Wobbling on Bridges (11-15-17)
For most people, walking on a swaying pedestrian bridge is an unpleasant experience. Researchers share, at the web address noted below, tools for developing stable pedestrian bridges. As they state: “Modern pedestrian and suspension bridges are designed using industry standard packages, yet disastrous resonant vibrations are observed. . . . The most prominent example of an unstable lively bridge is the London Millennium Bridge, which started wobbling as a result of pedestrian-bridge interactions. . . . We develop foot force models of pedestrians’ response to bridge motion and detailed . . . models of crowd phase locking. We use biomechanically inspired models of crowd lateral movement to investigate to what degree pedestrian synchrony [simultaneous motion] must be present for a bridge to wobble significantly and what is a critical crowd size. Our results can be used as a safety guideline for designing pedestrian bridges or limiting the maximum occupancy of an existing bridge. The pedestrian models can be used as ‘crash test dummies’ when numerically probing a specific bridge design. . . . the U.S. code for designing pedestrian bridges does not contain explicit guidelines that account for the collective pedestrian behavior.”
Igor Belykh, Russell Jeter, and Vladimir Belykh. 2017. “Foot Force Models of Crowd Dynamics on a Wobbly Bridge.” Science Advances, vol. 3, no. 11, http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/11/e1701512.full
Workers Desires: Sitting, Standing, Walking (11-14-17)
Wallmann-Sperlich and her team probed desk-based workers’ desires to sit, stand, and walk while working; it’s important to remember that desires don’t always align with what should happen in any particular situation. The researchers report that their “aim was to investigate and compare actual and desired proportions of time spent sitting, standing, walking, and doing physically demanding tasks at work reported by desk-based workers. . . . data were collected from German desk-based workers. . . . All were interviewed about their self-reported actual and desired level of sitting, standing, walking and physically demanding tasks at work. Desk-based workers reported to sit 73.0%, stand 10.2%, walk 12.9% and do physically demanding tasks 3.9% of their working hours. However, the individuals desire to sit, stand, walk and do physically demand tasks significantly different [53.8% sit, 15.8% stand, 22.8% walk, physically demanding tasks (7.7%) [differences statistically significant]]. The present data revealed greatest mismatch between the desk-based workers’ actual and desired time for sitting and walking.”
Birgit Wallmann-Sperlich, Josephine Chau, and Ingo Froboese. 2017. “Self-Reported Actual and Desired Proportion of Sitting, Standing, Walking and Physically Demanding Tasks of Office Employees in the Workplace Setting: Do They Fit Together?” BMC Research Notes,https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13104-017-2829-9 (open access).
Design in Opportunities for Music (11-13-17)
Research by Payne and his colleagues indicates the value of music in service environments. Data were gathered via interviews with retail and café workers and “a survey of workers in a large service retailer. The findings show broad support for music acting as a bridge for sociality [social exchanges]. Service workers appropriate music for their own purposes and many use this to provide texture and substance to social interactions with customers.”
Jonathan Payne, Marek Korczynski, and Rob Cluley. “Hearing Music in Service Interactions: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis.” Human Relations, in press.
Most Restorative Nature (11-10-17)
Wyles and her colleagues found that not all natural environments are equally restorative. What Wyles and her team have learned about the relative “restorativeness” of different places can be used to select the locations for, and orientations of, buildings, and also to choose art (when art is being used to support cognitive refreshment), for example. The researchers report that “Exposure to nature can . . . enhance psychological restoration (e.g., feeling relaxed/refreshed). . . . The present study used data from a large survey in England . . . which asked participants to recall a recent visit to nature. . . . respondents recalled greater . . . restoration following visits to rural and coastal locations compared with urban green space, and to sites of higher environmental quality (. . . [those having] protected/designated area status, for example, nature reserves). . . . urban and rural green spaces and coastal locations with designated status were all associated with greater recalled restoration than locations without designated status.”
Kayleigh Wyles, Mathew White, Caroline Hattam, Sabine Pahl, Haney King, and Melanie Austen. “Are Some Natural Environments More Psychologically Beneficial Than Others? The Importance of Type and Quality on Connectedness to Nature and Psychological Restoration.” Environment and Behavior, in press.
Kids and Noise (11-08-17)
The Erickson/Newman team studied previously published research on children’s reactions to background noise. To contextualize their conclusions, they report that a whisper in a quiet library is 30 dB loud, the daytime noise levels in open bay neonatal intensive care units are about 60 dB, sound levels in occupied infant and toddler classrooms are 60-90 dB, and that the volume in a noisy restaurant is approximately 80-90 dB. The researchers report that “Despite their relatively mature auditory systems, infants and children struggle with listening in noise relative to adults, particularly when the background noise consists of speech. . . . [speech] perception with background speech is impaired as late as age 16. . . Noise is present in infants’ and young children’s environments and exerts far-reaching effects on health, perception, and learning. Noise may particular disadvantage infants and young children on recognizing and learning from speech, especially when background noise is also speech.” The Erickson/Newman research indicates, for instance, that it is problematic for adults to feel that infants and children will experience a soundscape in the same way that they do.
Lucy Erickson and Rochelle Newman. 2017. “Influences of Background Noise on Infants and Children.” Current Directions in Psychological Science, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 451-457.
Types of Co-Working Spaces (11-07-17)
Kojo and Nenonen analyzed co-working spaces near Finland’s capital and categorized them into groups based on “their main characteristics.” The duo identified “six co-working space typologies . . . : public offices, third places, collaboration hubs, co-working hotels, incubators and shared studios. The categorization was made by using two axes: business model (for profit and non-profit) and level of user access (public, semi-private and private).” The researchers feel their findings are useful because they “provide a viewpoint on how co-working spaces can be categorized. . . . In practise, the results can be applied by all stakeholders who are working with alternative workplace solutions to respond to the needs of new ways of working, especially via workplace services for multi-locational and flexible working.”
Inka Kojo and Suvi Nenonen. 2016. “Typologies for Co-Working Spaces in Finland – What and How?” Facilities, vol. 34, no. 5/6, pp. 302-313.
Improving On-Trail Experiences (11-03-17)
Kohlhardt and team studied the optimal design of trails through parks. They share that “Large crowds in parks can be a problem for park managers and visitors. . . . We used . . . visual images . . . to estimate park users’ utilities [the benefits or values they perceive] associated with their visitor experience in Garibaldi Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada. Our visual method allowed us to control for background view and compare user preferences on hiking trails with preferences at final destinations. We find that utilities are more sensitive to crowding at viewpoints than to other aspects of the outdoor experience. Thus, visitor satisfaction and crowding perceptions are more likely to be defined by where visitors have these encounters rather than the total number of encounters.” Evidently, not all high-density situations are equally undesirable, in parks or elsewhere.
Regan Kohlhardt, Jordi Honey-Roses, Sergio Lozada, Wolfgang Haider, and Mark Stevens. 2018. “Is This Trail Too Crowded? A Choice Experiment to Evaluate Tradeoffs and Preferences of Park Visitors in Garibaldi Park, British Columbia.” Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, vol. 61, no. 1, pp. 1-24.
Pedaling While Working (11-01-17)
Mullane and her team studied the effects of standing, cycling, and walking on cognitive performance. Data were collected from overweight (BMI=29 plus or minus 3 kg/m) adults who sat, stood, walked or cycled while working in a simulated office environment for 8-hour periods. Participants assigned to the SIT condition sat throughout the entire test period; those who stood, cycled, or walked did so at light intensity (the walking and cycling participants moved a rate equivalent to walking one mile an hour) and intermittently (but for at least 10 minutes per hour) during the test period. Cognitive performance tests were administered to participants who were sitting down after their sitting, standing, walking, or cycling “work” periods; on separate days each participant worked while, and was tested after, sitting, standing, walking, and cycling. The Mullane-lead researchers report that “Cognitive performance . . . and accuracy measures were higher [statistically significantly higher] during STAND, CYCLE and WALK . . . conditions compared to the SIT condition. CYCLE was better than other experimental conditions. . . . Compared to uninterrupted sitting, short bouts of standing or light-intensity cycling and walking may improve acute cognitive performance.”
Sarah Mullane, Matthew Burman, Zachary Zeigler, Noe Crespo, and Glenn Gaesser. 2017. “Acute Effects on Cognitive Performance Following Bouts of Standing and Light-Intensity Physical Activity in a Simulated Workplace Environment.” Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 489-493.
Air Pollution Degrades Mental Health (10-31-17)
Research by Sass and her colleagues reveals that air pollution degrades the mental health of the people who experience it. Their work indicates that, in areas with higher levels of air pollution, it is particularly important to develop public and other spaces that support positive psychological experiences. The Sass team describes their research efforts in the United States: “Using annual-average measures of air pollution in respondents' census blocks of residence we find that over the period 1999–2011 [fine] particulate matter 2.5 is significantly associated with increased psychological distress; this association remains even after controlling for a robust set of demographic, socioeconomic, and health-related covariates [this means that sophisticated statistical analyses eliminated demographic factors, etc., as the explanations for the effects found]. This study suggests that public health efforts to reduce the personal and societal costs of mental illness should consider addressing not only individual characteristics and factors in the social environment, but also underexplored facets of the physical environment such as air pollution.” In brief: higher levels of pollution were linked to degraded mental health. Specific mental health factors considered included the study participants’ assessments of their own nervousness, hopelessness, and sadness, for example.
Victoria Sass, Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz, Steven Karceski, Anjum Hajat, Kyle Crowder, and David Takeuchi. 2017. The Effects of Air Pollution on Individual Psychological Distress.” Health and Place, vol. 48, pp. 72-79.
Art: Through Various Eras and Senses (10-30-17)
Classen has written an intriguing overview of how art has been experienced in different eras and her work provides insights into how museum design can support the presentation of art. As the website for Classen’s book states, “Traditionally sight has been the only sense with a ticket to enter the museum. The same is true of histories of art, in which artworks are often presented as purely visual objects. . . . Classen offers a new way of approaching the history of art through the senses, revealing how people used to handle, smell and even taste collection pieces. Topics range from the tactile power of relics to the sensuous allure of cabinets of curiosities, and from the feel of a Rembrandt to the scent of Monet's garden. The book concludes with a discussion of how contemporary museums are stimulating the senses through interactive and multimedia displays.”
Constance Classen. 2017. The Museum of the Senses: Experiencing Art and Collections. Bloomsbury: New York.
Sensory Boundaries Porous (10-27-17)
Research by Carvalho and his team shows how intertwined our sensory experiences are. The scientists conducted three experiments during “which participants tasted a beer twice, and rated the experience, each time under the influence of a different sound stimulus. The participants were not informed that they were, in fact, tasting the same beer. . . . [soundscapes] influenced the participants’ rating of the beers’ taste and strength. . . . The present study underlines the potential of sound to enhance eating/drinking experiences.”
Felipe Carvalho, Qian Wang, Raymond Van Ee, and Charles Spence. 2016. “The Influence of Soundscapes on the Perception and Evaluation of Beers.” Food Quality and Preference, vol. 52, September, pp. 32-41.
Preferences for Curves (10-26-17)
A research team lead by Gomez-Puerto has confirmed humans’ preference for curves. As the group reports “we investigate whether preference for curved contours, observed previously in Western large-scale societies, is also present in 2 small-scale societies relatively uninfluenced by Western culture. We asked participants from Oaxaca (Mexico) and Bawku (Ghana), and also from Mallorca (Spain), to . . . [choose] between photographs of curved and sharp-angled versions of the same real objects. . . . Our results show that participants in each of the 3 countries chose the curved-contour alternative significantly more often than the sharp-angled one . . . We conclude that preference for curved-contour objects is common across cultures.” Objects presented to study participants included mirrors, baskets, and candles, for example.
Gerardo Gomez-Puerto, Jaume Rossello, Guido Corradi, Cristina Acedo-Carmona, Enric Munar, and Marcos Nadal. 2017. “Preference for Curved Contours Across Cultures.” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, in press.
Nearby Nature Needed (10-25-17)
Dadvand and his large team have gathered additional evidence indicating how important it is that people have ready access to green spaces. They “evaluated the association between lifelong residential exposure [at locations where study participants had lived since they were born] to green space and attention during preschool and early primary school years. . . . We assessed lifelong exposure to residential surrounding greenness and tree cover as the average of satellite-based normalized difference vegetation index and vegetation continuous fields, respectively, surrounding the child’s residential addresses at birth, 4–5 y[ears old], and 7 y[ears old]. . . . [higher] Exposure to residential surrounding greenness was associated with better scores on tests of attention at 4–5 y and 7 y of age.”
Payam Dadvand, Christina Tischer, Marisa Estarlich, and 16 others. 2017. “Lifelong Residential Exposure to Green Space and Attention: A Population-Based Prospective Study.” Environmental Health Perspectives, vol. 125, no. 9, no pagination.
Moving Nature (10-24-17)
Zijlstra and colleagues probed the effects of seeing images of moving nature on patient anxiety levels. The team “investigated whether the use of motion nature projection in computed tomography (CT) imaging rooms is effective in mitigating psycho-physiological anxiety (vs. no intervention). . . . motion nature projection had a negative indirect effect on perceived anxiety through a higher level of perceived pleasantness of the room [when motion was present, anxiety was lower and the room was perceived to be more pleasant]. . . . heart rate and diastolic blood pressure were lower when motion nature was projected. . . . by creating a more pleasant imaging room through motion nature projection, hospitals can indirectly reduce patient's psycho-physiological anxiety (vs. no image projection) during a CT scan.” The images shown repeated on a 20 second loop and were described as “projected on the gantry and the wall of the imaging room. . . . The projection on both objects reflected a time-lapse of a hill landscape, dominated by a hill with grass, trees, and slowly moving clouds with the corresponding shadows.”
Emma Zijlstra, Mariet Hagedoorn, Wim Krijnen, Cees van der Schans, and Mark Mobach.2017. “Motion Nature Projection Reduces Patient’s Psycho-Physiological Anxiety During CT Imaging.” Journal of Environmental Psychology, vol. 53, pp. 168-176.
Environmental Control for Younger Patients (10-20-17)
Trzpuc and her team investigated factors that contribute to the wellbeing of patients in child-adolescent mental health units. During a study completed at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital Child–Adolescent Mental Health Inpatient Unit they found via patient surveys that “design features in which patients have choice and control offer greater perceptions of calm during their stay in the unit [i.e., patients perceived they were calmer when these opportunities for choice and control were present].” Data were collected in two areas, one of which had been renovated to provide the opportunities for choice and control mentioned above. The unrenovated spaces did not provide these options. The researchers report that in the renovated area “Patients are able to control their environment through lighting (dimming and color-changing accents) and music control panels in many of the activity, therapy, and group rooms. Food options further empower patients to exercise choice and control in their daily activities and routines.” Patients participating in the study ranged from 5 to 18 years old and on average stayed in the unit for 7.5 days. Also, “All patients were admitted due to demonstrating acute risk of harm to self or others.”
Stefnee Trzpuc, Karen Wendt, and Susan Heitzman. 2016. “Does Space Matter? An Exploratory Study for a Child-Adolescent Mental Health Inpatient Unit.” HERD: Health Environments Research and Design Journal, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 23-44.
Encouraging People to Use the Stairs (10-19-17)
Getting people to move from floor to floor via the stairs instead of an elevator or escalator can not only save electricity but also make those stair climbers a little healthier. Bellettiere and his colleagues report that “at the San Diego International Airport. . . . prompts [signs] increased the odds of stair use [significantly]. . . . [signs were] effective interventions for active adults and the higher risk population of inactive adults. Signs can prompt stair use in an airport setting and might be employed at most public stairs to increase rates of incidental physical activity and contribute to overall improvements in population health.” Signs tested, one at a time, at the bottom of a set of stairs and escalators included “Please reserve the escalator for those who need it” and “If you want to feel younger, act younger. Step it up! Use the stairs” and “You’ll get more stares if you use the stairs.” When signs were present, roughly two times as many people climbed the stairs. More details: the signs were posted at “the only stairs/escalators providing access to Terminal 1 from the parking lot.” The article reporting this research is published in the Journal of Primary Prevention.
John Bellettiere, Sandy Liles, Yael BenPorat, Suzanne Hughes, Brent Bishop, Kristi Robusto, and Melbourne Hovell. “And She’s Buying a Stairway to Health: Signs and Participant Factors influencing Stair Ascent at a Public Airport.” The Journal of Primary Prevention, in press.
Nearby Forests and Brain Chemistry (10-18-17)
Living near a forest is good for our brains. Kuhn and her team found investigated “the effects of forest, urban green, water and wasteland around [within a one kilometer radius of] the home address. Our results reveal a significant positive association between the coverage of forest and amygdala integrity. . . . it could also be that individuals with high structural integrity choose to live closer to forest.” In short, people living in urban areas close to forests had healthier brains, ones that coped with stresses more effectively. Study participants were 61 to 82 years old and the structure of participants’ amygdalas were assessed via MRI. Some definitions: “urban green is defined as land for predominantly recreational use including zoos, gardens, parks as well as suburban natural areas used as parks. Forests and other green fields are considered urban green areas in case there are traces of recreational use and they are surrounded by urban structures. . . . forest incorporates all (even privately owned) areas with ground coverage of tree canopy greater than 30% and tree height greater than five metres. . . . water incorporates lakes, rivers, canals exceeding one hectare. . . . wasteland . . . is defined as areas in the vicinity of artificial surfaces still waiting to be used or re-used.”
Simone Kuhn, Sandra Duzel, Peter Eibich, Christian Krekel, Henry Wustermann, Jens Kolbe, Johan Martensson, Jan Goebel, Jurgen Gallinat, Gert Wagner, and Ulman Lindenberger. 2017, Scientific Reports, vol. 7, article no.: 11920.
More on Relaxing Nature Sounds (10-17-17)
Research conducted by Largo-Wight, O’Hara, and Chen confirms earlier research that found that listening to nature sounds, is relaxing. The trio share that they had participants in their study listen to silence, or nature sounds (ocean waves), or classical music (Mozart) “for 15 min in an office or waiting room-like environment. . . . [statistical tests] showed a decrease in muscle tension, pulse rate, and self-reported stress in the nature group and no significant differences in the control or the classical music groups. The significant reduction in muscle tension occurred at least by 7 min[utes] of listening to the nature sound.”
Erin Largo-Wight, Brian O’Hara, and W. Chen. 2016. “The Efficacy of a Brief Nature Sound Intervention on Muscle Tension, Pulse Rate, and Self-Reported Stress.” HERD: Health Environments Research and Design Journal, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 45-51.
Space Plants (10-16-17)
Research indicates that plants can enhance our wellbeing, even when we’re in space. Space travel can be stressful, it “can cause sleep disorders, a reduction in energy, inattentiveness and difficulty in problem-solving, and even memory loss. It can cause people to be more hostile, act more impulsively and, despite the danger and excitement, is sometimes boring. Any of these conditions and problems can lead to dangerous, if not tragic outcomes.” Odeh and Guy completed “a review of the existing literature on plant-people interactions. . . . . Numerous studies show that gardening or even just the presence of plants has a positive psychological effect on people, making them happier and more social. Gardening helps people spend time with nature, relax and learn new skills. . . . The authors conclude that what applies to humans on Earth also applies to astronauts in space. Plants can help reduce both social and cognitive problems associated with space travel, and suggest that plants should be part of the design of future space missions for both nutritional – and psychological – reasons.” Odeh and Guy’s study was published in Open Agriculture.
“Space Greens Beat the Blues: Plants and Psychological Well-Being in Space.” 2017. Press release: De Gruyter, https://www.degruyter.com/dg/newsitem/236/space-greens-beat-the-blues-pl...
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