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Research by Paes and colleagues sheds additional light on the most effective VR based studies.  The investigators report that “Identifying and characterizing the factors that affect presence in virtual environments has been acknowledged as a critical step to improving Virtual Reality (VR) applications in the built environment domain. In the search to identify those factors, the research objective was to test whether three-dimensional perception affects presence in virtual environments. . . . VR applications in architectural design may not necessarily need to incorporate advanced stereoscopic visualization techniques to deliver highly immersive experiences, which may be achieved by addressing factors other than depth realism. As findings suggest that the levels of presence experienced by users are not subject to the display mode of a 3D model (whether immersive or non-immersive display), it may still be possible for professionals involved in the review of 3D models (e.g., designers, contractors, clients) to experience high levels of presence through non-stereoscopic VR systems provided that other presence-promoting factors are included.”

Daniel Paes, Javier Irizarry, Mark Billinghurst, and Diego Pujoni.  2023. “Investigating the Relationship Between Three-Dimensional Perception and Presence in Virtual Reality-Reconstructed Architecture.”  Applied Ergonomics, vol. 109, 103953, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2022.103953

Latini, Di Giuseppe, and D’Orazio have determined that research outcomes obtained in virtual reality settings are useful in real world applications.  They conducted research in real and immersive office spaces finding “No significant results variation between real and virtual offices. . . . participants performed one test session in a real or a virtual room, three cognitive tasks and surveys (on immersivity, cybersickness, comfort, and intention of interaction). The validation process was addressed by evaluating the adequacy of VR in representing real-life scenarios and the benchmark of results. Findings confirmed the ecological validity of the model by an excellent sense of presence, graphical satisfaction, involvement, realism and low cybersickness levels. The absence of significant differences between the results on comfort, productivity, and behaviour, collected in the real and virtual settings, supported the criterion validity. Results highlighted the potentialities of applying VR to support a user-centred design and investigations on multi-domain comfort.”

Arianna Latini, Elisa Di Giuseppe, and Marco D’Orazio.  2023. “Immersive Virtual vs Real Office Environments:  A Validation Study for Productivity, Comfort and Behavioural Research.”  Building and Environment, vol. 230, 109996, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2023.109996

Goel and colleagues evaluated workers’ experiences in various sorts of workspaces.  They report that “Data from 225 office workers were collected for perceived fatigue, perceived sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index [PSQI]), physiological stress response (standard deviation of heart rate variability [HRV]), and physical activity (total activity in minutes) during three consecutive workdays. Stress and physical activity were measured using chest-worn sensors. Workers were then categorized as tired or not-tired based on the median of the fatigue rating.  Among tired workers, open-bench seating workers had increased physical activity, improved sleep quality, and reduced stress compared with workers in private offices and cubicles.  Office workstation types influence physical activity and levels of stress during work hours, which in turn affect sleep quality.”

Rahul Goel, Alan Pham, Hung Nguyen, Casey Lindberg, Brian Gilligan, Matthias Mehl, Judith Heerwagen, Kevin Kampschroer, Esther Sternberg, Bijan Najafi, and the Wellbuilt for Wellbeing Team. 2021. “Effect of Workstation Type on the Relationship Between Fatigue, Physical Activity, Stress, and Sleep.”  Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, vol. 63, no. 3, pp. e103-e110, doi: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000002108

Chishima and colleagues link becoming attached to a place and resident values.  The team reports that “person-environment fit between individual values (traditional vs. modern) and environmental characteristics (rural vs. urbanizing communities) promotes place attachment and participation. . . . we qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed one rural and one urbanizing community under the same local government (Takizawa City) in Iwate Prefecture, a Northeastern region of Japan. . . . qualitative data from brochures and interviews indicated that the rural community highly valued traditions, whereas the urbanizing community accepted changes in the community. . . . we surveyed 1025 adults living in these communities and found that those who valued tradition showed higher place attachment and community participation in the rural (vs. the urbanizing) community, while those who valued modernization indicated higher place attachment in the urbanizing (vs. the rural) community.”

Yuta Chishima, Yukihisa Minoura, Yukiko Uchida, Shintaro Fukushima, and Kosuke Takemura.  2023. “Who Commits to the Community?  Person-Community Fit, Place Attachment, and Participation in Local Japanese Communities.”  Journal of Environmental Psychology, vol. 86, 101964, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.101964

Jafarifiroozabadi and teammates build on the body of literature linking daylight and window views in hospitals to positive effects on patient wellbeing.  The team shares that they probed “the impact of access to daylight vs. window views on CICU [cardiac intensive care unit] patients’ LOS [length of stay in the hospital]. . . . patients receiving mechanical ventilation in rooms with access to daylight and window views had shorter LOS durations . . . than those in windowless rooms. Sensitivity analysis for a subset of patients with LOS ≤3 days revealed that parallel bed placement to the [full-height, south-facing] windows and providing access to both daylight and window views significantly reduced their LOS compared to windowless rooms in the unit. . . . parallel bed placement to the [full-height, south-facing] window significantly reduced LOS in this patient subset for those with an experience of delirium . . . dementia . . . anxiety history . . .  obesity . . .  and those receiving palliative care . . . or mechanical ventilation.”

Roxana Jafarifiroozabadi, Anjali Joseph, Williams Bridges, and Andrea Franks.  “The Impact of Daylight and Window Views on Length of Stay Among Patients with Heart Disease:  A Retrospective Study in a Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.”  Journal of Intensive Medicine, in press, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jointm.2022.11.002

Wang, Narcisse, and McElfish report that as the walkability of a neighborhood increases, the health of the people who live there is likely to be affected. The team shares that “Data from the 2020 National Health Interview Survey were analyzed. . . . Compared with those in low-walkability neighborhoods, participants in high-walkability neighborhoods had increased odds of sufficient PA [physical activity] . . . and decreased obesity odds. . . . The association between walkability and BMI was modified by race and ethnicity. . . . Among White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian adults, BMI decreased with increasing walkability; among American Indian/Alaska Native and multiracial/other adults, BMI increased with increasing walkability.”

Monica Wang, Marie-Rachelle Narcisse, and Pearl McElfish.  2023. “Higher Walkability Associated with Increased Physical Activity and Reduced Obesity Among United States Adults.”  Obesity, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 553-564, https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.23634

Isaacson and team evaluated how perceptions of paintings are affected by music played as they are viewed. The researchers report that study participants “were asked to choose one of three realistic or abstract paintings, evaluate their perceptual characteristics on five semantic differential rating scales and answer three questions. The participants were then given a choice of three musical pieces (pre-selected to suit each painting) to match their chosen painting. Our findings revealed a significant change in three of the five scales. Moreover, for 93 of the 120 participants, the experience of looking at a painting while listening allowed projection of newly found perception or properties associated with music (dynamism through time, mobility, and the evocation of self-expression) onto the painting. These data suggest that as observers combine stylistically-fitting music with a painting, they find new meaning and value, thereby enhancing their experience.”

Atara Isaacson, Amichay Assis, and Esther Adi-Japha.  “’Listening’ to Paintings:  Synergetic Effect of a Cross-Modal Experience on Subjective Perception.”  Empirical Studies of the Arts, in press, https://doi.org/10.1177/02762374231155742

 Research by Phillips and colleagues verifies the value of having access to nature.  The team reports on experiences during the COVID pandemic: “we examine which types of nature engagement (i.e. with nearby nature, through nature excursions and media-based) are more strongly associated with well-being. . . . Overall, nature engagement was a consistent predictor of well-being, but different types of activities predicted varying outcomes. . . . Greater engagement with nearby nature during the pandemic was associated with less rumination, less pandemic emotional impact and better mental health while nature excursions (e.g. camping, backpacking) and media-based nature engagement were associated with greater loneliness, more emotional impact from the pandemic and worse mental health. In addition, nature engagement via media was associated with greater rumination. Our findings suggest that promoting opportunities to increase engagement with and access to nearby nature is associated with better human well-being, especially during challenging events, and should be part of a multi-pronged approach for coping with the next public health crisis.”

Tina Phillips, Nancy Wells, Abigail Brown, Jordan Tralins, and David Bonter.  2023. “Nature and Well-Being:  The Association of Nature Engagement and Well-Being During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.”  People and Nature, https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10433

Geng and colleagues studied the effects of light color on employee decisions.  They found “that blue light more likely promotes individuals choosing the farsighted intertemporal option (i.e., delayed but larger payment) than red light. . . . The current study demonstrates the effectiveness of light color and provides a solution to nudge people to make farsighted choices.”

Xiaowei Geng, Kai Zhang, Jiatao Ma, Huiming Yang, Ziguang Chen, and Shu Li. “Blue, Rather Than Red Light Can Nudge Employees to Choose Delayed but Larger Wage Payment.”  Environment and Behavior, in press, https://doi.org/10.1177/00139165231153160

Ji and fellow researchers investigated how visible conditions influence perceptions formed; extending their research to make it more applicable by designers will be useful.  The investigators report that “The world can be represented by two layers of information: How it appears on the outside (outward appearance) and what it is on the inside (inner state). To what extent an outward appearance is assumed to reflect the inner state is fundamental to social inference and judgments. . . . We showed that Chinese were more likely than Euro-Canadians to make inference of inner state that deviated from outward appearance, whereas Euro-Canadians were more likely than Chinese to infer a convergence between outward appearance and inner state (Studies 1–5). We observed these cross-cultural patterns in various contexts involving people or physical structures.”

Li-Jun Ji, Albert Lee, Zhiyong Zhang, Ye Li, Xin-Qiang Wang, Debra Torok, Sam Rosenbaum. “Judging a Book by Its Cover:  Cultural Differences in Inference of the Inner State Based on the Outward Appearance.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, in press, https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000413