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Interested in robots that are entire rooms?  If you’ve answered “yes” take a look at the press release at the web address noted below. Highlights of the release: “Supported by a new three-year, $600,000 National Science Foundation grant and an industry partner, Cornell researchers and collaborators are working on what they say is a next frontier in domestic human-machine interaction, a new category of space-making robots that people will inhabit. Keith Evan Green, director of the Architectural Robotics Lab, calls them ‘robot rooms': reconfigurable, intelligent environments that will surround and support people occupying small spaces, from high-rise studios and hospital rooms to self-driving vehicles and spacecraft. ‘We’re working on a room of multiple robot surfaces that make one room, many rooms,’ said Green. . . . ‘But we can also create a space that transports you to another place psychologically, a portal to somewhere else. . . . Futuristic as it sounds, the work is driven by current population and lifestyle trends, some accelerated by the pandemic.”

“Space-Making ‘Robot Rooms’ Promise Practicality, Escape.”  2022.  Press release, Cornell University, https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2022/11/space-making-robot-rooms-promise-practicality-escape

In an open access review of previously published studies, Lee and Spence report on identified links between shapes and tastes that will be particularly useful to people developing culinary experiences.  The research team shares that “People tend to associate abstract visual features with basic taste qualities. This narrative historical review critically evaluates the literature on these associations. . . . the majority of shape-taste studies that have been published to date have chosen to focus on curvilinearity. Among these studies, a consensus has been reached on the mapping between curvilinearity and the five basic tastes. People typically associate rounded shapes with sweet taste, while associating angular shapes with sour, salty, bitter, and umami tastes.”

Byron Lee and Charles Spence.  “Crossmodal Correspondences Between Basic Tastes and Visual Design Features:  A Narrative Historical Review.”  i-Perception, https://doi.org/10.1177/20416695221127325

Moll and colleagues found that kids are mentally refreshed by the same sorts of things as adults.  The researchers share that via a literature review of studies related to people from 0 – 19 years old they determined that “Results show that exposure to nature has significant restorative effects. . . . The main objective of this systematic review was to evaluate and synthesize the extant evidence about the effects of exposure to nature on restoring cognitive, emotional, social and behavioural resources for children and adolescents. Overall, our results reflect that nature exposure is restorative for this population group.”

Adrian Moll, Silvia Collado, Henk Staats, and Jose Corraliza. 2022. “Restorative Effects of Exposure to Nature on Children and Adolescents:  A Systematic Review.” Journal of Environmental Psychology, vol. 84, 101884, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101884

Research at the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for the Built Environment (CBE)  indicates that there may be more flexibility in setting workplace temperatures than previously thought. 

Researchers at the CBE “found no evidence for a relationship between temperature and work performance within the range temperatures commonly found in office buildings, and certainly none that should be adopted as an industry recommendation. The research team analyzed 358 performance measures from 35 studies on temperature and work performance (the term now preferred over productivity) published between 1946 and 2020.  These results stand in contrast to an earlier 2006 study [Seppanen, Fisk, and Lei] that concluded that worker performance would peak at 72°F (22°C), and that performance will decline as temperatures deviate either warmer or cooler from this temperature.”  The Berkeley team “created an online interactive tool for exploring relationships between temperature and office work performance, including various regression models, temperatures, and factors such as site climate, performance metrics, and task complexity.” The online interactive tool is available at https://cbe-berkeley.shinyapps.io/temp-performance/

David Lehrer.  2022. “New Study Throws Cold Water on Widely Accepted Relationship Between Temperature and Work Performance.”  Press release, Center for the Built Environment, University of California Berkeley, https://cbe.berkeley.edu/centerline/temperature-and-work-performance/

Loder and Stoner review studies related to nature (plants, nature views, etc.) in work environments.  They share, for example, that “Research has shown that contact with nature
can improve task performance, usually through increased attention and focus. This is often evaluated with cognitive tests that measure productivity through proxy measures, such as the speed of completion for tasks, classic cognitive load tests (often working memory), error rate, short-term memory, and higher order mental functions.” Another example of content included: “Research has shown that contact with nature can reduce stress and improve mood, often through the restorative qualities of nature. . . . Mental restoration is often evaluated both through psychological measures such as psychological tests or questions that evaluate mental health, such as levels of stress, depression, anxiety, or mood, as well as physiological tests that evaluate the body’s response to stress, such as high blood pressure, cortisol levels (used to measure stress), and heart rate.”

Angela Loder and Alden Stoner.  2022. “Access to Nature and the Workplace – What is the Evidence?  What Does This Mean for the Modern Workplace.” International WELL Building Institute and Nature Sacred, https://naturesacred.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/E-WELL-update-1.pdf

Koreny and teammates evaluated how urban design influences the activity levels of people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).  They determined via research with people with mild-to-very severe COPD that “higher population density was associated with fewer steps, more sedentary time and worse exercise capacity. . . . Pedestrian street length related with more steps and less sedentary time. . . . Steeper slope was associated with better exercise capacity. . . . Higher NO2 [nitrogen dioxide] levels related with more sedentary time and more difficulty in physical activity. PM2.5 [particulate matter] and noise were not associated with physical activity or exercise capacity. . . . Population density, pedestrian street length, slope and NO2 exposure relate to physical activity and capacity of COPD patients living in highly populated areas.”

Maria Koreny, Ane Arbillaga-Etxarri, Magda de Basea and 9 others. 2022. “Urban Environment and Physical Activity and Capacity in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.”  Environmental Research, vol. 214, Part 2, 113956, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.113956

Ogletree and colleagues found lower crime levels in areas near greenspaces.  They report that they “investigate[d] the relationship between different types of crime and urban greenspace in 59,703 census block groups within the 301 largest cities in the United States. After accounting for . . . demographic, socioeconomic, and climate variables, we found that, on average, census block groups with more greenspace . . . had lower risk of both property [for example, arson, vandalism, and burglary]. . . and violent crime. . . . For property crime, this significant negative relationship held for all but one city in the sample (Cape Coral, FL), and no cities displayed a significant positive relationship. For violent crime a negative relationship was found for 289 cities and only three cities displayed a significant positive relationship (Chicago, IL, Detroit, MI, and Newark, NJ).”

S. Ogletree, Lincoln Larson, Robert Powell, David White, and Matthew Brownlee.  2022. “Urban Greenspace Linked to Lower Crime Risk Across 301 Major US Cities.’  Cities, vol. 131, 103949, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2022.103949

Sudimac, Sale, and Kuhn confirm the value of taking walks in natural areas.  They share that they “conducted an intervention study to investigate changes in stress-related brain regions as an effect of a one-hour walk in an urban (busy street) vs. natural environment (forest). . . . findings reveal that amygdala [the amygdala is involved in stress processing] activation decreases after the walk in nature, whereas it remains stable after the walk in an urban environment. These results suggest that going for a walk in nature . . . may act as a preventive measure against mental strain and potentially disease. Given rapidly increasing urbanization, the present results may influence urban planning to create more accessible green areas and to adapt urban environments in a way that will be beneficial for citizens’ mental health.”

Sonja Sudimac, Vera Sale, and Simone Kuhn.  2022. “How Nature Nurtures: Amygdala Activity Decreases as the Result of a One-Hour Walk in Nature.”  Molecular Psychiatry, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-022-01720-6

How much are different sorts of views worth?  Crompton and Nicholls report that “Twenty-seven empirical studies were identified that empirically estimated the impact on property values of views of open space. The review differentiated between street level and high-rise building views. Among the 17 street-level view studies, only five found substantial premiums which ranged from 4.9% to 9.29%, while four others reported either a small increase in value or mixed results. Five studies reported low-elevation views had no impact. Three reported a negative premium which was antithetical to expectations. In all three cases the view was of forest land, not parks or open space. Only ten studies addressed the impact of views from elevated buildings and nine of them were undertaken in China. The highest premiums were for views of residential gardens which two studies estimated at 24% and 17.2%. Five studies reported view premiums for neighborhood parks averaging 5.6%, while two studies counter-intuitively reported that mountain views had a negative premium.”

John Crompton and Sarah Nicholls.  2022. “The Impact of Park Views on Property Values.” Leisure Sciences, vol. 44, no. 8, pp. 1099-1111, https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2019.1703125

Harmon and Kyle studied how natural spaces can support people diagnosed with cancer.  They share that they “sought to explore how those diagnosed with cancer use natural spaces as a supportive resource in their healing process. . . . the profound benefit of repeated exposure to restorative natural environments for those diagnosed with cancer establishes how natural spaces become places of healing for people with serious illnesses.”

Justin Harmon and Gerard Kyle.  2022. “Connecting to the Trail:  Natural Spaces as Places of Healing.”  Leisure Sciences, vol. 44, no. 8, pp. 1112-1127, https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2020.1712282