Evaluating the impact of viewing location on view perception using a virtual environment

The effect of classroom size and ceiling height on college students' learning performance using virtual reality technology

The physical characteristics of classrooms can significantly impact the physical and mental health as well as the learning performance of college students. This study investigates the effects of classroom size and ceiling height on learning performance using virtual reality technology. Four classroom settings were created: two small classrooms (40.5 m2) with ceiling heights of 3.0 m and 3.9 m, and two large classrooms (62.1 m2) with ceiling heights of 3.9 m and 4.8 m. 34 students participated in task tests while their subjective evaluations and physiological data were recorded. Results showed higher subjective ratings in larger classrooms with the same ceiling height. Classroom size did not significantly affect task test scores. However, there is a significant difference in Task test scores for ceilings of different heights with the same size classroom. The task test improved by 17.3% in the Big and High Room (BHR) and by 20.1% in the Small and Low Room (SLR). Physiological data revealed significant effects of ceiling height, with HRV-nLF/nHF and EEG-β power increasing by 26.5% and 53.9% in BHR, and by 10.7% and 22.8% in SLR, respectively. This study concludes that classroom size and ceiling height plays a crucial role in learning performance and provides insights for classroom design. It also establishes a framework for future research on the interplay between heart rate variability, EEG, and learning performance.

Indoor environmental quality in WELL-certified and LEED-certified buildings

International building certification systems, such as the WELL and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, play a pivotal role in the design of healthy and sustainable buildings. While LEED adopts a holistic approach to designing healthy and sustainable buildings, the WELL standard has a strong emphasis on human health, comfort, and well-being. Although prior research has revealed inconsistent results for occupant satisfaction in office buildings with WELL certification compared to buildings without WELL certification, or are certified using another certification system (e.g., LEED), most of these comparisons tend to lack methodological rigor. This study used a statistical procedure to match and compare 1634 occupant surveys from LEED-certified buildings to 1634 surveys from WELL-certified buildings. Six important architectural and experiential parameters were matched, masking their influence on the outcome. Overall building and workspace satisfaction was high in both WELL-certified buildings (94% and 87%) and LEED-certified (73% and 71%). We found that there is a 39% higher probability of finding occupants who are more satisfied in WELL-certified buildings compared to LEED-certified buildings, indicating occupant satisfaction is higher in buildings with WELL certification. Although we were unable to pinpoint the reason for higher occupant satisfaction in WELL-certified buildings, the results consistently showed that perceived indoor environmental quality was enhanced across all parameters except for the amount of space.

Which horticultural activities are more effective for children's recovery from stress and mental fatigue? A quasi-experimental study

Introduction

Studies have established the benefits of horticultural therapy and activities for human health and well-being. Nonetheless, limited research has been conducted on the potential restorative advantages and distinctions between different types of horticultural activities in terms of stress reduction.

Methods

This study employed a quantitative research method to investigate the stress recovery benefits of five horticultural activities (flower arrangement, sowing and transplanting seeds, kokedama crafting, pressed flower card making, and decorative bottle painting with dried flowers) and one reference activity (short composition writing) for children. The experiment was conducted in a children's activity center's multi-purpose classroom with 48 elementary students aged 9-12 years. The subjects first took a stress test to induce stress and then engaged in horticultural activities for 20 min. Physiological stress was assessed using electrocardiograms and electroencephalograms as feedback indicators. Psychological and emotional changes were determined using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule for Children and Self-Assessment Manikin scales.

Results

The results demonstrated that horticultural activities greatly reduced physiological fatigue, and their recovery benefits were significantly greater than those of the reference activity. The recovery effects from different horticultural activities were similar across physiological indicators, although flower arrangement and sowing and transplanting seeds exhibited relatively robust recovery benefits. The heart rate and α-EEG-based generalized estimating equation revealed that horticultural activities offered significantly better relative recovery at each time phase of operation than the reference activity, with girls showing a 3.68% higher relative recovery value than boys. Flower arrangement and kokedama crafting offered better physiological recovery for students with prior horticultural experience, and these two activities received the highest scores in terms of positive effects and the "pleasure" dimension. Students believed that participating in horticultural activities resulted in a noteworthy increase in personal confidence and a greater sense of achievement.

Conclusion

The study suggests that horticultural activities that involve real and vibrant plants or natural materials and are more attractive have more stress-relieving benefits. We conclude that horticultural activities are beneficial leisure activities that aid in stress relief for children and that it is important to consider the attributes of activities when developing horticultural programs for elementary students.

Health Implications of Virtual Architecture: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Transferability of Findings from Neuroarchitecture

Virtual architecture has been increasingly relied on to evaluate the health impacts of physical architecture. In this health research, exposure to virtual architecture has been used as a proxy for exposure to physical architecture. Despite the growing body of research on the health implications of physical architecture, there is a paucity of research examining the long-term health impacts of prolonged exposure to virtual architecture. In response, this paper considers: what can proxy studies, which use virtual architecture to assess the physiological response to physical architecture, tell us about the impact of extended exposure to virtual architecture on human health? The paper goes on to suggest that the applicability of these findings to virtual architecture may be limited by certain confounding variables when virtual architecture is experienced for a prolonged period of time. This paper explores the potential impact of two of these confounding variables: multisensory integration and gravitational perception. This paper advises that these confounding variables are unique to extended virtual architecture exposure and may not be captured by proxy studies that aim to capture the impact of physical architecture on human health through acute exposure to virtual architecture. While proxy studies may be suitable for measuring some aspects of the impact of both physical and virtual architecture on human health, this paper argues that they may be insufficient to fully capture the unintended consequences of extended exposure to virtual architecture on human health. Therefore, in the face of the increasing use of virtual architectural environments, the author calls for the establishment of a subfield of neuroarchitectural health research that empirically examines the physiological impacts of extended exposure to virtual architecture in its own right.

Emotional impact, task performance and task load of green walls exposure in a virtual environment

As the time spent indoors increases significantly due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, creating an indoor environment to promote the health of occupants has become critical. Although green walls efficiently realize a healthy indoor environment, few studies have analyzed their impact on occupants based on the visual element of green walls. This study measures the emotional impact, task performance, and task load of the subjects according to four virtual experiments (a non-green wall, a freestanding green wall, two freestanding green walls, and a full-sized green wall). The results of the four experiments are as follows: (i) The visual elements of the green wall had an emotional impact on the occupants, which was verified through the Friedman test; (ii) the effect of the visual elements of the green wall on the task performance of the occupants was not verified by the one-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA); and (iii) the task load of the occupants influenced their task performance, which was verified by the repeated-measures ANOVA. This study can help determine the optimal type and area of green walls by considering their impact on the occupants as well as on the economic and constructional aspects of the indoor space.

A Quantitative Method for Evaluation of Visual Privacy in Residential Environments

With the rapid expansion of high-rise and high-density buildings in urban areas, visual privacy has become one of the major concerns affecting human environmental quality. Evaluation of residents’ visual exposure to outsiders has attracted more attention in the past decades. This paper presents a quantitative indicator; namely, the Potential Visual Exposure Index (PVEI), to assess visual privacy by introducing the damage of potential visual incursion from public spaces and neighborhoods in high-density residences. The method for computing the PVEI mainly consists of three steps: extracting targets and potential observers in a built environment, conducting intervisibility analysis and identifying visible sightlines, and integrating sightlines from building level and ground level to compute the PVEI value of each building opening. To validate the proposed PVEI, a case study with a sample building located at the center of Kowloon, Hong Kong, was evaluated. The results were in accordance with the common-sense notion that lower floors are subjected to poor visual privacy, and privacy is relatively well-preserved in upper floors in a building. However, residents of middle floors may suffer the worst circumstances with respect to visual privacy. The PVEI can be a useful indicator to assess visual privacy and can provide valuable information in architectural design, hotel room selection, and building management.