Latest Blog Posts

Recent research by a Gawryluk-lead team argues for keeping air clean.  The investigators “performed the first controlled human exposure study using functional MRI with an efficient order-randomized double-blind crossover study of diesel exhaust (DE) and control (filtered air; FA) in 25 healthy adults. . . . All 25 adults went through the exposures and functional MRI imaging were collected. Exposure to DE yielded a decrease in functional connectivity compared to exposure to FA, shown through the comparison of DE and FA in post-exposure measurement of functional connectivity. We observed short-term pollution-attributable decrements in default mode network functional connectivity. Decrements in brain connectivity causes many detrimental effects to the human body so this finding should guide policy change in air pollution exposure regulation. . . . Changes in brain connectivity have been associated with decreased working memory and behavioural performance, and deterioration in productivity at work (which is also associated with air pollution)."

Jodie Gawryluk, Daniela Palombo, Jason Curran, Ashleigh Parker and Chris Carlsten.  2023. “Brief Diesel Exhaust Exposure Acutely Impairs Functional Brain Connectivity in Humans:  A Randomized Controlled Crossover Study.”  Environmental Health, vol. 22, no. 7, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-023-00961-4

Turunen and colleagues researched links between green and blue spaces and quality-of-life.  More specifically: “associations of the amounts of residential green and blue spaces within 1 km radius around the respondent’s home (based on the Urban Atlas 2012), green and blue views from home and green space visits with self-reported use of psychotropic (anxiolytics, hypnotics and antidepressants), antihypertensive and asthma medication were examined. . . . Amounts of residential green and blue spaces or green and blue views from home were not associated with medications. However, the frequency of green space visits was associated with lower odds of using psychotropic medication . . . and antihypertensive . . . medication use. . . . Frequent green space visits, but not the amounts of residential green or blue spaces, or green and blue views from home, were associated with less frequent use of psychotropic, antihypertensive and asthma medication in urban environments.”

Anu Turunen, Jaana Halonen, Kalevi Korpela, Ann Ojala, Tytti Pasanen, Taina Siponen, Pekka Tiittanen, Liisa Tyrvainen, Tarja Yli-Tuomi, and Timo Lanki. 2023. “Cross-Sectional Associations of Different Types of Nature Exposure with Psychotropic Antihypertensive and Asthma Medication.”  Occupational and Environmental Medicine, vol. 80, no. 2, http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2022-108491

Bergefurt and colleagues studied the experiences of people working from home, finding that work-at-home experiences were much like those in the workplace.  The investigators determined that “Previous research showed that office workers are mainly distracted by noise, influencing their mental health. . . . at home, employees were distracted by noise and when having a small desk. Those with a dedicated workroom were less distracted. . . . although only correlation inferences could be drawn from the current dataset, the findings do suggest that suboptimal workplace conditions, also when working from home, may lead to lower transient as well as chronic mental health states. Workplace managers should therefore consider more flexible workplace concepts and policies that allow employees to choose where to work, and, in case work is forcefully located at home, to help employees create good conditions there. Such considerations could possibly reduce employees’ experience of distractions, raise their productivity, and protect their mental health.”

Lisanne Bergefurt, Rianne Appel-Meulenbroek, Celine Maris, Theo Arentze, Minou Weijs-Perree and Yvonne de Kort.  2023. “The Influence of Distractions of the Home-Work Environment on Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic.”  Ergonomics, vol. 66, no. 1, pp. 16-33, https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2022.2053590

Gregory and colleagues studied savoring an experience and their findings have wide-ranging implications for design-related outcomes.  The researchers report that “Savoring—an emotion-regulation strategy that involves deliberately upregulating positive affect—has many benefits, but what enhances savoring in the present moment? Drawing from life-history theory, affective and developmental science, and social-psychological frameworks, we examined the idea that perceptions of uncertainty––perceiving the world as random and unpredictable—enhance subsequent savoring. . . . we found that individuals who perceived more uncertainty showed increases in subsequent savoring in their daily lives. . . . individuals who watched a film that induced uncertainty (vs. order or a control condition) subsequently reported higher savoring intentions. Finally, in a field experiment on a busy urban street . . . we found that passersby who received fliers that induced uncertainty (vs. order) subsequently engaged in more savoring behavior by stopping to smell a bouquet of roses. . . . uncertainty . . . can cause people to savor the positives of the present.”

Andrew Gregory, Jordi Quoidbach, Claudia Haase, and Paul Piff.  2023. “Be Here Now:  Perceptions of Uncertainty Enhance Savoring.”  Emotion, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 30-40, https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000961

Marco determined that storage options meaningfully impact residential experiences.  She found that “The stuff that inhabitants own is largely overlooked in current debates on housing policy and design. Yet, householders can have their quality of life, well-being, and happiness negatively affected by the ‘stuff’ they keep in their homes. . . . Th[is] study concludes that the design of future homes could better support inhabitants’ quality of life and well-being if space for storage was better understood. It argues for a more informed approach to housing design, where storage is valued and the space provided is flexible, so the reality of inhabitants’ ‘stuff’, and the associated well-being implications are considered.”

Elena Marco.  2022. “Stuff and Space in the Home:  Space for Storage as the Forgotten Design and Well-Being Dimension in Standardised Housing.” The Journal of Architecture, vol. 27, no. 5-6, pp. 708-733, https://doi.org/10.1080/13602365.2022.2142269

Klotz and colleagues studied the implications of employees experiencing outdoor nature after spending a day at work indoors.  They determined that “Our results, based on three studies employing different methodologies (i.e., an experience sampling study, an experiment, and a recall study), indicate that evening nature contact positively relates to beginning of [next] workday positive affect [mood] and subsequent work effort. However, this effect emerged only for employees with high levels of nature connectedness—an individual difference reflecting individuals’ innate connection to the natural world.”  Nature connectedness is described here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_connectedness

Anthony Klotz, Shawn McClean, Junhyok Yim, Joel Koopman, and Pok Tang.  “Getting Outdoors After the Workday:  The Affective and Cognitive Effects of Evening Nature Contact.” Journal of Management, in press, https://doi.org/10.1177/01492063221106430

Sudimac, Sale, and Kuhn evaluated how experiencing nature influences mental state.  They report that “Since living in cities is associated with an increased risk for mental disorders such as anxiety disorders, depression, and schizophrenia, it is essential to understand how exposure to urban and natural environments affects mental health and the brain. . . . we 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). Brain activation was measured in 63 healthy participants, before and after the walk. . . . Our findings reveal that amygdala 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 can have salutogenic effects on stress-related brain regions, and consequently, it may act as a preventive measure against mental strain and potentially disease.”

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, vol. 27, 4446-4452

Research by Soares and Storm confirms the photo-taking-impairment effect, which has implications for designers and others who routinely photograph places, etc.  Soares and Storm report that “The photo-taking-impairment effect is observed when photographed information is less likely to be remembered than nonphotographed information. Three experiments examined whether this effect persists when multiple photos are taken. Experiment 1 used a within-subjects laboratory-based design in which participants viewed images of paintings and were instructed to photograph them once, five times, or not at all. . . . and the photo-taking-impairment effect was observed when participants took multiple photos. [During] Experiment 2. . . . Participants either photographed all of the paintings they saw once, five times, or not at all. . . . The photo-taking-impairment effect was observed in both photo-taking conditions relative to the no photo baseline. Experiment 3 replicated this pattern of results even when participants who took multiple photos were instructed to take five unique photos. . . . the photo-taking-impairment effect is robust, occurring even when multiple photos are taken.”

Julia Soares and Benjamin Storm.  2022. “Does Taking Multiple Photos Lead to a Photo-Taking-Impairment Effect.” Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, vol. 29, pp. 2211-2218, https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-022-02149-2

Chen and colleagues evaluated how culture influences responses to stimuli; their findings can likely be extended to experiencing design generally.  The investigators report that “Native Mandarin speakers from China and native English speakers from the United States were presented with audiovisual emotional stimuli from their own culture (i.e., familiar) and from a different culture (i.e., unfamiliar) and asked to evaluate the emotion from one of the two modalities. Across modalities, the emotions were either the same (i.e., congruent, happy face, and happy voice) or different (i.e., incongruent, happy face, and sad voice). Results: When the input was in a familiar cultural context, American participants were more influenced by the visual modality, while Chinese participants were more influenced by the auditory modality. . . . When the input was in a less familiar cultural context, both groups showed increased visual dominance, but only the Chinese group simultaneously showed decreased auditory dominance. Conclusions: We conclude that cultural background and input familiarity interact to influence modality dominance during multisensory emotion perception.”

Peiyao Chen, Ashley Chung-Fat-Yim, Taomei Guo, and Viorica Marian.  “Cultural Background and Input Familiarity Influence Multisensory Emotion Perception.”  Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, in press, https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000577

Wang and Chang add to the body of literature linking colors and tastes.  They report that their “study takes popcorn packaging as an example to explore the impact of packaging color on consumers' taste perception and preference evaluation. . . . Four experimental package design colors (red, blue, yellow, and white) and three popcorn tastes (sweet, salty, and tasteless) were used. . . . The results of this study indicated that . . . yellow and red packaging are suitable for a sweet product, blue is suitable for a salty product, and white is suitable for a tasteless product.”

Ching-Yi Wang and Fei-Ya Chang.  2022. “The Influence of Packaging Color on Taste Expectations and Perceptions.” COLOR Research and Application, vol. 47, no. 6, pp. 1426-1441, https://doi.org/10.1002/col.22812