Walking and Urban Design (10-14-16)
A study lead by Rioux in France provides additional insights into how urban design can influence walking. The researchers compared “walking patterns in two neighborhoods with different numbers of parks; parks did not differ in rated attractiveness nor did neighborhoods differ substantially in rated walkability.” Data were collected from people 32 to 86 years old. When these individuals “drew their 3 most recent walking routes on maps of their neighborhood. Analyses showed that participants’ round trips were longer by 265.5 m (0.16 mile) in the neighborhood with a single, large, centrally located park [a statistically significant difference]. However, participants in the neighborhood with multiple, small, more distributed parks, visited more streets, [a statistically significant difference], more streets with green spaces, [also a statistically significant difference], and used more varied routes [another statistically significant difference]. . . . Large centralized parks may invite longer walks; smaller, well-distributed parks may invite more varied routes.”
Liliane Rioux, Carol Werner, Rene Mokounkolo, and Barbara Brown. “Walking in Two French Neighborhoods: A Study of How Park Numbers and Locations Relate to Everyday Walking.” Journal of Environmental Psychology, in press.
Gait and Experience (10-13-16)
Research by Dobricki and Pauli confirms that the experience of walking through a space, literally, affects emotional response to it. As the team details “we asked healthy humans to explore a life-sized Virtual Reality simulation of a forest glade by physically walking around in this environment on two narrow rectangular platforms connected by a plank.” Some participants felt that they were walking on a rigid surface, but for others the ground underfoot seemed “bouncy.” When the virtual environment projections gave the impression that people in the study were high off the ground and walking around “bouncy gait compared to smooth gait increased the orientation of the head below the horizon and intensified the experience of the environment as negative. Whereas, within the ground context [in other words, when people perceived that they were walking on the ground] bouncy gait increased the orientation of the head towards and above the horizon and [intensified the experience of that] environment . . . as positive.”
Martin Dobricki and Paul Pauli. 2016. “Sensorimotor Body-Environment Interaction Serves to Regulate Emotional Experience and Exploratory Behavior.” Heliyon, in press.
Nature Images and Aggression (10-11-16)
Poon and his teammates have determined that nature images can be used to combat aggression; their findings can be applied in a range of spaces where aggressive activities might be anticipated. As they report “Prior studies have consistently shown that ostracism promotes aggression. The present research investigated the role of nature in reducing aggressive responses following ostracism. Three studies provided . . . support to the prediction that nature exposure can weaken the relationship between ostracism and aggression. Compared with ostracized participants who viewed nature pictures, ostracized participants who viewed urban pictures indicated a higher willingness to assign a longer and colder exposure of painful chilled water to another person . . . reported elevated aggressive urges in hypothetical situations . . . and showed a higher intention to assign a spicier and larger amount of hot sauce to a person who hated spicy food.”
Kai-Tak Poon, Fei Teng, Wing-Yan Wong, and Zhansheng Chen. “When Nature Heals: Nature Exposure Moderates the Relationship Between Ostracism and Aggression.” Journal of Environmental Psychology, in press.
Regret and Temperature (10-07-16)
Feeling regret for taking a particular action leads people to prefer particular temperatures. Rotman, Lee, and Perkins found that “experiencing action regret - regret that leads to a negative outcome that results from one’s active choice creates the feeling of warmth, that the individual then is motivated to reduce. Individuals experiencing action regret feel more self-conscious emotions - shame, guilt, embarrassment, and remorse – which have been linked to warmth (e.g. blushing). . . . . individuals perceive the room to be warmer after recalling a situation of action regret. . . . individuals experiencing action regret . . . preferred cold (versus hot) drinks. . . we created a series of advertisements for a cruise vacation: one for an Alaskan cruise, and one for a Caribbean cruise. We were able to eliminate the physical effects of action regret by having participants imagine the experience of the Alaskan (versus Caribbean) cruise. . . . these results add to a growing literature that repeatedly finds . . . [that] our emotional states can be affected by our physical states, and vice versa, without our conscious input or awareness.” This finding can be applied in retail situations where people may feel regret after a purchase, for example.
Jeff Rotman, Seung Lee and Andrew Perkins. “The Warmth of Our Regrets: Managing Regret Through Physiological Regulation and Consumption.” Journal of Consumer Psychology, in press.
Implications of Diagonals (10-06-16)
Whether a diagonal line seems to go up or down as it moves to the right has psychological repercussions. Schlosser and colleagues learned via “four experimental studies and a content analysis” that “diagonal direction can convey different levels of activity with upward—or ascending—diagonals conveying greater activity and effort than downward—or descending—diagonals.” Their research focused on use of diagonals in marketing and sales situations and they share that “when the context highlights the benefits of activity (vs. passivity), upward (vs. downward) diagonals lead to more favorable product judgments, greater product efficacy beliefs, and greater post-consumption satisfaction. . . . our findings suggest that firms should use upward diagonals when the product context highlights a favorable view of activity. Otherwise, the firm should use downward diagonals, especially when the product context encourages consumers to view passivity favorably.”
Ann Schlosser, Ruchi Rikhi, and W. Dagogo-Jack. 2016. “The Ups and Downs of Visual Orientation: The Effects of Diagonal Orientation on Product Judgment.” Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 496-509.
Analysis of Creativity (10-05-16)
Jordanous and Keller were interested in learning more about creativity. So, they applied “techniques from the field of statistical natural language processing” to “identify a collection of fourteen key components of creativity.” As a result “a number of distinct themes emerge, which collectively contribute to a comprehensive and multi-perspective model of creativity.” The researchers have already applied their work with these components to assess creativity. The fourteen key components of creativity identified by Jordanous and Keller are: active involvement and persistence; dealing with uncertainty; domain competence; general intellectual ability; generation of results; independence and freedom (to act); intention and emotional involvement; originality; progression and development; social interaction and communication; spontaneity/subconscious processing; thinking and evaluation; value; and variety, divergence and experimentation.
Anna Jordanous and Bill Keller. 2016. “Modelling Creativity: Identifying Key Components Through a Corpus-Based Approach.” PLoS ONE, vol. 11, no. 10, http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0162959
Trees Are Social (10-04-16)
The depictions of trees found in some fairy tales, as social beings that communicate among themselves, seems to be based in reality. Wohlleben reports on scientific research indicating that forests are social networks. Trees help each other out during difficult times when one or another may be struggling for survival by sharing nutrients, for example. Trees also seem to warn each other of dangerous situations. Wohlleben’s insights shed new light on forest management and landscape architecture, generally.
Peter Wohlleben. 2016. The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World. Greystone Books: Berkeley, CA.
Teenagers, Restoration and Video Games (09-30-16)
Greenwood and Gatersleben investigated cognitive restoration among teenagers. As they report “Adolescents are experiencing an increasing number of psychological difficulties due to mental fatigue and stress. Natural environments have been found to be beneficial to psychological wellbeing by reducing stress and improving mood and concentration for most people.” Research was conducted with 16-18 year olds at their schools in the United Kingdom. The scientists studied “the restoration of stress and mental fatigue in an outdoor or indoor environment, alone, with a friend or while playing a game on a mobile phone. The findings showed greater restoration amongst adolescents who had been in an outdoor setting containing natural elements, compared with those who had been in an indoor one. Moreover, being with a friend considerably increased positive affect in nature for this age group. The findings indicated that spending short school breaks in a natural environment with a friend can have a significant positive impact on the psychological wellbeing of teenagers.” In addition “Playing computer games on a phone does not affect restorative experiences.”
Alison Greenwood and Birgitta Gatersleben. “Let’s Go Outside! Environmental Restoration Amongst Adolescents and the Impact of Friends and Phones.” Journal of Environmental Psychology, in press.
Perception Beats Reality, Again (09-29-16)
There’s more evidence that perceptions of situations can trump reality. Orstad and her team found after they “systematically searched three databases for studies that examined agreement between perceived and objective measures and/or associations between comparable variables and physical activity. . . . [that] Perceived neighborhood environment variables were significantly associated with physical activity . . . at slightly higher rates than objective neighborhood environment variables.”
Stephanie Orstad, Meghan McDonough, Shauna Stapleton, Ceren Altincekic, and Philip Troped. “A Systematic Review of Agreement Between Perceived and Objective Neighborhood Environment Measures and Associations with Physical Activity Outcomes.” Environment and Behavior, in press.
Better Housing, A Negative Effect (09-28-16)
Vaid and Evans have learned that all of the repercussions of moving to “better” housing are not necessarily positive. As they detail, “Slum rehabilitation programs in economically developing countries are designed to improve housing and enhance residents’ health and well-being.” During their study “Housing quality was assessed by trained raters on a walk-through among women in public housing as well as those currently in slums on wait-lists to relocate to public housing. Standardized, self-report measures of mental and physical health, quality of life, along with social ties in the neighborhood were assessed. Women who moved from slum housing to public housing manifest better physical and mental health but diminished social ties in comparison with women remaining in slum areas. . . . housing quality can enhance health and well-being of women, but that care must be taken to promote the maintenance of social capital following resettlement.”
Uchita Vaid and Gary Evans. “Housing Quality and Health: An Evaluation of Slum Rehabilitation in India.” Environment and Behavior, in press.
Ownership and Actions (09-26-16)
Work by Constable and her team sheds light on how our social world influences how we act in the physical one. As they report “Participants passed mugs that differed in ownership status across a table to a partner [who was a friend]. We found that participants oriented handles less toward their partners when passing their own mugs than when passing mugs owned by their partners . . . and mugs owned by the experimenter. . . . These findings indicate that individuals plan and execute actions that assist their partners but do so to a smaller degree if it is the individuals’ own property that the partners intend to manipulate [use].”
Merryn Constable, Andrew Bayliss, Steven Tipper, Ana Spaniol, Jay Pratt, and Timothy Welsh. “Ownership Status Influences the Degree of Joint Facilitatory Behavior.” Psychological Science, in press.
Benefits of Cutting Visual Clutter (09-23-16)
Sabine Kastner, a psychology professor at Princeton, has found that visual clutter impedes professional performance. She has learned that “visual clutter competes with our brain’s ability to pay attention and tires out our cognitive functions over time. . . . Kastner’s . . . studies found that the brain may not be good at blocking clutter. . . . The more objects in the visual field, the harder the brain has to work to filter them out, causing it to tire over time and reducing its ability to function.” When applying this research it’s important to remember that environments that are extremely stark visually are just as stressful for humans as those that are visually cluttered.
Michael Blanding. 2015. “Psychology: Your Attention, Please.” Princeton Alumni Weekly, June 3.
Sitting, Standing, and Prompts (09-22-16)
Barbieri and team investigated the use of sit-stand desks in workplaces. They conducted a study that “aimed to document user behaviors and compare the use of two sit-stand workstation based interventions among two groups of administrative office workers: an “autonomous” group in which these workstations were introduced following some general ergonomic guidelines, and another “feedback-system” group in which the sit-stand tables were furnished with an automatic reminder system: users were prompted to accept, delay or refuse pre-programmed changes in table position, and if they accepted, the system automatically raised the table to a high (i.e. standing) position. This system was programmed for 10 minutes of standing after every accumulated 50 minutes of the table being in a low (i.e. sitting) position. . . . the sit-stand table system integrated with the automatic reminder system led to more reduction in sitting time and more switches in posture between sitting and standing as compared to the traditional sit-stand table, and behaviors of both groups were seen to be sustained over the 2-month intervention period.”
Dechristian Barbieri, Divya Srinivasan, Svend Mathiassen, and Ana Oliveira. 2016. “The Effect of Sit-Stand Workstations to Decrease Sedentariness in Office Work.” Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, vol. 60, no. 2, 465.
Repercussions of Stereotypes (09-21-16)
Bonam and colleagues investigated carry over affects of stereotypes. They report that “Social psychologists have long demonstrated that people are stereotyped on the basis of race. Researchers have conducted extensive experimental studies on the negative stereotypes associated with Black Americans in particular. Across 4 studies, we demonstrate that the physical spaces associated with Black Americans are also subject to negative racial stereotypes. Such spaces, for example, are perceived as impoverished, crime-ridden, and dirty. . . . Moreover, these space-focused stereotypes can powerfully influence how connected people feel to a space . . . how they evaluate that space . . . and how they protect that space from harm. . . . Indeed, processes related to space-focused stereotypes may contribute to social problems across a range of domains—from racial disparities in wealth to the overexposure of Blacks to environmental pollution.”
Courtney Bonam, Hilary Bergsieker, and Jennifer Eberhardt. “Polluting Black Space.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, in press.
Humanoid Robots (09-19-16)
Karreman probed human response to robots. She found that “A human being will only be capable of communicating with robots if this robot has many human characteristics. That is the common idea. But mimicking natural movements and expressions is complicated, and some of our nonverbal communication is not really suitable for robots: wide arm gestures, for example. Humans prove to be capable of responding in a social way, even to machines that look like machines. We have a natural tendency of translating machine movements and signals to the human world. Two simple lenses on a machine can make people wave to the machine. . . . and even a ‘low-anthropomorphic’ robot can be equipped with strong communication skills. It goes way beyond R2-D2 that communicates using beeps that need to be translated first.”
“Robot Does Not Have to be Human Look Alike.” 2016. Press release, University of Twente, https://www.utwente.nl/en/news/!/2016/9/166845/robot-doesnt-have-to-be-human-look-alike
Help Groups Remember (09-16-16)
Providing tools to help groups easily record information so they can recall it better later seems to be a good idea. Thorley and Marion have learned via a study that will be published in Psychological Bulletin that “groups recall less than their individual members would if working alone.” Group recall is important because “Collaborative remembering is important as it is used in a number of different everyday settings. In the workplace, interview panels jointly recall candidates’ answers before deciding whom to employ. In the courtroom, jurors work together to recall trial evidence prior to reaching a verdict. In schools and universities, students work together to revise course content prior to exams.” The effect identified seems to occur because “group members disrupt each other’s retrieval strategies when recalling together.” The researchers also found that “collaboration is more harmful to larger groups than smaller groups.”
“Group Work Can Harm Memory.” 2016. Press release, University of Liverpool, http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=167861&CultureCode=en.