencephalography and psychological findings, women were significantly more relaxed than men after viewing the images. Physiological and psychological responses varied with the types and proportions of colors in the tended plant communities: those of foliage with combinations of two or three colors induced stronger responses than images with a single color. Specifically, (1) for one-color plant communities, green or yellow plant communities induced a stronger relaxation effect than red plant communities; (2) for two-color plant communities, the optimal color proportion was 55% + 45%, and the green + yellow and green + red color combinations induced a stronger relaxation effect; (3) for three-color plant communities, the relaxation effect was strongest when the color proportion was 55% green + 25% yellow + 20% red. These data would provide a plant color matching in future plant landscape design, which may be helpful for creating healthy and relaxing environments.
Graphical abstract
... Vertical shading devices can be used as an aid for sound transmission, as shown in a study by (J. Lee & Chang, 2015) (Adachi et al., 2000;Bringslimark et al., 2011;Fjeld et al., 1998;Han, 2008;Park & Mattson, 2009;Shibata & Suzuki, 2004 The survey intends to understand users' or occupants' satisfaction with the environmental quality of the building. The survey will further verify if all the measures taken to achieve the green building status are able to provide comfort as well as optimal conditions that foster wellbeing. ...
A structure is taken to be a green building if it benefits the environment, people, and the economy. For a building to be ratified as green, the building owners must adhere to specific guidelines and requirements. A green building involves using sustainable practices from construction to completion, as well as having long-term positive effects on users and the environment. Retrofitting vertical greenery offers various benefits, such as increasing indoor air quality, and is an attractive and effective way of achieving green building rating points. This study adopts an integrative review methodology to assess, analyse, and synthesize the current literature, and highlights the potential of green retrofitting for improving indoor environmental quality. The requirements for three green building certification schemes were reviewed and it is concluded that vertical greenery (outdoor and indoor) can potentially contribute to give value/points of the indoor environmental quality rating criteria that are used. The findings also indicate that, vertical greenery is applicable for retrofitting existing or conventional buildings, so they meet green building certification.
... In his research study he found that environment assessed to be the most comfortable condition was the one with green, slightly scented and small-size plants.Many research studies also reported similar outcome like indoor plants reduced stress, nervousness or anxiety [Bringslimark et al., 2007; Dijkstra et al., 2008; Lee et al., 2015; Evensen et al., 2015; Park and Mattson 2009: Hassan et al., 2018]. Some authors reported that indoor plants improved task performance and mood[Fjeld, 2000;Han, 2009;Shibata and Suzuki, 2004]. Dash, (2018) said in his report that there is a "resilient bond or linkage" between human behaviour and indoor landscaping, to the extent that the user experience of the space can be altered to enhance and optimize it. ...
By providing food, oxygen, shelter and many more, plants have proved themselves to be much beneficial for civilization of human beings. The current study provides a comprehensive summary on the diversity and role of indoor plants in improving the environment as well as physiological and psychological health of humans. The indoor plants are mostly small shrubs or herbs which may not have much high medicinal or economical value like cash crops or ornamental flowering plants, but they are quite handy when comes to purification of in house environment. It was proved by many research papers have given the evidence to support the hypothesis that, “different types of indoor plants have different effects on human behaviour and their life style”. Few species of indoor plants (e.g. Epipremnum aureum) are even linked to Vastu Shastra, a traditional Indian System of Architecture.
... This finding is also in accordance with previous research which demonstrated that creativity can benefit from exposure to nature. For example, one study observed an increase of creative performance when there were plants in the (physical) room 39 . Similar to real nature exposure, exposure to computergenerated biophilic office designs in VR showed in our study also positive effects on creativity. ...
Previous research has shown the positive effects of exposure to real and virtual nature. To investigate how such benefits might generalize to ever-more-prevalent virtual workplaces, we examined the effects of the absence or presence of virtual plants in an office environment in Virtual Reality (VR) on users’ cognitive performance and psychological well-being. The results of our user study with 39 participants show that in the presence of virtual plants, participants performed significantly better in both short-term memory and creativity tasks. Furthermore, they reported higher psychological well-being scores, including positive affect and attentive coping, whilst reporting lower feelings of anger and aggression after exposure to virtual plants in VR. The virtual office with plants was also perceived as more restorative and induced a higher sense of presence. Overall, these results highlight how the presence of virtual plants in VR can have positive influences on users, and therefore, constitute important design considerations when developing future working and learning spaces.
... Differences between genders in restorative environments were also found by Shibata and Suzuki, where females demonstrated improved performance when plants were incorporated into the room when compared with males. In both studies, context is important, where the type of task and environment may play a large role in the different outcomes by gender (SHIBATA & SUZUKI, 2004). This can be used by designers when considering Biophilic Design by understanding the type of tasks and stressors that people will experience in their environment (Gillis & Gatersleben, 2015). ...
Technology growth and Life industrialization have led to the separation of human beings and nature, which has resulted in decreased mental and psychological health. The Corona pandemic and quarantine conditions made the effect of architectural design on mental health more prominent than ever. Meanwhile, Biophilic Design plays a crucial role in integrating the built environment with nature, which will increase mental health. A built environment is a place where the thoughts, feelings, connections, and personalities of people are formed. Stress and anxiety are observed in women for several reasons, and this factor has a significant role in reducing mental health and well-being. Several studies found that visual and non-visual connections to nature and direct experiences with nature that is made possible by the presence of plants positively will affect psychological health and well-being in interior designs and outdoor environments. Natural elements create comfort and mental balance, so the presence or simulation of nature provides a better feeling and function. The need for beneficial contact with nature continues to be critical to people’s health and fitness, but its satisfactory occurrence in today's built environment has become highly challenging. The dominant approach to modern building and landscape design largely treats nature as either an obstacle to overcome or a trivial and irrelevant consideration.
This human-centered research will attempt to develop Biophilic Design for a more beneficial and excellent performance compatible with the environment to create more satisfying well-being. The research methodology is the statement of art as the topic is related to a developing issue. Studies regarding nature interventions in architecture and psychology were investigated. The references related to the mental health and psychology of women were considered and reviewed. The background of the research is reviewed, and conclusions are made based on them. This research reviews studies and seeks to determine whether increasing the application of Biophilic Design increases woman's well-being. This research declares the impacts of Biophilic Design on women's well-being in the built environment.
Keywords:
Biophilic Design, Woman's Well-being, Mental Health, Stress Reduction, Post-COVID Recovery.
... This research corroborates the findings from previous established studies that suggest that presence in nature or visual interaction with nature has restorative effects and can help individuals to recover from mental fatigue (KAPLAN 2001, ABKAR et al. 2010, SAEDI & RICE 2019. These outcomes of the research are also in line with more recent studies that demonstrate utilizing vegetation in the interior design of a space, such as in hospitals (TALBOT & KAPLAN 1991, WELLS & EVAN 2003 and offices (LARSEN et al. 1998, LOHR et al. 1996, RICH 2007, SHIBATA & SUZUKI 2002, 2004 has similar restorative effects. ...
... This research corroborates the findings from previous established studies that suggest that presence in nature or visual interaction with nature has restorative effects and can help individuals to recover from mental fatigue (KAPLAN 2001, ABKAR et al. 2010, SAEDI & RICE 2019. These outcomes of the research are also in line with more recent studies that demonstrate utilizing vegetation in the interior design of a space, such as in hospitals (TALBOT & KAPLAN 1991, WELLS & EVAN 2003 and offices (LARSEN et al. 1998, LOHR et al. 1996, RICH 2007, SHIBATA & SUZUKI 2002, 2004 has similar restorative effects. ...
This exploratory research aims to examine if the existence of vegetation in indoor environments affects people's attention levels. Also, do those elements receive more visual attention, or do they cause other elements in the space to stand out more visually? During experimental research, 182 residents of a high-rise residential building were randomly assigned to experience one of two versions of their building's lobby as a 3D virtual reality (VR) environment, one with and one without vegetation. Participants completed the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) twice, once before experiencing the lobby to establish a baseline of attention and once after, to assess possible improvement. Also, the amount of visual attention that each element received in the environment was calculated through gaze tracking. Results indicated that participants who experienced the lobby with vegetation showed meaningful improvement in their SART score. The gaze tracking heatmaps revealed that vegetation received significantly higher attention than all other elements. The analysis of the data demonstrated that those who gained the highest scores paid the highest amount of visual attention to vegetation. These findings suggest a positive relationship between the location and duration of visual attention and attention restoration level and that vegetation capturing non-voluntary attention may be among the major factors that positively impact attention restoration.
... Figure 2 includes conceptual sketches which illustrate a deeper connection of the workplace with nature. The incorporation of biophilic design principles is more flexible in new buildings; they can strategically and meticulously be incorporated at the design inception stage to fulfil its restorative effects [48]; orientation and/or the introduction of an atrium/courtyard with services restricted to the core free the periphery to optimize daylighting and ventilation. ...
The human need to relate with the natural environs is the foundation of biophilic design. Thus, such a design solution aims to establish a relation between the built environment and nature; it is fundamental to the well-being of the users of a given space. The objective of this study is to assess the relationship between employees’ sensation of well-being and work place design in Malta, the smallest-in-size member state of the European Union, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on an online questionnaire circulated to all employees in the civil service and public authorities of Malta, the present working environs were studied and proposed design solutions were put forward. The data collected was analyzed by making use of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Apertures were found to have substantial impact on the employees’ mental well-being, health and mood; whilst reducing anxiety, they increase the perceived health ratings. Naturally lit and ventilated workspaces lead to higher productivity and less fatigue. The survey results provide a snapshot of the current work environs and provide data for improving their re-design along biophilic principles, an important consideration given that the island’s workforce suffers from the highest rates of depression, anxiety and elevated stress levels within the European Union.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to conduct a comprehensive and precise investigation into the influence of office environments on employee performance. Office workers spend a considerable amount of time inside a building, and the office environment in which they work has a profound impact on their overall well-being and directly affects their effectiveness and productivity. Yet, the previous studies opted out the importance of hygiene factors like office environment and there is a need to uncover hidden causes and shed light on office environment areas that can be improved.
Design/methodology/approach
This research adopts a descriptive research design using a quantitative research method to study the relationships between office environment facilitations and employee performance. The technique of survey questionnaires was employed, and a total of 829 samples were analyzed. Measurement model, structural model and hypothesis testing using PLS-SEM software version 4.1.0.0 were briefly explained.
Findings
The study investigated the direct and indirect effects of the office environment on employee communication, interactions, productivity and performance. The findings revealed significant outcomes, indicating that the office environment does indeed have an impact on these employee-based factors. Both communication and interactions, as well as employee productivity as an indirect effect, were found to significantly mediate the connection between the office environment and employee performance.
Research limitations/implications
Insufficient data and analysis exist regarding the factors influencing the effect of employee performance on business. The constraints of time, cost and scope impede comprehensive surveys and thorough analysis. Regrettably, only four specific aspects of the office environment were examined in relation to employee performance, neglecting other significant factors. By acknowledging the potential problems highlighted in this study concerning different office concepts, organizations can endeavor to establish a more conducive working environment. It is imperative to acknowledge that the absence of a well-structured office environment that meets employees’ expectations may lead to unfavorable consequences.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first study of office environment facilitations related to employee behavioral attitude and employee performance in Yangon, Myanmar and this study will help discover new insights of the importance of employee performance in least developing countries.
The widespread benefits of creativity have become more salient in recent years. This has led to scholarly interest in finding ways to foster creativity. Nature immersion may be one way to enhance creativity, particularly as many individuals involved in creative pursuits have found nature to be a source of inspiration and a haven for restoration. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) extension for scoping reviews and the PRISMA-ScR 22 item checklist, we conducted a scoping review to examine the evidence on the relationship between nature and creativity as well as any underlying mechanisms facilitating this relationship. A scoping review was deemed appropriate given the infancy of the topic and the need to understand the broad landscape. Our aim was to present a range of interdisciplinary applications of nature interventions on different types of creative performance. We found 45 publications exploring the relationship between nature and creativity, with the majority (n = 36, 80%) published within the past seven years. Overall, the quantitative studies in our scoping review provided evidence of a significant positive relationship, or effect, between nature and creativity. These relationships held across various types of nature including for wilderness, rural and urban settings, as well as in different applications of creativity such as in the arts, workplace, education, and laboratory conditions. Qualitative and case study research also supported the positive relationship between nature and creativity including in diverse nature settings and in different applications such as in visual arts, design, writing, music, free play in kindergartens, and work. Qualitative studies highlighted potential mechanisms behind this relationship, including time in solitude, appreciation of impermanence, relaxation and inspiration, and disconnection from technology. Moreover, the degree of exposure to nature may be an important consideration for creative performance with more immersive, real-life experiences typical of outdoor nature, tending to be more effective than indoor spaces with window views or indoor plants. These preliminary findings suggest that more opportunities to connect with nature, especially in the outdoors, may help to stimulate creativity in a wide range of settings including education, the creative arts, and workplaces, although more high-quality research examining the sustained effects of nature on creativity is needed.
Office environments play a critical role in employee wellbeing and productivity. While the benefits of incorporating nature into workspaces have been recognized, the specific visual characteristics that contribute to restorativeness remain unclear. This study investigates how visual characteristics of office environments, specifically the presence of greenery and color complexity, are associated with perceived restorativeness. In Study 1, we developed a scale based on Attention Restoration Theory to measure the restorative characteristics of office environments, consisting of three subscales: Being Away, Fascination, and Extent. In Study 2, we used this scale to examine the correlation between the restorative characteristics of offices and the visual properties of office photographs. The results showed that the square root of the percentage of green area, the color fractal dimension, and the brightness fractal predicted perceived restorativeness. Notably, the color fractal dimension often showed a stronger effect than the amount of greenery per se. These findings suggest that both the presence of greenery and the overall complexity of color transitions in office spaces contribute to their restorative potential. Our study provides insights for designing more restorative office environments, emphasizing the importance of not only increasing greenery but also mimicking natural color patterns. The predictive model developed provides a practical tool for estimating the restorative potential of office designs. Although there are limitations such as the use of photographic assessments and the inability to fully explain the Extent component of restorativeness, this study contributes to our understanding of how to create more psychologically supportive work environments.
As part of a doctoral study, a methodology was
adapted to assess creativity through color in a virtual learning
environment (VLE), given the circumstances of COVID-19
confinement. The test was administered to common core
students in architecture, graphic design, and industrial design
at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, who were
divided into control and experimental groups. This document
presents the instruments used to screen students for color
blindness, evaluate their mood and creative ability, as well as
the experiences and limitations arising from their execution
online.
The positive impact of nature on working memory is well established; however, the relationship between indoor nature density, sex, and working memory remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the impact of indoor nature density on working memory and explore sex differences. Forty-one participants (26 females and 15 males) viewed 200 images of indoor environments with varying indoor nature densities. Following image viewing of each density group, participants completed a backward digit span task, and their electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded during both image viewing and task performance. The results indicated that as indoor nature density grew, there were increasing trends in backward digit span scores and relative frontal theta during the task and decreasing trends in the frontal theta-to-alpha ratio (TAR), theta-to-beta ratio (TBR), and theta-to-gamma ratio (TGR). According to the post hoc results of relative frontal theta during the task, frontal TAR, and TGR, working memory might be optimized in 25–36% indoor vegetation density. The study also found significant sex differences: females showed more substantial improvements in working memory with increased exposure to indoor nature density than males. This study’s results provide evidence for practical guidelines of designing indoor environments that enhance working memory.
This paper aims to define the role of project human resource management inside a company, as well as its stages and impacts. using the semantic method of literature review. Based on the study's findings, companies could maintain relationships amongst their human resources and make the greatest use of their current resources through implementing human resource management projects along with overseeing their own business activities.
W ramach badania nad optymalnym portfelem czynników otoczenia społecznego i fizycznego, wpływających na stymulowanie kreatywności pracowników, autorzy proponują rozszerzenie istniejącego modelu pracy stacjonarnej na model hybrydowy, przy założeniu, że pewne czynniki stymulujące kreatywność w modelu hybrydowym mogą być substytutem dla ich odpowiedników istniejących w modelu stacjonarnym. Na potrzeby analiz sformułowano zestaw pytań badawczych dotyczących optymalnych czynników otoczenia społecznego i fizycznego w obu modelach pracy. Jakościowe badania empiryczne w formie wywiadów pogłębionych pozwoliły na zebranie materiału poznawczego, który został poddany szczegółowej analizie treści, opartej na percepcji i doświadczeniach uczestników. Wyniki badań jakościowych wskazują na potrzebę ustalenia, które czynniki otoczenia społecznego i fizycznego są optymalne dla stymulowania kreatywności pracownika w różnych modelach pracy. Projektowanie przestrzeni pracy staje się kluczowym elementem wspierającym innowacyjność organizacji, a takie cechy jak obecność roślin, dźwięki, wygodne meble i przestrzenie do relaksu mogą znacząco wpływać na kreatywność pracowników. Podsumowując, prezentowane w artykule badania miały na celu zidentyfikowanie czynników odpowiadających za kreatywność pracowników w modelu hybrydowym i potwierdzenie ich potencjalnej roli jako substytutów dla istniejących czynników w modelu stacjonarnym.
Background and Objectives: Addressing the issue of identifying elements of the nature are important to children and increase children's creativity. In such a way that these elements can be presented in a general framework so that designers and architects can rely on them, the most important concepts and items needed in the design, to consider these spaces and apply them. Of course, it should be noted that several environmental factors affect creativity. However, in this study, an attempt is made to identify the factors that have the most impact, so that the needs of children can be met in accordance with their activities and a general framework for designing children's spaces can be proposed. The main difference between this research and other researches is in prioritizing the effective factors in nature from the children's point of view and its effect on creativity and then presenting the results in the form of an overall design framework. Various research has been done on this subject, but in a one-dimensional way and in them only one factor is mentioned, such as the effect of creativity on learning, but none of them presents the effect of nature's role in increasing creativity. The purpose of this research is to determine which natural elements are important from children’s points of view and whether the use and presence of elements are possible in educational locations. This research seeks to find approaches to design school yards based on children’s points of view with regard to the role of nature in their education. Methods: The research method used in this qualitative study is content analysis. Based on the nature of the subject, a questionnaire and the image technique were used as the main method of data collection. The structure of the questionnaire is based on the measures and criteria derived from the subject literature and designed based on Likert scale. In the first stage, 120 questionnaires were provided to children of 7-12 age in the case study. Results of the questionnaires were obtained. To ensure that the results of the questionnaires are expanded, the researcher, in the second phase, provided some pictures relevant to questionnaires, so that the children could respond to questions based on their visual preferences. The researcher then obtained results based on visual content analysis. Findings: It was discovered that these two instruments of measurement are in line with each other and are appropriate to the environmental factors affecting children. Finally, a framework for organizing the school yard is presented.. Conclusion: By creating an appropriate, responsive and purposeful framework in design, we can address the main goal of the research, which is to identify the effective factors in nature from the children's point of view by increasing their creativity, and finally, an appropriate framework by considering these factors to organize the space of the school yard. The necessity of presenting the framework can be expressed in such a way that the weakening of children's connection with outside the classroom is harmful for the child, on the other hand, an intellectual movement moves towards learning outdoors. The presence of natural elements or the same nature has a positive effect on children's creativity, discovers and flourishes the latent talent in children and creates a suitable environment for a bright future for children.
Despite the growing interest in indoor greenery and its positive effects on occupants’ well-being, there is limited knowledge on the optimal light levels for indoor plants that ensure energy efficiency and sustainable growth. This study explored the survival of ornamental plants under low-light conditions typical of indoor workplaces without daylight and investigated the impact of increased light intensity or extended day length on their growth. Three species of foliage plants (Epipremnum aureum, Pachira aquatica, and Rhaphidophora tetrasperma) were cultivated in growth chambers with three different lighting schemes. The results showed that plants sustained growth with 6.8 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹ white LED light for 9 h/day, suggesting that extra lighting might not be necessary for shade-tolerant species in offices. In this environment, plants maintained efficient photosynthesis under low illumination by increasing their specific leaf area. Elevating the light to 20.1 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹ and extending the day length to 18 h/day enhanced the plants’ relative growth rate. Climbing plants allocated more biomass to stems, resulting in a lower leaf weight ratio and noticeably altering their appearance. This study demonstrates that customized lighting strategies effectively support indoor greening goals, like adjusting intensity for energy savings or adding light for greening large spaces.
Purpose
Home is a place/system/product that becomes increasingly occupied with various tasks used to be performed in workplaces. However, the knowledge of the relationship between residential physical environments and occupant experience is limited, especially when considering the effect of indoor plants (IPs) and climate zones. To address the gap, this study conducted a questionnaire survey in three cities across different regions in China.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on User Experience and Customer Satisfaction Index theory, following the research paradigm, a total of 627 valid samples were collected and analyzed in a stepwise statistical analysis, including descriptive statistics, reliability and validity test, correlation test and region comparison, then the model of PROCESS was adopted to examine the hypotheses that are given based on the former studies.
Findings
The results showed that residential physical environments have a significant effect on occupant satisfaction (OS) in all regions, as well as OS on occupant performance. However, regional differences were found that OS is a complete mediator in the Middle region, while a partial mediator in the North and South. A slight moderating effect of IPs was also found in the region of South. Nevertheless, both the number of plants and plant types have a significant moderating effect on the mechanism.
Originality/value
Besides combining two theories and confirming the mechanism in the residential physical environment, it is also the first study to consider the moderating effects of IPs and climate zones, providing potential empirical support for not only design and management stages but also facing global challenges of working at home and climate changes.
The intricate relationship between physical and social environments within organizations plays a pivotal role in shaping innovation endeavors. This paper introduces a three-dimensional framework aimed at comprehending the intricate mechanisms through which the physical and social environments synergistically drive innovation. Building on this, a systematic four-dimensional framework (communality, individuality, comfort, and health) is proposed to structure a comprehensive literature review, mapping out the intricate linkages between innovation and the physical environment. Through this extensive review, we delve into the intricate connections between the physical innovation environment and the broader innovation climate, unearthing valuable insights. Additionally, we highlight two promising directions for future research within the realm of physical environment–innovation climate interactions. Furthermore, we underscore the paramount importance of embracing an interdisciplinary approach, seamlessly blending perspectives from both the physical and social spheres to gain a holistic and nuanced understanding of the innovation landscape. This integrated viewpoint is pivotal to unraveling the multifaceted dynamics that underlie successful innovation initiatives.
Experiences of nature have various benefits on human health and well-being. In workplace environments, the integration of biophilic design strategies to incorporate elements and features of nature can enhance employee productivity, emotional state, and psychological well-being, mainly addressing the third goal of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). The literature abounds with studies providing empirical evidence on the positive effect of nature exposure in the workplace on employees. However, there is a lack of understanding of the status of such studies. To this end, the authors conducted descriptive analysis and a review on the applications, capabilities, and limitations of studies implementing biophilic design principles at workplaces. A total of 59 peer-reviewed articles that met the inclusion criteria were selected and reviewed based on the defined factors and sub-factors. The results show that the introduction of biophilic design elements into indoor, semi-outdoor, and outdoor workplace environments can promote employee health, well-being, and productivity. However, the literature gives limited attention to some of the identified categories/factors including “natural analogues”, “emotion and mood”, “physiological data”, “non-visual sensory input”, and “virtual reality”. Based on the review findings, we have identified several knowledge gaps and opportunities for further research.
The intricate relationship between physical and social environments within organizations plays a pivotal role in shaping sustainable innovation endeavors. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of two key dynamics that have garnered substantial scholarly attention for promoting sustainable innovation: the physical environment and the organizational climate. To elucidate the intricate interplay between these dynamics, we propose a novel three-dimensional framework that guides the modeling of the intricate processes through which the physical environment and innovation climate synergistically influence innovation outcomes. Building on this framework, we delve into an in-depth literature review concerning physical environments that exert a significant impact on innovation. Through this review, we identify and elaborate on four pivotal elements of the physical environment: communality, personalization, comfort, and healthiness. Leveraging insights gleaned from this review, we outline two promising avenues for future research in the realm of the physical environment's interaction with the innovation climate. Furthermore, we underscore the critical importance of adopting an interdisciplinary approach that seamlessly integrates insights from both the physical and social domains to comprehensively understand the sustainable innovation landscape.
Background:
The high prevalence of mental illnesses has a serious impact on productive life and there is an urgent need to intervene using a variety of active and effective measures.
Objective:
The concept of playfulness in space is introduced into the design of work spaces oriented towards active health interventions, creating a close interaction between the body and the space through play, thus developing a positive effect on the promotion of the physical and mental health of the staff.
Methods:
With the help of the spatial order theory, the analysis of the interaction between body and space is attempted to explore the form, structure and scene of space in order to optimize the body's perception, cognition and behavior in the space, thus creating an indoor workspace model with positive intervention effects on human health.
Results:
Based on the idea of spatial playful participation in active health interventions, this study explores the interaction between the body and the architectural space to enhance the perception and cognitive guidance of the space for the individual and to have a pleasant spiritual experience in the interaction to relieve work stress and enhance mental health.
Conclusion:
This series of discussions on the relationship between architectural space and the human body is of great relevance in improving the public health of occupational groups.
چکیده:
در شهرهای بزرگ بخشاعظم زمان روزانه فرد بهحضور در محلکار، محلسکونت و رفت وآمد میان آن ها اختصاص می یابد که این امرباعث کاهش چشمگیر و گاهی حذف تماس روزانه فرد با طبیعت می شود. ارتباط با طبیعت تأثیرات مثبتی بر سلامت فیزیکی و روانی می گذارد. ازجمله این تأثیرات، ادراک مثبت از محیط زندگی و همچنین کمک به بازیابی توجّه و افزایش سطح توجّه پایدار در فرد است که امری ضروری در زندگی روزانه وضامن موفقیت در فعالیت شناختی انسان است. لذا افزایش ارتباط با طبیعت در موقعیت های یادشده که فرد به صورت روزانه با آن ها سروکاردارد به منظور بهره گیری از مزایای تماس با طبیعت ضروری است. دراین میان، این
پژوهش بر محل سکونت تمرکز دارد و درپی پاسخ به این سؤال است که آیا تماس کوتاه مدت با عناصرطبیعی درطول شبانه روز میتواند تأثیراتی مشابه با گذراندن وقت در طبیعت بر فرد داشته باشد؟ ارزیابی ادبیات موضوع در این حوزه از پژوهش نشان داد که علی رغم وجود دیدگاه های متفاوت برای ارزیابی این تأثیر، ایرادات و کمبودهایی در شیوه های موجود وجود دارد که نتایج حاصل را دچار تشکیک می نماید. لذا وجود یک شیوه جامع و کل نگر که شیوههای مختلف ارزیابی را در نظر داشته و همزمان از ایرادات آن ها بدور باشد ضروری به نظر میرسد. ازاین رو این پژوهش ابتدا مدلی را برای ارزیابی تأثیر یادشده پیشنهاد نمود. سپس طی یک پژوهش تجربی، مدل پیشنهادی برای پاسخ به پرسش پژوهش بکار گرفته شد. لابی یک برج مسکونی، یکبارهمراه و یکبار بدون عناصرطبیعی در واقعیت مجازی بازسازی و تأثیر آن ها برالگوی حرکت چشم، ادراک ازقابلیت بازیابی توجّه محیط و سطح توجّه پایدار افراد ارزیابی شد. در این پژوهش 157 شرکت کننده بصورت تصادفی یکباز دو لابی را در محیط واقعیت مجازی تجربه کردند. از هر فرد خواسته شد تا آزمون شناختی پایداری توجّه در پاسخگویی (SART) را یکبار پیش و یکبار پس از عبور از لابی انجام دهد. بطور همزمان الگوی حرکت چشم افراد توسط عینک های واقعیت مجازی ثبت شد. سپس هر فرد پرسشنامه مقیاس بازیابی کنندگی درک
شده (PRS) مربوط به ادراک از توان بازیابی توجّه لابی را تکمیل نمود. داده های حاصل توسط نرما فزار SAS مورد تحلیل آماری قرارگرفت. ارزیابی داده ها دلالت برآن داشت که الگوی حرکت چشم شرکت کنندگانی که زمان خود را در فضای ورودی دارای عناصرطبیعی سپری کردند منطبق بر الگوی حرکت چشم در محیط های دارای توان بازیابی توجّه بوده، عملکرد آن ها به صورت معنادار در آزمون شناختی بهتر بوده و همچنین شرکت کنندگان تنها فضای ورودی حاوی عناصرطبیعی را در بازیابی توجّه خود مؤثر دانستند. نتایج این تحقیق تصدیقی است بر
تأثیر مثبت تماس با عناصرطبیعی در فضای داخلی ساختمان بر بازیابی توجّه فرد حتی درمدت زمان اندک.
کلید واژه ها: بازیابی توجّه، فضای ورودی، عناصر طبیعی، واقعیت مجازی، مقیاس بازیابی کنندگی درک شده (PRS)، آزمون پایداری توجّه در پاسخگویی (SART)
Vegetation in the built environment is known to affect human well-being. Although previous studies have provided quantitative evidence of the benefits of indoor vegetation on human well-being, the effects of vegetation density in indoor environments remain to be explored. To bridge this gap, this study explored the effects of indoor vegetation density on well-being, particularly on perceived restorativeness, stress reduction, and selective visual attention. This study employed the perceived restorativeness scale (PRS-11) and psychophysiological restorativeness (EEG) and found a positive association between increased indoor vegetation density and restorativeness. Despite the restorative effect, there was an inflection point in the indoor environments at 13%–24% vegetation density. For perceived restorativeness and stress reduction, 13%–24% was the most efficient density within indoor environments. Thus, this study contributes a baseline guideline and reference for designers and decision makers to understand efficient vegetation density in indoor environments.
This study examined the occupants’ psychological response to rooms with windows and potted plants and their relation to occupants’ eye movement. Twenty-four students performed tasks under six experimental conditions that combined two window conditions and three plant conditions. The coexistence of windows and plants on desks most improved room impressions and was associated with the highest ratings in ease of relaxing and ease of creative activity. In addition, the gaze analysis showed the impression of the space with windows and plants related to the characteristics of eye movements in terms of visual exploration, number of fixations, and average fixation durations.
Sex differences favoring women have been found in a number of studies of episodic memory. This study examined sex differences in verbal, nonverbal, and visuospatial episodic memory tasks. Results showed that although women performed at a higher level on a composite verbal and nonverbal episodic memory score, men performed at a higher level on a composite score of episodic memory tasks requiring visuospatial processing. Thus, men can use their superior visuospatial abilities to excel in highly visuospatial episodic memory tasks, whereas women seem to excel in episodic memory tasks in which a verbalization of the material is possible.
The authors employed an affective priming paradigm to provide direct evidence for the rapid evaluation of natural and urban environments suggested in evolutionary models of environmental perception and restoration. Pictures classified as urban and nature environments differing in restorative and affective quality were presented as prime stimuli. They were followed by presentations of human vocal expressions of joy, anger, and emotional neutrality as target stimuli. The participants were required to judge the vocal one-word expressions and produce a forced-choice reaction between joy and anger. The reaction times to vocal expressions of anger were shorter after the presentation of urban scenes associated with low restorative potential and negative affect than after nature scenes associated with high restorative potential and positive affect. The reaction times to vocal expressions of joy were shorter after the presentation of a nature scene than of an urban environment. The results provide support for the rapid and automatic affective evaluations of environmental scenes.
This experiment measures the effects of indoor plants on participants' productivity, attitude toward the workplace, and overall mood in the office environment. In an office randomly altered to include no plants, a moderate number of plants, and a high number of plants, paid participants (N = 81) performed timed productivity tasks and completed a survey questionnaire. Surprisingly, the results of the productivity task showed an inverse linear relationship to the number of plants in the office, but self-reported perceptions of performance increased relative to the number of plants in the office. Consistent with expectations, participants reported higher levels of mood, perceived office attractiveness, and (in some cases) perceived comfort when plants were present than when they were not present. Decreased productivity scores are linked to the influence of positive and negative affect on decision making and cognitive processing.
Subjects viewed sixty color slides of either (1) nature with water, (2) nature dominated by vegetation, or (3) urban environments without water or vegetation. The information rates of the three slide samples were equivalent. Measurements were taken of the effects of the slide presentations on alpha amplitude, heart rate, and emotional states. Results revealed several significant differences as a function of environment, which together indicate that the two categories of nature views had more positive influences on psychophysiological states than the urban scenes. Alpha was significantly higher during the vegetation as opposed to urban slides; similarly, alpha was higher on the average when subjects viewed water rather than urban content. There was also a consistent pattern for nature, especially water, to have more positive influences on emotional states. A salient finding was that water, and to a lesser extent vegetation views, held attention and interest more effectively than the urban scenes. Implications of the findings for theory development in environmental aesthetics are discussed.
Depending on what is in the view, looking out the window may provide numerous opportunities for restoration. Unlike other restorative opportunities, however, window viewing is more frequent and for brief moments at a time. The setting is also experienced from afar rather than while being in it. A study conducted at six low-rise apartment communities, using a survey with both verbal and visual material, provides considerable support for the premise that having natural elements or settings in the view from the window contributes substantially to residents’ satisfaction with their neighborhood and with diverse aspects of their sense of well-being. Views of built elements, by contrast, affected satisfaction but not well-being. Views of the sky and weather did not have a substantial effect on either outcome. The potential of nature content in the view from home to contribute so significantly to satisfaction and well-being suggests clear action mandates.
Shifting the focus from fear, guilt, and indignation related to deteriorating environmental quality, the authors hypothesized that people who see greater potential for restorative experiences in natural environments also do more to protect them by behaving ecologically, as with recycling or reduced driving. University students (N = 488) rated a familiar freshwater marsh in terms of being away, fascination, coherence, and compatibility, qualities of restorative person-environment transactions described in attention restoration theory. They also reported on their performance of various ecological behaviors. The authors tested a structural equation model with data from a randomly drawn subset of participants and then confirmed it with the data from a second subset. For the combined subsets, perceptions of the restorative qualities predicted 23% of the variance in general ecological behavior. As the only direct predictor, fascination mediated the influences of coherence, being away, and compatibility.
Reviews the 2 problems for which a discriminant analysis is used—separation and classification. Issues related to the use and interpretation of a discriminant analysis are those pertaining to (a) distinguishing between a linear discriminant function and a linear classification function, (b) misusing stepwise discriminant analysis programs, (c) ordering variables and selecting variable subsets, (d) choosing a classification rule, (e) estimating true classification hit rates, (f) assessing classification accuracy, and (g) examining and using classification results. Most of these issues deal with information available from package discriminant analysis computer programs. (50 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Explored the underlying structure of the reading scores of 235 men and 163 women (aged 17–64 yrs) using separate speed and accuracy measures from tests of reading comprehension and vocabulary. Gender differences were then examined with respect to both overall reading measures and the underlying basic processes. Speed and accuracy measures of basic processes involved in the reading of single words revealed reading differences which support the findings from the general reading tests. It was concluded that the female advantage in verbal tasks relates primarily to faster and more accurate use of lexical and orthographic knowledge, but that this accuracy advantage disappears when the reading task requires higher order processing skills. This work suggests that exploration of the speed and accuracy components of basic processing tasks is a fruitful approach to understanding individual differences, such as those related to gender. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The argument for preceding multiple analysis of variance ({anovas}) with a multivariate analysis of variance ({manova}) to control for Type I error is challenged. Several situations are discussed in which multiple {anovas} might be conducted without the necessity of a preliminary {manova}. Three reasons for considering multivariate analysis are discussed: to identify outcome variable system constructs, to select variable subsets, and to determine variable relative worth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Attention Restoration Theory (ART) proposes that effortful directed attention can become fatigued in modern urban environments. Restoration can occur in a setting that evokes fascination (effortless attention). Ordinary natural settings evoke soft fascination, that is, moderate fascination accompanied by esthetic pleasure. Such settings enable a fully restorative experience, including the recovery of directed attention and the opportunity for serious reflection. Settings broadly classified as sports/entertainment are more likely to evoke hard fascination, that is, very high levels of fascination that fill the mind. Such settings permit directed attention recovery but afford little opportunity for reflection. We tested these ideas by having participants rate the perceived restorative effectiveness of three kinds of settings (ordinary natural, sports/entertainment, and everyday urban) under two goal-set conditions (as places for attentional recovery or for reflection). Ordinary natural settings were seen as having the highest overall restorative effectiveness, everyday urban settings as having the lowest, and sports/entertainment settings as in between. Moreover, sports/entertainment settings were seen as higher in restorative effectiveness for the attentional-recovery goal set than for the reflection goal set. No such goal-set difference occurred for the other two setting categories combined. These results are in agreement with the predictions of ART.
In this study we investigate the effect of leafy plants on subjects' task performance and mood. As independent variables, two types of tasks and several room arrangements were used. There was an association or a sorting task and the room was arranged either with the plant placed in front of the subjects, to the side of the subjects, or with no plant placed in the room. Gender was also considered as a variable for analysis. Undergraduate students (F=63,M =83) performed either the association task or the sorting task under one of the three room arrangements. The association task was to create no more than 30 words for 20 different items. The sorting task was to sort 180 index cards into Japanese syllabary order.As for the task performance, Room×Gender interaction was significant in the scores of the association task (p<0·05). Male subjects working without plants performed worse than female subjects under the same conditions (p<0·01). Moreover, the task performances of the male subjects using the front arrangement were higher than that of the male subjects working without plants (p<0·10). It was concluded that the presence of the plants affected the association task more than the sorting task, and male subjects more than female subjects. It was also suggested that the presence of the leafy plants might affects creative work positively.
Different conceptual perspectives converge to predict that if individuals are stressed, an encounter with most unthreatening natural environments will have a stress reducing or restorative influence, whereas many urban environments will hamper recuperation. Hypotheses regarding emotional, attentional and physiological aspects of stress reducing influences of nature are derived from a psycho-evolutionary theory. To investigate these hypotheses, 120 subjects first viewed a stressful movie, and then were exposed to color/sound videotapes of one of six different natural and urban settings. Data concerning stress recovery during the environmental presentations were obtained from self-ratings of affective states and a battery of physiological measures: heart period, muscle tension, skin conductance and pulse transit time, a non-invasive measure that correlates with systolic blood pressure. Findings from the physiological and verbal measures converged to indicate that recovery was faster and more complete when subjects were exposed to natural rather than urban environments. The pattern of physiological findings raised the possibility that responses to nature had a salient parasympathetic nervous system component; however, there was no evidence of pronounced parasympathetic involvement in responses to the urban settings. There were directional differences in cardiac responses to the natural vs urban settings, suggesting that attention/intake was higher during the natural exposures. However, both the stressor film and the nature settings elicited high levels of involuntary or automatic attention, which contradicts the notion that restorative influences of nature stem from involuntary attention or fascination. Findings were consistent with the predictions of the psycho-evolutionary theory that restorative influences of nature involve a shift towards a more positively-toned emotional state, positive changes in physiological activity levels, and that these changes are accompanied by sustained attention/intake. Content differences in terms of natural vs human-made properties appeared decisive in accounting for the differences in recuperation and perceptual intake.
Records on recovery after cholecystectomy of patients in a suburban Pennsylvania hospital between 1972 and 1981 were examined
to determine whether assignment to a room with a window view of a natural setting might have restorative influences. Twenty-three
surgical patients assigned to rooms with windows looking out on a natural scene had shorter postoperative hospital stays,
received fewer negative evaluative comments in nurses' notes, and took fewer potent analgesics than 23 matched patients in
similar rooms with windows facing a brick building wall.
This experiment assessed the effects of a red versus a green versus a white office environment on worker productivity and mood. An equal number of males and females completed a mood questionnaire before and after proofreading in one of the three offices. It was predicted that the subjects in the red office would report more tension and possibly make more errors. However, the subjects in the red office made the fewest errors, while the subjects in the white office made the most errors. Females scored significantly better on the proofreading task, and reported more tension and less vigour than males in the experiment. Subjects who worked in the red office found the colour of their office more distracting than subjects who worked in and rated the white office. The subjects in the white office reported that they would like to work in this environment and considered this colour most appropriate for an office. The authors speculate that a sterile, white environment may not be as conducive to work as is believed.
Previous research by Hirt, Melton, McDonald, and Harackiewicz (1996) found that mood effects on creativity were not mediated by the same mechanisms as were mood effects on quantitative measures of performance and evaluations of performance, suggesting that mood may simultaneously be working through different processes (dual process view). However, other research (Martin & Stoner, 1996; Sinclair, Mark, & Clore, 1994) supports a single process, mood-as-information model for similar effects of mood on processing. In the present research, we hypothesized that if a single, mood-as-information process accounts for mood effects on both creativity and quantitative performance, then all mood effects should be eliminated if participants are cued that their mood is irrelevant to the task (cf. Schwarz & Clore, 1983). We manipulated participants' moods prior to task performance and presented them with either an enjoyment-based or a performance-based stop rule; half of the participants were cued to the true source of their moods, half were not. Cueing participants eliminated mood effects on quantitative measures of performance (e.g., number generated). However, consistent with a dual-process view, the cueing manipulation did not affect creativity; happy participants generated the most creative responses regardless of stop rule or cue.
In this study, three experiments were performed in order to investigate the effect of ornamental foliage plants on visual fatigue caused by visual display terminal operation. Visual fatigue was evaluated as critical flicker fusion frequency (CFF). Four students served as subjects in each experiment.The experiment (1) was carried out to examine the reduction of visual fatigue by viewing plants during visual display terminal operation. As the results, the CFF of the subjects in case of viewing plants was higher than that in case of viewing no plant. Especially, the difference of the CFF of the subject A was 9.3%.The experiment (2) was carried out to examine the recovery of visual fatigue by viewing plants after visual display terminal operation. As the results, the CFF of the three subjects except A increased in case of viewing plants and decreased in case of viewing no plant. The differences of the CFF of the subjects B and D were 4.6% and 3.6% respectively.The experiment (3) was carried out to determine whether difference in kinds of plants could bring about difference of the recovery of visual fatigue. As the results, average of the CFF of the subjects in case of viewing Schefflera arboricola “Hong Kong”, Cupressus macrocarpa “Gold Crest” and no plant decreased by 2.7%, 3.1% and 6.0% respectively, while average of the CFF of the subjects in case of viewing Dracaena fragrans “Massangeana” showed an increase of 0.6%.
VDT作業によるテクノストレス (主として視覚疲労) が緑を見ることによって解消されるかを実験的に究明した。その結果, パーソナルコンピュータによるVDT作業を一定時間行わせた後に鉢物の緑遠景の樹林, 屋上の芝生などの緑を見せることによって, 無刺激条件 (何もしない), 模造品の緑を見せるなどに比べて, フリッカー値の低下 (率) は著しく抑制される。いうならば, 視覚疲労が明らかに緩和, 回復されることが明らかとなった。
The study presents an investigation of the effects of the recommended office lighting on subjects' mood and cognitive performance in the physical setting of an office. In addition, a gender effect in the performance appraisal task was examined, both as a between-and within-subject factor. The results showed no significant effect of the lighting on the performance of cognitive tasks. However, an interaction between gender and color temperature on mood showed that 3000K (more reddish) and 4000K (more bluish) office lighting may communicate different affective loadings or meanings to each gender. The cognitive workload induced by almost 2 hours of intellectual work diminished the subjects' positive mood and augmented a negative mood. Moreover, independently of their gender, the raters evaluated the neutral female significantly different from the neutral male ratee. Implications of these findings for the mood effects of indoor lighting and the gender effect in work-related judgment are discussed.
Task type and the presence of windows and posters were manipulated to examine their effects on individuals' performance, mood, and perceptions. Male and female undergraduates worked either a filing, computational, or creative task in a windowed or windowless room, with or without a poster (i.e., task-relevant cues). As predicted, the presence of windows did not affect performance. Window presence increased perceptions that the room was motivating and the likelihood that one looked about the room for help with the computational task. Unexpectedly, the number of errors on the computational task was reduced when the task-relevant poster was present. Poster presence also increased positive mood and decreased fatigue perceptions for individuals performing the creative task. Overall, poster presence increased confidence. Because perceptions of task demand were related to several outcome variables, the stimulation from windows and posters appears to interact with the task demand.
The utility of different theoretical models of restorative experience was explored in a quasi-experimental field study and a true experiment. The former included wilderness backpacking and nonwilderness vacation conditions, as well as a control condition in which participants continued with their daily routines. The latter had urban environment, natural environment, and passive relaxation conditions. Multimethod assessments of restoration consisted of self-reports of affective states, cognitive performance, and, in the latter study, physiological measures. Convergent self-report and performance results obtained in both studies offer evidence of greater restorative effects arising from experiences in nature. Implications for theory, methodology, and design are discussed.
This research examines the use of visual material to decorate windowed and windowless offices. Three hypotheses were tested: (1) Occupants of windowless offices should put up more visual materials than do occupants of windowed offices to compensate for the stimulus deprivation; (2) visual materials in windowless offices should consist of more "surrogate views" (e.g., landscapes and cityscapes) than the visual materials in windowed offices where real views are present; and (3) visual decor in windowless offices should be dominated by materials with a nature content. A detailed content analysis of wall decor used in 75 offices on the University of Washington campus was conducted. Results show that occupants of windowless space used twice as many (195 versus 82) visual materials to decorate their offices. Further, materials in windowless offices were dominated by nature themes as predicted in hypothesis 3. Although windowless occupants did not use significantly more "surrogate views" overall than did occupants of windowed spaces, content of the surrogate views was significantly different for the two windowed conditions. People in windowless offices used more landscapes and fewer cityscapes than did occupants of windowed spaces.
Two experiments investigated the effect of indoor lighting on cognitive performance via mood. Experiment 1 varied two lighting parameters in a factorial, between-subject design: two illuminance levels (dim; 300 lx vs bright; 1500 lx) by two colour temperatures (‘warm’ white; 3000K vs ‘cool’ white; 4000K) at high CRI (Colour Rendering Index; 95). In experiment 2 the parameters of lighting were identical to the first experiment, except for the low CRI (CRI; 55). In both experiments gender was introduced as an additional grouping factor. Results in experiment 1 showed that a colour temperature which induced the least negative mood enhanced the performance in the long-term memory and problem-solving tasks, in both genders. In experiment 2, the combination of colour temperature and illuminance that best preserved the positive mood in one gender enhanced this gender's performance in the problem-solving and free recall tasks. Thus, subjects' mood valences and their cognitive performances varied significantly with the genders' emotionally different reactions to the indoor lighting. This suggests, in practice, that the criteria for good indoor lighting may be revised, taking into account females' and males' emotional and cognitive responses as well.
The authors report further evidence bearing on the relations among restorative experiences, self-regulation, and place attachment. University students (n = 101) described their favorite places and experiences in them, and 98 other students described unpleasant places. Natural settings were overrepresented among favorite places and underrepresented among the unpleasant places. In open-ended accounts, frequent mention of being relaxed, being away from everyday life, forgetting worries, and reflecting on personal matters indicated a link between favorite places and restorative experience. Restoration was particularly typical of natural favorite places. Structured evaluations of being away, fascination, coherence, and compatibility indicated they were experienced to a high degree in the favorite places, although fascination to a lesser degree than compatibility. The favorite and unpleasant places differed substantially in all four restorative qualities but especially in being away and compatibility. Self-referencing appears to be more characteristic of favorite place experiences than engaging or interesting environmental properties.
presents some of the findings regarding the impact of mild positive affect on thinking and motivation / explores the processes underlying them and the circumstances under which they are likely to be observed / focus is on decision making, but in order to understand affect's influence on decisions, it is helpful to consider its impact on cognitive organization (or the way material is thought about and related to other material) and on motivation (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Theory and research dealing with place identity and restorative environments have for the most part proceeded independently. Assuming that emotional- and self-regulation are processes underlying the development of place identity, and that a person's favorite place is an exemplar of environments used in such regulation processes, the present study goes beyond preliminary observations about restorative aspects of favorite places to consider how individuals evaluate their favorite places using terms set out in restorative environments theory. Finnish university students (n=78) evaluated the central square of their city (Tampere) and favorite and unpleasant places of their own designation using the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS), an instrument based on attention restoration theory. Consistent with notions of self-regulation, PRS subscale scores for Being Away, Fascination, Coherence, and Compatibility were all high in the favorite place evaluations, but Coherence and Compatibility were reliably higher than Being Away, which was in turn reliably higher than Fascination. Also, PRS subscale scores for the favorite places were reliably higher than those for the central square, which were in turn higher than those for the unpleasant places. Furthermore, differences were also found in self-reported emotional states associated with each place. The discussion suggests ways to develop further mutually reinforcing relations between restorative environments research and research on place identity.
The impact of indoor lighting, gender, and age on mood and cognitive performance was examined in a between-subject experiment. It was hypothesized that indoor lighting is an affective source that may convey emotional meanings differentiated by gender, age, or both. A two-way interaction between type of lamp and age on negative mood showed that younger adults (about 23 years old) best preserved a negative mood in the “warm” (more reddish) white lighting while working with a battery of cognitive tasks for 90 minutes; for the older adults (about 65 years old), “cool” (more bluish) white lighting accounted for the identical effect. The younger females were shown to preserve the positive mood as well as the negative mood better than the younger males, and a main effect of age in all cognitive tasks revealed the superiority of younger to older adults in cognitive performance.
Author's Note: This article benefited greatly from the many improvements in organization, expression, and content made by Rachel Kaplan, and the many suggestions concerning consistency, clarity, and accuracy made by Terry Hartig. Thanks also to the SESAME group for providing a supportive environment for exploring many of the themes discussed here. The project was funded, in part, by USDA Forest Service, North Central Experiment Station, Urban Forestry Unit Co-operative Agreements. Abstract An analysis of the underlying similarities between the Eastern meditation tradition and attention restoration theory (ART) provides a basis for an expanded framework for studying directed attention. The focus of the analysis is the active role the individual can play in the preservation and recovery of the directed attention capacity. Two complementary strategies are presented which can help individuals more effectively manage their attentional resource. One strategy involves avoiding unnecessary costs in terms of expenditure of directed attention. The other involves enhancing the effect of restorative opportunities. Both strategies are hypothesized to be more effective if one gains generic knowledge, self knowledge and specific skills. The interplay between a more active form of mental involvement and the more passive approach of meditation appear to have far-reaching ramifications for managing directed attention. Research on mental restoration has focused on the role of the environment, and especially the natural environment. Such settings have been shown to reduce both stress and directed attention fatigue (DAF) (Hartig & Evans, 1993). Far less emphasis, however, has been placed on the possibility of active participation by the individual in need of recovery. A major purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of this mostly neglected component of the restorative process.
This study is based on a theoretical view which suggests that under increased demands for attention, individuals' capacity to direct attention may become fatigued. Once fatigued, attentional restoration must occur in order to return to an effectively functioning state. An attention-restoring experience can be as simple as looking at nature. The purpose of this study was to explore whether university dormitory residents with more natural views from their windows would score better than those with less natural views on tests of directed attention. Views from dormitory windows of 72 undergraduate students were categorized into four groups ranging from all natural to all built. The capacity to direct attention was measured using a battery of objective and subjective measures. Natural views were associated with better performance on attentional measures, providing support for the proposed theoretical view.
Window access, task type, and the room (windowed or windowless) were manipulated to investigate their effects on performance and individuals' perceptions of the task and room. Students (n = 180) performed one of three tasks (filing, computational, creative) in either a windowed or windowless room, and had either a direct or indirect interaction with the window. Contrary to expectation, performance and perceptions were not affected by the interaction of window access, task type, and the room. Also, performance was not higher for those working in a room with a window. A marginal interaction effect (p < 0.10) indicated that the creative task is affected by the type of access. Also, the effects on perceptions of the task and room tend to indicate that windowed rooms do contribute a dynamic environment. Specifically, the windowed room appeared to effect more positive perceptions for the creative task. Interestingly, some positive perceptions about the monotonous task occurred in the windowless room; however, boredom tended to be reduced when one faced the window. Implications of these results and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Two studies were conducted with the aim of developing a set of rating scale measures of restorative components of environments. In Study 1, 238 Norwegian undergraduates acting as subjects imagined themselves to be either in a nature environment or a city environment which they rated on unipolar scales intended to describe how they experienced the environments. In Study 2 another sample of 157 subjects recruited from the same population of Norwegian undergraduates viewed videos of a forest, park, sea area, city, and a snowy mountain, imagining themselves to be in these environments while performing ratings on the same scales. In both studies factor analyses yielded results in agreement with a theory proposed by Kaplan and Kaplan (1989). However, the being away factor posited by the theory was split into two factors, one with high loadings on rating scales tapping being physically away, the other with high loadings on rating scales tapping being psychologically away. The remaining three factors were defined by rating scales tapping extent, fascination, and compatibility, respectively. Composite measures of the factors had acceptable reliability. Furthermore, as predicted, environments with nature elements generally scored higher than city environments on all measures. Compatibility and fascination predicted preference ratings of the environments, whereas escape and compatibility predicted selfratings of relaxation.
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.
The patterns of information available in the environment are often ignored in analyses of the fit or congruence between person and environment. By viewing such information patterns (in conjunction with the environmental constraints on behavior and the individual's purposes) as potential sources of incompatibility, it is possible to understand a substantially wider range of human-environment relationships. From this perspective, person-environment incompatibility turns out to be a problem that is widespread and that extracts high psychological costs. It might seem that the solution to such problems requires an increase in environmental controllability; such an assumption can, however, be questioned on a number of grounds. An alternative approach is proposed in terms of the concepts of supportive and restorative environments. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66976/2/10.1177_0013916583153003.pdf
The well-being of the workforce is clearly a matter of concern to the employer. Such concern translates to considerable costs in the form of fringe benefit packages, health promotion programs, ergonomics, and other ways to reduce absence and enhance health and satisfaction. Despite such efforts, however, one way to address well-being that entails relatively low costs has been largely ignored in the work context. Proximity and availability of the natural environment can foster many desired outcomes, even if the employee does not spend a great amount of time in the natural setting. A theoretical framework is presented that helps explain why even the view from the window can have a positive impact with respect to well-being. Results from two studies offer some substantiation. Further research on the role of nature in the workplace is essential; however, decisions to provide health promoting programs and to enhance fringe benefit packages have not been offered as a direct consequence of empirical verification. While providing windows at work may not be a simple matter, other ways to increase contact with vegetation may provide a low-cost, high-gain approach to employee well-being and effectiveness. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/30542/1/0000175.pdf
We investigated the influence of windows on performance, mood, and satisfaction for different task types. Forty students worked computational or managerial tasks in offices with or without windows. Contrary to expectation, windowed offices did not effect higher performance, positive mood, or satisfaction. Actually, students felt slightly more confident (p < .10) and more in control (p < .01) in the windowless condition, suggesting a need for privacy to reduce evaluation apprehension. How windows affect performance, mood, and satisfaction remains unclear.
Research on psychological restoration and restorative environments is a needed complement to work on stress and environmental stressors. Two laboratory experiments tested the utility of two restorative environments theories, one concerned with directed attention capacity renewal and the other with stress reduction and associated changes in emotion. Various strategies were employed to distinguish restorative effects from other effects, to limit the role of arousal reduction in attentional restoration, and to begin mapping the time course for the emergence of outcomes. Both experiments tested for differential emotional and performance effects as a function of photographic environmental simulation (natural or urban environment). Across the experiments the natural environment simulation engendered generally more positive emotional self-reports. That consistent performance effects were not found in either study suggests that attentional restoration as reflected in performance is a more time-intensive process.
- Lewin C.