Preferences for Symmetry – Expertise and Assessments (04-13-18)
Weichselbaum, Leder, and Ansorge researched humans’ responses to symmetry. They share that “In perception, humans typically prefer symmetrical over asymmetrical patterns. . . . we tested the generality of the symmetry preference for different levels of individual art expertise. The preference for symmetrical versus asymmetrical abstract patterns was measured implicitly [indirectly], by an Implicit Association Test (IAT), and explicitly [directly], by a rating scale asking participants to evaluate pattern beauty. . . . In the IAT, art expertise did not alter the preference for symmetrical over asymmetrical patterns. In contrast, the explicit rating scale showed that with higher art expertise, the ratings for the beauty of asymmetrical patterns significantly increased, but, again, participants preferred symmetrical over asymmetrical patterns. . . . Evolutionary adaptation might play a role in symmetry preferences for art experts similarly to nonexperts, but experts tend to emphasize the beauty of asymmetrical depictions, eventually considering different criteria, when asked explicitly to indicate their preferences.” So, it seems that both people who are art experts and those who are not have inherently positive responses to symmetrical patterns, but people with more art expertise, when asked directly about patterns, were more likely to respond positively to asymmetrical options.
Hanna Weichselbaum, Helmut Leder, and Ulrich Ansorge. “Implicit and Explicit Evaluation of Visual Symmetry as a Function of Art Expertise.” I-Perception, in press, https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669518761464
Earth Friendly Labels - Implications (04-12-18)
Haga studied the repercussions of labeling a lamp “environmentally friendly.” He reports that “Built environments with objects that are labeled ‘environmentally friendly’ appear to change people’s behavior. For example, one study has shown that labeling a desktop lamp ‘environmentally friendly’ can enhance color discrimination, in comparison with when the lamp is labeled ‘conventional,’ even though there is no physical difference between the two lamps. This article explored . . . this label effect by asking participants to conduct a proofreading task on a desk lit up by a desktop lamp that was either labeled ‘environmentally friendly’ or ‘conventional’; in reality, the two lamps were identical. Participants high in environmental concern performed better when the lamp was labeled ‘environmentally friendly.’ Moreover, the light from the lamp labeled ‘environmentally friendly’ was rated as more comfortable [regardless of the participants’ level of environmental concern].”
Andreas Haga. “Eco-Label Effects in the Built Environment: Does Labeling a Light Source Environmentally Friendly Influence Performance and Judgment?” Sage Open, in press, https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244018766977
Taxes and Flags (04-11-18)
Chan’s work is particularly timely as the deadline for paying income taxes in the United States draws near (April 17 this year). Chan found that “exposure to American, Australian, and British flags reduced Americans’, Australians’, and Britons’ tax evasion in financially‐incentivized tasks . . . and increased tax‐paying attitudes. . . . . [seeing the flags] made salient participants’ national identities that then motivated them to help their country.” Chan’s work is consistent with a growing body of research related to the repercussions of seeing visual cues.
Eugene Chan. “Exposure to National Flags Reduces Tax Evasion: Evidence from the United States, Australia, and Britain.” European Journal of Social Psychology, in press, https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2388
Altering Postures – Value? (04-10-18)
Schwartz and his team studied the implications of changing postures while working – in other words standing after a period sitting or sitting after a time standing. They learned that when “Subjects executed validated cognitive tests (working speed, reaction time, concentration performance) either in sitting or alternating working postures on two separate days . . . . results suggest that working posture did not affect cognitive performance in the short term.. . .working in alternating body postures did not influence reaction time, concentration performance, working speed or workload perception in the short term. . . . further research . . . is warranted and needed to determine whether there is a long-lasting effect of alternating working postures on cognitive performance and workload.”
Bernhard Schwartz, Jay Kapellusch, Andreas Schrempf, Kathrin Probst, Michael Haller, and Arnold Baca. 2018. “Effect of Alternating Postures on Cognitive Performance for Healthy People Performing Sedentary Work.” Ergonomics, vol. 61, no. 6, pp. 778-795,https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2017.1417642
Self-Driving Cars and Urban Design (04-05-18)
Self-Driving cars have urban design-related benefits. Researchers from the University of Toronto, in a study published in Transportation Research Part B,report that “adoption of self-driving cars — also known as autonomous vehicles (AVs) — could significantly reduce the amount of valuable urban space dedicated to parking. ‘In a parking lot full of AVs, you don’t need to open the doors, so they can park with very little space in between,’ says Professor Matthew Roorda . . . senior author. . . . ‘You also don’t need to leave space for each car to drive out, because you can signal the surrounding AVs to move out of the way.’” Analyses by Nourinejad, Roorda and Bahrami “a well-designed AV parking lot could accommodate 62 per cent more cars than a conventional one. . . . square-shaped AV parking lots could accommodate up to 87 per cent more cars. This improved use of space could translate into much smaller parking lot footprints, provided the total number of cars that need to park in them remains constant.”
“How Self-Driving Cars Could Shrink Parking Lots.” 2018. Press release, University of Toronto, http://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/self-driving-cars-shrink-parking-lots/
The Power of Metaphors (04-04-18)
Wang, Lu, Runco, and Hao’s work confirms the design-related power of metaphors—a topic that’s often discussed in Research Design Connections articles. The Wang lead study “investigated whether the experience of “breaking the walls”, the embodiment of the metaphor “breaking the rules”, could enhance creative performance. . . . virtual reality technology was used to simulate the scenario where participants could “break the walls” while walking in a corridor. Participants were asked to solve the creativity-demanding problems. . . . Results showed higher . . . originality . . . in the “break” condition than in the “no-break” condition.” Study participants who broke through a virtual reality wall were more creative, when they were walking down the virtual hallway or immediately after walking down that hallway, than other participants who did break through a barrier wall. Many metaphor-based situations can be created in virtual worlds that would be challenging to develop elsewhere.
Xinyue Wang, Kelong Lu, Mark Runco, and Ning Hao. “Break the ‘Wall’ and Become Creative: Enacting Embodied Metaphors in Virtual Reality.” Consciousness and Cognition, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2018.03.004
Exercising – Indoors or Outside Both OK (04-03-18)
Legrand and colleagues have learned that exercising is good for the mental wellbeing of depressed people, whether those depressed people exercise indoors or outside. The research team determined that “short bouts [20 minutes long] of moderate-to-vigorous exercise [running at moderate intensity] were effective in improving feelings of energy among people with depressive symptoms. . . . the positive effects of exercise on feelings of energy did not depend on whether exercise took place in an outdoor nature setting or an indoor gym. . . . Improvements did not statistically differ between outdoor and indoor exercise.” This research indicates the value of encouraging exercise via design, whether indoor or outdoor options/possibilities are available.
Fabien Legrand, Maximilian Race, and Matthew Herring. “Acute Effects of Outdoor and Indoor Exercise on Feelings of Energy and Fatigue in People with Depressive Symptoms.” Journal of Environmental Psychology, in press, doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2018.03.005
Forest Shapes (04-02-18)
Research indicates that tropical forests, whether they’re massive or tiny, whose footprints have particular shapes are more likely to survive—these shapes are likely to be good design choices when natural areas are being developed. Dufresne lead a study, published in Ecology Letters, which determinedthat “when patches of tropical forest lose their natural shape it could contribute to the sudden, even catastrophic, transformation of that land from trees to grass. . . .Using high-resolution satellite data from protected forests in the savanna region of the Brazilian Cerrado, the scientists found that the shape of these natural forests follow a predictable mathematical relationship between a forest’s perimeter and its area—regardless of its climate region or its size. They call this a “3/4 power law” and it roughly means the forests all tend toward shapes that are neither skinny like a line, nor round and smooth like a circle. . . . the 3/4 law holds true for tiny forest fragments not much bigger than a basketball court up to large forest patches covering dozens of square miles.” Forest shape and stability are clearly linked.
“Study: To Prevent Collapse of Tropical Forests, Protect Their Shape.” 2018. Press release, University of Vermont, https://www.uvm.edu/uvmnews/news/study-prevent-collapse-tropical-forests...
Effective Traffic Management (03-30-18)
Pappas reports on how design can encourage safer driving. As she details, “studies in both driving simulators and on real roads reveal that people decide how fast to drive using cues from both the road itself and its surroundings. In a 2017 study on how drivers gauge the appropriate speed for urban roads, a research team found that roadside factors such as landscaping, houses and sidewalks cued drivers to speeds of around 30 mph (50 kph), while wider roads with painted lines prompted them to judge the appropriate speed at about 50 mph (80 kph) (Accident Analysis & Prevention, vol. 108, 2017).” Pappas also details modifications made to roads in a specific residential area that were linked to dramatic reductions in car crashes and increases in pedestrian traffic: Auckland, New Zealand city officials “narrowed the smallest local roads by adding park like spaces that might include a basketball court, community garden or trees, effectively moving drivers’ focus closer to the front of their cars.”
Stephanie Pappas. 2018. “Curbing the Need to Speed.” Monitor on Psychology, vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 38-43, http://www.apamonitor-digital.org/apamonitor/201804/MobilePagedReplica.a...
Workplace Interruptions (03-29-18)
Burkus reviews research in the peer-reviewed press related to workplace environments. His findings are consistent with those often discussed in articles in Research Design Connections. Burkus states that “some level of office banter in the background might actually benefit our ability to do creative tasks, provided we don’t get drawn into the conversation. Instead of total silence, the ideal work environment for creative work has a little bit of background noise. . . . in our offices, we can’t stop ourselves from getting drawn into others’ conversations or from being interrupted while we’re trying to focus. . . . By contrast, a coworking space or a coffee shop provides a certain level of ambient noise while also providing freedom from interruptions. . . . Taken together, the lesson here is that the ideal space for focused work is not about freedom from noise, but about freedom from interruption. Finding a space you can hide away in, regardless of how noisy it is, may be the best strategy for making sure you get the important work done.”
David Burkus. 2017. “Why You Can Focus in a Coffee Shop But Not in Your Open Office.” Harvard Business Review, https://hbr.org/2017/10/why-you-can-focus-in-a-coffee-shop-but-not-in-yo...
Evolutionary Mismatches (03-28-18)
Li, van Vugt, and Colarelli consider how our evolutionary past, in ancestral environments, influences the experiences of modern humans. They report that “Human psychological mechanisms are adaptations that evolved to process environmental inputs, turning them into behavioral outputs that, on average, increase survival or reproductive prospects. . . . Modern-day organizations and work arrangements bear little resemblance to human labor practices throughout evolutionary history. . . . The design of most modern work spaces, for example, focuses on space efficiency, forcing people into input-mismatched settings. Modern work spaces tend to be barren and angular and to minimize nature exposure. From an evolutionary perspective, exposure to natural elements is beneficial because they are stimuli that were ancestrally associated with safety and resource abundance. . . . people with greater exposure to natural elements at work are . . . less depressed and more satisfied with and committed to their jobs (An, Colarelli, O’Brien & Boyajian, 2016).”
Norman Li, Mark van Vugt, and Stephen Colarelli. 2018. “The Evolutionary Mismatch Hypothesis: Implications for Psychological Science.” Current Directions in Psychological Science, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 38-44, https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417731378
Linking Robot Design to Psychological Experiences (03-27-18)
Sethumadhavan provides important research-based insights into how humans respond to the form/design of robots. He reports that “Humans form assumptions about the capabilities of a robot based on its appearance and expect certain features in robots based on the jobs they are intended to perform. For example, humans tend to prefer humanlike robots (i.e., with facial features, legs, feet, hands) when robots are expected to fulfill social roles, such as taking care of the elderly or teaching children, whereas people prefer mechanical-like robots for less social roles (e.g., military, search and rescue). Further, humans also perceive humanlike robots to be more trustworthy than mechanical-like robots . . . .Human expectations about the competence of robots is influenced by robots’ appearance, voice, language, and personality. For example, a mature-looking robot is considered to be more knowledgeable than a baby-faced robot. . . . Humans tend to have gender stereotypes toward robots” with robots that seem more masculine in appearance being expected to do a better job at more stereotypically masculine tasks, and vice versa.
Arathi Sethumadhavan. “Designing a Future With Robots.” Ergonomics in Design, in press, https://doi.org/10.1177/1064804618758711
Context of Abstract Art Influences Evaluations (03-26-18)
Tousignant and Bodner investigated how other art viewed influences evaluations of abstract art. They “explored how the rated beauty of an abstract painting is influenced by the relative beauty of a context [recently viewed, abstract or representational] painting. To this end, average-beauty abstract target paintings were paired with either a low-beauty or a high-beauty context painting. . . . . Abstract paintings were deemed more beautiful when paired with the low-beauty (vs. high-beauty) paintings.” The researchers add that “target paintings [those being evaluated] were deemed more beautiful when the context painting was also abstract [or were representational], [and] when [sequential or] simultaneous presentation [the contextual artwork was shown at the same time as the abstract painting being evaluated] was used.” Participants in another study rated the apparent beauty of the contextual paintings used in this study and their ratings were also used to select the average-beauty abstract paintings that were evaluated in this one.
Cody Tousignant and Glen Bodner. “Context Effects on Beauty Ratings of Abstract Paintings: Contrast, Contrast, Everywhere!” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, in press, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/aca0000146
Power Seating: Effects Tested (03-23-18)
There has been some controversy recently regarding the effects of “power poses” on how people think. The implications of power poses are relevant to design because furniture, such as types of seats, can support siting in these sorts of postures. “Power poses” are often described as open and as expansive (relatively spread out/taking up a lot of room). Cuddy and her team, using sophisticated statistical techniques, reviewed the literature related to power posing and found “strong evidential value for postural-feedback (i.e., power posing) effects and particularly robust evidential value for effects on emotional and affective states (e.g., mood and evaluations, attitudes, and feelings about the self).” In summary: “an expansive posture . . . leads people to feel more powerful.”
Amy Cuddy, S. Schultz, and Nathan Fosse. “P-Curving a More Comprehensive Body of Research on Postural Feedback Reveals Clear Evidential Value for Power-Posing Effects: Reply to Simmons and Simonsohn.” Psychological Science, in press, DOI: 10.1177/0956797617746749
Bipolar Sensation (03-22-18)
The sensory experiences of bipolar people vary based on whether they’re in a more manic or a more depressed state; knowing about these variations can be helpful during the development of mental health clinics, for example. Parker and his team found that when interviewed “Bipolar I patients were just as likely, if not more likely, to report suprasensory changes which typically involved enhancement of senses during hypo/manic phases and muting or blunting during depressive phases.” According to WebMD (https://www.webmd.com/bipolar-disorder/guide/bipolar-disorder-forms), “Bipolar I disorder involves periods of severe mood episodes from mania to depression. Bipolar II disorder is a milder form of mood elevation, involving milder episodes of hypomania that alternate with periods of severe depression.”
Gordon Parker, Amelia Paterson, Mia Romano, and Isabelle Smith. “Suprasensory Phenomena in Those with a Bipolar Disorder.” Australasian Psychiatry, in press, https://doi.org/10.1177/1039856218762306
Neighborhood Conditions and Exercising (03-20-18)
Neighborhood conditions influence how much people exercise. Wallace and her colleagues found that “the safer respondents perceive their neighborhood, the more days a week [residents] engage in moderate exercise. . . . [perceived] decreases in graffiti increase moderate exercise. . . . an increase in respondents’ perceptions of home maintenance increases the number of days they engage in strenuous exercise a month. . . . when individuals perceive that their environment is improving, this may encourage increased exercise.”
Danielle Wallace, Alyssa Chamberlain, and Chantal Fahmy. “Changes in Neighborhood Social Control and Disorder and Their Relationship.” Environment and Behavior, in press, DOI: 10/1177/0013916518761530
Seeing Others Doing: Consequences (03-19-18)
Kardas and O’Brien studied how watching someone else do something influences our perceptions of our own skills. They found that “repeatedly watching others can foster an illusion of skill acquisition. The more people merely watch others perform (without actually practicing themselves), the more they nonetheless believe they could perform the skill, too. . . . However, people’s actual abilities—from throwing darts and doing the moonwalk to playing an online game—do not improve after merely watching others, despite predictions to the contrary. . . .We found that extensive viewing allows people to track what steps to take . . . but not how those steps feel when taking them.” Study participants watched videos of others, but it seems likely that roughly the same effects are found when people watch others “live,” for example, when both the “watchers” and “doers” share a workplace.
Michael Kardas and Ed O’Brien. “Easier Seen Than Done: Merely Watching Others Perform Can Foster an illusion of Skill Acquisition.” Psychological Science, in press, DOI: 10.1177/0956797617740646
Telecommuter Job Performance (03-16-18)
Workplace design solutions regularly support employee telecommuting. Golden and Gajendran investigated the job performance implications of telecommuting, finding via the analysis of data collected in “an organization with a voluntary telecommuting program. . . . that for telecommuters who held complex jobs, for those in jobs involving low levels of interdependence and for those in jobs with low levels of social support, the extent of telecommuting had a positive association with job performance.” Managers rated the performance of employees reporting to them as higher when those people telecommuted more and were doing work that was complex, didn’t require too much interaction with others, or if the employee had low levels of social support at work. People with complex jobs were seen as doing their jobs better when they telecommuted more, which the researchers suggest may be because people working outside the office encounter fewer interruptions as they work. Among people with less complex jobs, the performance of frequent telecommuters, infrequent telecommuters, and people who worked only in company offices were comparable. Data were collected from employees at a large firm working in a range of divisions, from marketing to accounting to engineering/programming.
Timothy Golden and Ravi Gajendran. “Unpacking the Role of a Telecommuter’s Job in Their Performance: Examining Job Complexity, Problem Solving, Interdependence, and Social Support.” Journal of Business Psychology, in press, https://doi.org/10/1007/s10869-018-9530-4
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