Think the language you are speaking doesn’t influence how you perceive space? Think again. Boroditsky has studied the ways that objects such as bridges or chairs are characterized in various languages, comparing attributes assigned to these objects by people speaking languages in which the items are named by masculine nouns and people using languages in which they are named by feminine nouns. The effects that Boroditsky has found seem relevant to English speakers even though nouns in English are not officially designated as masculine or feminine, because there are patterns in the pronouns used to refer to many objects. Objects named by masculine nouns are seen as sharing attributes with stereotypical men (strength, for example), while objects named by feminine nouns share more attributes with stereotypical women.

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Fred Dust and Patrice Martin, both of IDEO, have learned a lot about the design of effective workspaces through their observational research at hotels. For example, workplace-based rules seem problematic, “Being comfortable and relaxed allows for steady and often more thoughtful work patterns that lead to different ways of approaching problems. Workspaces typically come with rules, even if they’re not explicitly expressed. Hospitality releases people from this structured behavior. Cafes, bars, and hotels encourage behavior that feels in line with out natural rhythms. It’s up to us, unscheduled and on our time.” Keeping a workspace feeling fresh is also desirable, “Hospitality contexts work well for creative thinking because they’re perpetually new and ever-changing. There’s no history to how we’ve thought about things before.”

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When people shift their gaze in a particular direction, their perception of time is altered – a fact that can be usefully applied by designers creating spaces such as retail cash wraps where people will likely need to wait for service. Researchers have found that “shifting spatial attention to the left induces time underestimation, whereas shifting spatial attention to the right induces time overestimation.”

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Music and other sounds present have a significant influence on how humans experience a space. Although different cultures do have different music-scapes, McDermott has identified “a number of features [that] occur repeatedly across diverse musical traditions. These include the importance of music in rituals, the propensity to dance to the beat, the existence of lullabies, and several structural properties of music: periodic rhythm, scales with unequal step sizes, and uneven pitch-occurrence distributions that give a privileged role to particular notes.” In addition, “With repeated exposure to a culture’s music, listeners acquire expectations for how pitch sets will be used. These expectations partially underlie the perception of tension and release in music. Tension is perceived when our expectations are defied, and resolved when they are met; this ebb and flow helps make music compelling.” Knowledge of musical universals and awareness of the data regarding human responses to sounds regularly presented in this blog can help designers who are holistically developing a space achieve their user experience-related objectives.

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Psychological empathy and physical empathy (the ability to imagine another person’s physical experience moving through a space) seem to be positively related. This finding by Thakkar, Brugger, and Park is not surprising, particularly since “Spatial metaphors are often used to describe empathy (i.e., putting oneself in another’s shoes) . . . Interestingly, there seems to be shared brain regions associated with these two functions.”

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People are more likely to comply with a request when it is delivered to their right ear, and, in general, prefer that other people speak into their right ear. Marzoli and Tommasi used a multi-method study to uncover this proclivity and conclude that “Our studies corroborate the idea of a common ancestry – in humans and other species – of lateralized behavior during social interactions, not only for species-specific vocal communication, but also for affective responses.” This finding has implications for people creating a range of spaces, for example, rooms used by nonprofit organizations to elicit charitable donations or doctors to suggest behavior modifications to their patients.

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Higgins has crafted a comprehensive and intriguing discussion of the many grids, or rectilinear systems, used to order the experiences of human beings. Cities, data tables, and ledgers all may be gridded, for example. Art historian Higgins assesses the cultural implications of bricks, city plans, and 8 other sorts of paradigm changing grids including nets, moveable type, and musical notation. Higgins’ riffs on geometry and its implications will interest designers of both places and objects.

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When we use a tool, even for a short period of time, it distorts the way we think about the size of our body, causing us to perceive that our body is bigger than it actually is. Designers should bear this in mind as they develop spaces in which tools are used, to prevent people from feeling uncomfortably confined or restricted.

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Researchers Andy Taylor and Greg Tucker (University of Nottingham) analyzed the taste preferences of people living in various regions within the United Kingdom. They found significant regional differences in taste preferences, just as people investigating cultural variations in design preferences find location-specific design penchants. Taylor and Tucker found that “each region in the UK has its own unique ‘Taste Dialect’ of flavours and textures which have been forged by culture, geography and the environment. . . . The researchers also discovered that each region’s taste dialect was found in different parts of the tongue. For instance, the Scots specifically seek rich, creamy flavours that are sensed at the back of the tongue and people from the North East prefer tastes which impact on the tip of the tongue.”

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Directions Research, Inc., in conjunction with Adobe, collected data from a random sample of 2000 white collar workers living in the United States to learn more about how they work now. The people who completed the electronic survey spend 80% of their time in the office now, but feel that they only need to be in the office 70% of their time. The pattern of responses indicates that remote work is likely to become more prevalent. In addition, “white collar workers spend 40% of their time working collaboratively with others.” In-person meetings were used to collaborate 77% of the time during the beginning phases of projects and 70% of the time as projects progress. Forty-nine percent of those polled feel that in-person meetings are “most important for the successful completion of a project” – runners up this most important designation include e-mail (29%), telephone (10%), and conference calling (3%), among others. These findings have significant implications for the programming of workspace environments- don’t skimp on those meeting spaces.

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Contrary to what your second grade teacher said, daydreaming is important and useful. Christoff and her associates found that when we daydream the areas of our brain linked to complex problem solving are activated. So, when we’re trying to solve a difficult problem, letting our mind wander is a good idea. Place design can encourage psychological diversions.

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The fact that people began to live in denser, more concentrated settlements spurred the development of modern human behavior. Powell, Shennan and Thomas found that density was a more significant catalyst for this evolutionary change than an increase in the capabilities of human brains. A higher concentration of people encourages the preservation of new ideas and spurs innovation because it facilitates communication and the transmission of skills. Humans are living in more densely packed concentrations today than ever before – what’s next for us?

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New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center carefully assessed how people navigated though its collection of facilities. Researchers learned that “The best wayfinding systems do not rely only on signs for navigational support, but also leverage a wide variety of other mediums, including electronic media, printed materials, and knowledgeable staff.” The research team suggests that people working on signage systems “Start the project at the end. Implementation was delayed for a year while the team waited for required sign-offs and approvals from the city and state regulatory agencies. Instead, exterior signage programs should start with a prereview of all of the regulations that might hinder the project in the future. Permitting and variances can be in the works well in advance of the implementation phase.” This work is applicable generally in space planning, not just by people focused on wayfinding.

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Researchers participating in the United Kingdom’s Making Sense of Space project are using wireless sensors to assess user responses to workplace environments. In addition to collecting environmental and usage information (e.g., temperature, light levels, movement in particular spaces), they are also gathering data related to the moods and feelings of people in the spaces being studied. Research team members “had to come up with a range of interactive devises that provided an elegant and reasonably nonintrusive way for users to express themselves. There were three prototypes in the first trial . . . The Personal EnergyMeter adapted a light therapy lamp of the kind used by people suffering from SAD (seasonal affective disorder). The users were briefed to use the lamp to reflect their perception of their own energy levels, so that if the users felt full of beans the lamp would be turned up, but if they were flagging it would be turned down. These variations were recorded by the sensor and sent to the central database. The RealFeel meter allowed users to compare their own perceptions of the temperature of the office, by the movement of a dial, with the actual temperature of the office, as measured by a thermometer . . . With the TeamFlag, the project starts to move into the territory of behavioural psychology. The idea is that in an open-plan office a TeamFlag would be attached to each person’s workstation: if a person wants to indicate that he or she is available to talk . . . the flag is raised, if the person is in the middle of something that requires maximum concentration . . . the flag is lowered. And the flag’s status is recorded on the database. . . . What is striking about all of these feedback devices is their physicality.” These clever assessment tools should inspire many innovative, intuitive, and valuable research instruments.

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Workplace redesigns can be cataclysmic, occasionally even driving people out of organizations - people form powerful attachments to their physical workplaces. As Inalhan reports, “While the office of the future requires designers, facility managers and corporate real estate managers to think in terms of space and time, rather than about desks and chairs, employees will continue to act upon the old person-place metaphor. The symbolism attached to place is a powerful force that works against locational flexibility.” The researcher recommends that organizations changing physical work environments recognize the strength and importance of the psychological bond to those places and encourages design solutions that “preserve or introduce design elements that nurture a sense of belonging in an organization.”

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Need a picture of a certain type of office? Visit Office Snapshots (web address below) for a wide array of photographs. They are organized into categories such as advertising agencies, architectural firms, marketing offices, and software development sites. Some of the offices presented are design icons and some are not; sample firms represented include IDEO, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Hearst Corporation, NPR, and WebMD.

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Wolfram Alpha is clear about their objectives: “Wolfram Alpha's long-term goal is to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone. We aim to collect and curate all objective data; implement every known model, method, and algorithm; and make it possible to compute whatever can be computed about anything. Our goal is to build on the achievements of science and other systematizations of knowledge to provide a single source that can be relied on by everyone for definitive answers to factual queries.” Wolfram Alpha accepts questions in everyday language at its website (see address below). It uses the more than 50,000 types of algorithms and equations at its disposal to manipulate its 10+ trillion pieces of data to answer those questions – and spits out that response in clear text quickly, in real time – and it’s free. Designers will be pleased to know that this site includes info about topics such as books and famous people but also about companies/organizations/foundations/etc. who might be current or future clients, cities, countries, acoustics, colors, weather, socioeconomic data, and scores of other topics. It seems possible that Wolfram Alpha can answer almost any question imaginable – it can compare cities and countries using numerous parameters, tell you about the perceived loudness of a certain number of decibels, or provide a color swatch of chartreuse as well as recommending colors that will complement that chartreuse. Rainy weekend? Use that time when you can’t be biking, gardening, hiking, etc., to try to stump Wolfram Alpha.

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Environmental psychologists wax eloquently on the psychological benefits of having a home territory that can be personalized, where family members can bond, etc. Research by Grace Bucchianeri at Wharton indicates that owning your own home may not propel you immediately to Nirvana. Knowledge at Wharton reports that “Past research into the mood of homeowners showed that people felt a sense of pride and comfort in having their name on a deed. Bucchianeri argues that her research shows, however, that once the data are controlled for a range of variables, owning a home appears to deliver no more happiness than signing a monthly rent check.” This researcher found “little evidence that homeowners are happier by any of the following definitions: life satisfaction, overall mood, overall feeling, general moment-to-moment emotions and affect at home.” Bucchianeri does indicate, however, that her results may have been influenced by the number of homeowners she interviewed who lived among renters: “I do find results that if you are surrounded by people who are homeowners like you, that makes you enjoy the neighborhood and contributes to a positive attitude.” Environmental psychologists’ opinions about home ownership may be correct after all.

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Premature babies face many challenges to having a pleasant childhood, including learning to eat and experiencing pain. Music seems to help these babies learn to feed earlier and to lessen pain they experience during circumcision and other medical procedures.

“Music May Improve Feeding, Reduce Pain in Premature Babies.” 2009. Press release, University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, http://www.med.ualberta.ca  

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Our mood influences what we see, literally. Researchers at the University of Toronto, lead by Taylor Schmitz and Adam Anderson, used information collected via fMRIs to determine that “When in a good mood, our visual cortex takes in more information, while negative moods result in tunnel vision. . . .Under positive moods, people may process a greater number of objects in their environment, which sounds like a good thing, but it also can result in distraction. . . .Good moods enhance the literal size of the window through which we see the world. The upside of this is that we can see things from a more global, or integrative perspective. The downside is that this can lead to distraction on critical tasks that require narrow focus, such as operating dangerous machinery or airport screening of passenger baggage.” These findings make literal previous psychological research indicating that when we are in a good mood we think more broadly (as well as the converse) and reinforce the importance of creating an appropriate mood through the design of objects and spaces.

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Yoon and her colleagues conducted online survey research, presenting high-fidelity three dimensional environments to study participants, and found that females seem “more strongly interested in color environments than males.” This finding indicates that it may be more productive to discuss attributes other than color with male users and decision makers. In addition, the researchers conclude that “The current state of computer technology allows users to feel immersed in the display environment with a high level of interactivity and photorealistic visual quality. As a result, it is possible to research people’s responses to color environments without building or painting real environments.”

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Nasar and Devlin have used an interesting methodology to probe the ways that the physical environments in psychotherapists’ offices communicate nonverbally. A professional photographer, Saul Robbins, independently photographed Manhattan psychotherapists’ offices for a photo essay. Upon learning of these photos, Nasar and Devlin worked with Robbins to cull images of chairs therapists sat in during sessions and the areas immediately around those chairs. They found that “The neatness, chair comfort, and orderliness of the therapist’s office matter to viewers. Neatness and orderliness taken together, suggest the importance of the professionalism of presentation as reflected in the environment. These judgments are not related to whether one has seen a therapist or not, suggesting a broader perspective of what it means to present oneself (one’s workspace) to others.” No time like the present to neaten up your office!

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Crankshaw discusses the vital role that downtown areas can play in towns and small cities: “as a human environment, they present great potential and great challenges. The viability of commercial districts is essential if communities are to offer a range of choices for living patterns.” Downtowns need to be comfortable places to walk, because they are often the only places people do walk in towns and small cities. In addition “Downtowns will have the most interesting and venerated buildings, landscapes, and symbolic elements in their town. The districts need to provide a setting that lives up to their standard of quality but does not overshadow these elements . . . Historic commercial districts should be places for authentic experience of what it means to be a town dweller, and they should continue to be important places for public events, social interaction, and government facilities.”

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As Abdulkarim points out, sound is crucial for our experience of place, “Sounds enhance our perception of the environment, produce the rhythms of our life and contribute to our welfare. Our sonic space is larger than our visual space because we can hear further than we can see, listening is multidimensional whereas vision is only frontal, and we can close our eyes easier and more readily than we can plug our ears. Sounds are ubiquitous and therefore, constitute an integral part of our perceived environment.” Abdulkarim carefully explores the soundscape of Amman Jordan using Amphoux’s methodology (1993, L’Identite Sonore Des Villes Europeennes, Centre de recherché sur l’espace sonore et l’environnment urbain (CRESSON)/Instutut de recherché sur l’environnment construit (IREC), no. 117). She considers spatio-temporal criteria of sound such as volume, orientation, and rhythmmicity; semantic-cultural conditions such as collective memory and intentionality; and parameters related to the sound itself such as complexity and reverberation; as well as other factors, while characterizing the sounds heard in urban Jordan.

This research describes how just as “we form cognitive maps for our visual environment, we also do so for our sonic environment. Also, as our visual mental maps include the five main features of landmark, node, line, district, and intersection (Lynch, 1960), our sonic mental maps are comprised of soundmarks, sound events, sound districts, and time cycles. Acoustic, spatial and socio-cultural variables contribute to the richness, clarity, and complexity of our sonic maps as well as our production and evaluation of the sonic environment.” Abdulkarim correctly concludes that “our aim as environmental design researchers [and practitioners] should be directed at strengthening the significant sound dimensions of a certain place and also bringing out the sonic comfort to the inhabitants.” Soundscaping provides a valuable opportunity to enhance human existence.

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We recognize faces by focusing on darker and lighter (shinier) horizontal bands of facial skin, according to Dakin and Watt. Essentially, we review information that is similar to the patterns found in the bar codes on packages. These collections of darker and lighter areas are not unique to faces – they are also present in fires and clouds for example. That’s why it is so easy for us to “see faces” in fires, clouds, and other collections of lighter and darker spaces.

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People like music that is useful to them. Schafer and Sedlmeier found that “The most important reasons why people like their music . . . are its capability to express their identity and their values and its ability to bring people together. Surprisingly, further important reasons for preference seem to be the identification with artists and the information received through music, although these are functions participants mentioned rather infrequently. On the other side, the highly rated mood and arousal functions were not as important for preference as one would expect. Moreover, music that is often listened to as background music could be thought to affect preference through a mere exposure effect, yet such an effect was not observed.”

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How do we choose among several options? Ha, Park, and Ahm found that when confronted with multiple options, one of which differs on a categorical variable, we modify purchase decisions. An example makes their findings clearer. One of the sorts of purchases the researchers presented to study participants involved vacation packages. When individuals were presented with two packages for travel to France, one of which included two-star hotels near sites of interest and the other one-star hotels near the sites of interest, they were less likely to select the two-star option when the third option presented was a tour in Italy (that cost as much as the two-star option and had inconveniently located four-star hotels). Researchers found that “when a unique categorical feature (e.g., Italy for a tour site) was introduced in the competitor option, the power of the decoy [one-star hotel option] to enhance the attractiveness of the target [two-star hotel option] (vs. the competitor [an equivalently priced tour in France with inconveniently located four-star hotels]) was significantly reduced.” If the four-star hotel option in the example above is located in France, the odds that consumers will purchase the two-star option increase dramatically.

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Seiden uses a psychoanalytic approach to study human beings’ attachment to their first homes. He concludes that “The fantasy of home when we are separated from it – which it turns out that as adults we always are – offers an orienting comfort and expresses a chronic sense of longing. This longing is deeply human and in evolutionary terms ancient.” Designers who have worked with homeowners on residential projects also understand the fundamental connection between people and their homes.

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People have difficulty understanding probability information that is presented to them. Although the research conducted by Susan Joslyn, Limor Nadav-Greenberg and Rebecca Nicols relates to weather, it is reasonable to believe that it can be applied in other situations, for example, during discussions of environmental hazards. The research presented by Joslyn and her colleagues specifically indicates that people do not understand what a 20% chance of rain means - many believe that a forecast of a 20% chance of rain means that it will rain in 20% of an area or that it will rain for 20% of the forecast period. When study participants were informed that not only was there a 20% chance of rain but also an 80% chance that it would not rain, they made fewer errors interpreting the probability information supplied.

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The US Department of Homeland Security wants to ensure that the people who must respond immediately during an emergency are rested and alert, as needed. They worked with Human Bionics to record the brain waves of individual first responders, and translate those brain waves into music that the first responder can use to relax or to improve concentration and decision making. The music prepared is usually played on a piano, with the stress reducing pieces sounding more like a “Chopin sonata” and the other selection sounding more like it was composed by Mozart.

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Apparently, human beings can not ignore animal noises. Suied and Viaud-Delmon found that “it seems impossible to effectively ignore an animal sound, even when it is irrelevant to the task.” Knowing about this response to animal sounds is potentially very useful. People who need to create warning systems can use this information to create more effective audio signals, for example.

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Determining how many workspaces to provide in any workplace can be difficult. The Sloan Center on Aging and Work surveyed a group of employees to learn not only what sort of flexibility they had in deciding where to work (office, home, third place, etc.), but also how often they decided to work outside their employers’ offices. These researchers found that 18.4% of those surveyed were able to vary their workspace during the course of the year and that 40.7% had the option to work remotely for part of the regular work week. Of those 40.7% of respondents with the opportunity to work remotely during the course of the work week, 67.5% chose to exercise their option, while of the 18.4% of individuals who could vary their workspace based on time of year, 28% chose to do so. These findings provide guidance to workplace designers who are trying to determine how many workstations to include at centralized worksites.

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Graham and his colleagues provide additional support for the fact that music can distract people, in a productive way, during emotionally challenging events. Collected evidence links listening to music with better moods and corresponding improved performance on cognitive tasks as well as with cushioning negative reactions to stressful situations.

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When we’re in a space with more consumers or that has physically narrower aisles (i.e., a more cramped store layout), we change our purchase behaviors. In those situations, we purchase a wider variety of merchandise (unfamiliar, unique, and more varied) than when we are not similarly restricted. Levav and Zhu write that their results “suggest that in larger, less crowded stores, manufacturers should be less keen to deliver a wide variety of products in a category and should instead focus on stocking a few of their better-known or dominant product offerings. . . .Manufacturers should prefer to deliver a greater variety to more crowded stores, as customers in those stores will be more likely to diversity their choices in a category.” This sort of reaction against confinement can logically be expected to exist outside of retail situations, and therefore should be considered in the design of spaces besides stores.

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The number of shoppers that we perceive around us influences our shopping behavior. When we see a crowd in a store we are drawn to it, but once we arrive we don’t make a purchase. This has implications for patterns of display of retail merchandise – popular merchandise should be shown in multiple locations – and the design of shops to accommodate those duplicate displays.

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Zhou and his co-workers are learning about new ways that money matters. They have found that “Interpersonal rejection and physical pain cause desire for money to increase. Handling money (compared with handling paper) reduces distress over social exclusion and diminished the physical pain of immersion in hot water.” Thinking about having spent money had the reverse effect. This finding could be generalized from money to other valued goods that “build a feeling of strength and ability to cope”: “The mere thought of having a resources brings psychological benefits, even when one does not use the resource – indeed, even when one does not actually have the resource, as the money-counting procedure showed [participants did not own the money they counted].”

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How physically fit we are influences how we interpret approaching sounds. People who are less physically fit interpret them as closer than people who are less fit. This finding will make soundscaping places used consistently by weaker individuals more effective, because music, etc., with passages that seem to be approaching can be avoided if the sounds involved are stressful.

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The brain uses cues it gets from the body to solve complicated problems. Lleras and Thomas’s recent work illustrates this principle – participants in one of their studies who were able to swing their arms had more success solving a problem related to swinging strings than people who did not swing their arms. A press release from the University of Illinois (Lleras is a professor there) stated that this study is “the first to show that a person’s ability to solve a problem can be influenced by how he or she moves.” Imagine the implications of this work for workplace design!

Alejandro Lleras and Laura Thomas. “Swinging Into Thought: Directed Movement Guides Insight in Problem Solving.” Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, in press.  

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How does knowing you’re in a green building influence how comfortable you think you are? Brown and Cole determined that people want “to learn more about how buildings work and comfort is provided, with a higher interest level in the green building over the conventionally designed. . . While knowledge of the building [knowing it was a green building] was positively related to use of personal control in the green building, neither knowledge nor personal control use resulted in higher overall perceived comfort.”

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often see other people being rude. Porath and Erez have learned that “witnessing rudeness . . . [reduces] observers’ performance on routine tasks as well as creative tasks.” These research findings has implications for appropriate visual shielding in situations in which rude behavior might be anticipated.

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Designers are concerned about creative problem solving. New research indicates that creativity may be linked to the place, or more accurately the places, we’ve lived. Maddux and Galinsky found that “time spent living abroad (but not time spent traveling abroad) showed a positive relationship with creativity.” In addition, causing people who have lived abroad to think about their experiences living abroad augments their creativity. These findings may not only have implications for hiring decisions but also for the design of “creative spaces” – they should lead people who have lived aboard to think about their live-abroad experiences.

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Oosterwijk and her colleagues have investigated the influence of various sorts of emotional thoughts on body carriage. They determined that when people were made to feel disappointed they slump and are less tall, but when they feel pride people stand taller. These specific research results are of interest because they scientifically corroborate everyday experiences and because they prompt questions about other ways that emotional state might physically influence how we interact with our surrounding world.

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The United Kingdom’s Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) has analyzed residential streets, identifying physical features associated with desirable resident experience. CABE determined that people often have difficulty finding their way around a network of residential streets, and that neighborhoods regularly “lack character and feature spaces where ownership is ambiguous. This threatens their long-term sustainability, because they do not work well and are not seen as attractive places to live.” CABE recommends that street systems be “structured around established design conventions and combined with specific uses and designs for corner properties (often shops or pubs) . . . . [and that this] create[s] neighbourhoods where people . . . find their way around easily.” CABE is particularly concerned that neighborhood spaces be delineated as public or private, because when they are not the resulting areas are “under-used and become a maintenance burden.” The design concerns that CABE recognizes on a neighborhood level can also be effectively applied on a micro level, within structures of all types, both public and private.

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There is pressure to eradicate territories within workplaces, but Brown’s recent research indicates that sort of action is fraught with peril. As he reports, “The prevalence of territorial behavior shown in this study reaffirms that organizations and managers need to explicitly address and learn to deal with issues of territoriality. For one thing, it cannot be eliminated.”

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Akalin and his colleagues have added to the body of evidence indicating that moderately complex design is preferred. In an assessment of house facades they found that “Facades representing an intermediate level of complexity were favored over less and more complex ones. The facades that seemed the most impressive were the most complex ones, but these, however, were not the most preferred.”

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Winterbottom and Wilkins effectively review lighting conditions in British classrooms and relate the details of their findings to established best practices in classroom lighting. Interestingly, their findings explain the benefits educators have seen when students read through colored overlays (“spectral filters placed upon the page through which pupils read”). Researchers found that “Such filters increase reading speed and reduce symptoms of visual stress and headaches. . . .The overlays reduce luminance of the page by a factor of about two . . . this would reduce luminance to recommended levels in an additional 24% of classrooms lit with daylight and fluorescent lighting, and may be expected to improve comfort and task performance.”

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Places and objects can significantly influence people’s moods. Colors, scents, sounds, and many other aspects of the physical environment can be used to encourage particular emotions. Although it is generally believed that people want to experience pleasant emotions, Tamir explores the fact that “people want to feel emotions that may be useful for attaining their goals, even when those emotions are unpleasant.” But, “How do people know when particular emotions are useful? Such knowledge may be acquired through learning: Learning that an emotion is useful in one context should increase preferences for that emotion in that context.” Tamir’s work indicates that designers need to take a broader view of the emotional experiences to be encouraged through their design efforts.

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Gensler’s 2008 survey of American workers has identified four primary ways in which employees spend their workdays and the amount of time they are engaged in different sorts of tasks. Effective workplace design must facilitate each of these types of activities, preferably in the same location, so that cognitive artifacts can be used effectively. People spend 48% of their time on focused work, i.e., “Work involving concentration and attention to a particular task or project: thinking, reflecting, analyzing, writing, problem-solving, quantitative analysis, creating, imaging, reviewing, and assessing.” On average, workers spent 32% of their workdays on collaborative tasks or “Working with another person or group to achieve a goal: sharing knowledge and information, discussing, listening, co-creating, showing, brainstorming (interactions may be face-to-face, by phone, video, or through virtual communication).” Workers spent equal amounts of time (6%) socializing and learning. Socializing was defined as “work interactions that create common bonds and values, collective identity, collegiality and productive relationships: talking, laughing, networking, trust-building, recognition, celebrating, interacting, mentoring, and enhancing relationships.” Learning is described as “working to acquire new knowledge of a subject or skill through education or experience: training, concept exploration and development, problem-solving, memorizing, discovery, teaching, reflecting, integrating and applying knowledge.” Gensler concludes that “our findings show that top-perforating companies design more effective workplaces that allow people to spend higher-quality time in the work modes that matter most to their job success.”

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Shirley Dugdale reviews the challenges of designing current and evolving educational settings. In her comprehensive article, she indicates that “Learner-centered planning recognizes the importance of supporting multiple ways of learning, including social learning and virtual discourse. Campus planners need to anticipate demand for learning that is more: collaborative, with active learning and group work; blended, with learning and other activities happening anywhere/anytime, enabled with mobile technology; integrated and multidisciplinary; immersive, with simulated or real-world experiences; and hybrid, combining online with face-to-face learning activities, augmented with mixed reality experiences.” Dugdale’s observations about learning environments are applicable to the design of many sorts of settings.

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Obscure dependencies are everywhere. They are important relationships that are invisible to the people relying on them. These relationships can be between parts of a machine, people in a group, or any combination of people and objects. The well respecting consulting team at DEGW observes that “Place offers a powerful antidote to obscure dependencies, and the necessary soil for knowledge and culture to grow. Compelling and magnetic places connect people directly and transparently; people can see, discuss, negotiate and transform the subtle but vital elements of organisational culture. When brought together, even for incidental reasons, people talk through problems, opportunities, ideas and insights. Physical place supports the development and transmission of knowledge, skills, values and ideas, as well as the opportunity for leaders to express visions and inspire action. Places support the characters and narratives that make an organisation meaningful, memorable, coherent and relevant. In short, places make organisational culture possible. If this is true, and DEGW’s legacy is staked on it, it follows that a strategic approach to space is paramount to any organisation.”

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The way in which we are moving influences how our brain is functioning – and applying what is known about the relationship between movement and thought poses interesting challenges for designers Koch and his colleagues found that “Stepping backward significantly enhanced cognitive performance compared to stepping forward or sideways. Considering the effect size, backward locomotion appears to be a very powerful trigger to mobilize cognitive resources. Thus, whenever you encounter a difficult situation, stepping backward may boost your capability to deal with it effectively.” Previous research has shown that how people are moving their arms when they see something influences their responses to those objects – when people look at something as they flex their arm toward themselves (a sort of pulling closer motion), they like the viewed object more, and when they are performing a pushing away motion (by extending their arm) while looking at an object, they like the viewed object less. The fact that building codes often require store doors to open outward – so shoppers must pull shop doors toward themselves to open them – may be great for sales – as long as those entering a store can see the merchandise as they are pulling on the door.

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Messeter introduces the concept of place-specific computing. He believes that it is important to pursue a “place-centric perspective for the design of digital systems and services, in which place is foregrounded in the design as a primary concept for understanding the contextural conditions that shape digitally mediated interactions between people and place-specific resources. . . a place-centric perspective for digital designs does not make users and their needs less important to design, nor does it contradict a user-centered perspective in design. It merely suggests that the range of users is determined by the place for the design, rather than being defined as a target group disconnected from place . . . allowing design to be driven by local social, cultural and material conditions of place rather than generic needs of broader user groups.” Messeter presents multiple design examples illustrating the power of place-specific computing.

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Designers are often asked to assess the financial value of their efforts. Heskett describes “a window to business activity that enables designers to communicate the value of their work.” His article is in the International Journal of Design, an open-access journal whose articles can be accessed in their entirety free of charge.

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In an intriguing article Stover reports on the ways that human activity is changing the natural soundscape in which people have evolved: “As human noise intrudes on nature—from freeway traffic noise to jets screaming over the rainforest—scientists are starting to believe the acoustic environment is far more intricate and fragile than they ever imagined. Long regarded as a random collection of bird songs and animal cries, the natural soundscape might actually be a coordinated symphony, with animal calls spread carefully across the acoustic spectrum. Now, researchers are getting the first glimpses of what happens when humanity’s choir drowns out whole sections of that spectrum. Animals ranging from blackbirds to beluga whales are changing their calls or switching them to new frequencies. Others are adapting in ways so powerful that they may be triggering the first steps in an evolutionary shakeup.” The important role that natural settings play in safeguarding humans’ mental health (for example, in restoring our stock of mental energy, as researched by the Kaplans at the University of Michigan), is due not only to how natural places look, and smell, and feel, but also to how they sound. How will the changes we are experiencing in our natural sound environments influence us psychologically?

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The form of the terrain they are moving through influences how drivers behave in many of the same ways that analogous spaces influence walking behavior. Antonson and his fellow researchers compared driving done on simulated roadways surrounded by open spaces, forests, and varied landscapes. They found that “In the open landscape, subjects drove faster, did not drive as close to the centre of the road, and grasped the steering wheel more often while simultaneously experiencing less stress.”

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Moriarty and his fellow researchers have found geographic patterns of frequent mental distress across the United States. Since the design of physical environments can influence mental state, and should respond to predictable mental conditions, these patterns are of interest to designers. The scientists found that the adult prevalence of frequent mental distress (FMD) was 9.4% overall, with an incidence of 6.6% in Hawaii and 14.4% in Kentucky. In addition, “The Appalachian and the Mississippi Valley regions had high and increasing FMD prevalence, and the upper Midwest had low and decreasing FMD prevalence.”

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Cell phones are certainly distracting, but are particular ring tones less onerous than others? Nope. Shelton and her colleagues found a link between decreased cognitive performance and all of the rings they tested (standard ring, irrelevant tones, and instrumental song). They also found that “participants in the ring and song conditions recovered more slowly” than people in the other test conditions.

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Milliner reviews the negative response of many parishioners to the Modernist churches that house their congregations and attributes their unhappiness to the failure of these structures to meet worshipers’ psychological needs: “Modernism once sought to help--even to save--the average person. But it tended to alienate the average person. . . The new style portrayed itself as moral. Forsaking the architectural "facade," Modernism would be honest about a building's structural needs. Modernism's mistake, however, was to underestimate the needs of the humans who inhabit buildings. To the human penchant for color and variety, Modernism offered the international style--flat white planes that were the same everywhere, from India to Illinois. In the face of the human delight in surprise and irregularity, Le Corbusier offered a plan to bulldoze the cobbled streets of Paris and start anew . . . Modernism condemned all ornamentation as bourgeois frivolity, forgetting the simple fact that decoration brings pleasure to the human eye.” This disconnect between human needs and the built form is particularly poignant when it occurs in religious spaces, which are the settings for such important human experiences as worship and mourning.

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Seeing images of very cute animals (kittens and puppies, for example), makes human beings behave with more care. Sherman, Haidt, and Coan found that exposure to images of cute animals “increased performance on a task that demanded extreme carefulness in order to successfully execute finely tuned motor movements (the children’s game Operation), an effect that cannot be attributed to general positivity (e.g., mood or specific positive emotion) or arousal (measured via self-report and autonomic physiology).” Designers trying to motivate people to behave carefully (via signage or control panels, for example) can apply this information directly in certain conditions and in others may find it useful as a base from which to extrapolate.

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Konkle and her colleagues have collected additional information about the interrelationship of sensory experiences. Their findings confirm that considering any sensory experience independently of simultaneous sensations is not a good idea – and designers who do ponder sensory channels in isolation may be surprised by user responses to the products and places they develop. Specifically, Konkle, Wang, Hayward, and Moore detailed ways in which what is felt via touch and what is seen influence each other – how something feels is influenced by what it looks like, and vice versa.

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Researchers have been investigating the influence of music on shoppers for years. Jacob and her research team have further clarified the importance of consistency between the sort of music heard by shoppers and the products being sold. A recent team project was based at a florist shop; flowers are regularly linked to romance. Jacobs, Gueguen, Boulbry, and Sami found that “The mean amount of money spent was significantly higher in the love songs and romantic music condition compared with the other two, whereas the pop music condition did not lead to an increase in the amount of money spent compared with the control, no music condition.”

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Even if our eyes are open, we may not see what we’re looking at. Researchers have determined that brainwaves have multiple activity peaks and troughs each second, and that we do not perceive things that are presented visually during those troughs. Professor Ro of CCNY indicates that being “blind” for even a split second can matter because, for example, “automobile accidents often occur because drivers miss seeing something, even if for a split second.” Signaling potentially important situations earlier, and prolonging these signals, can reduce accidents and errors that occur “when people fail to see something that is right in front of them.”

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Object variety influences apparent quantity and size. When we see a larger variety of items, we underestimate the quantity of each being shown. Redden and Hoch found that “When items differ, people tend to focus on one type or the other, and find it difficult to merge the multiple types into a whole . . . However, a set composed of only identical items makes it easy for people to perceive the items as a single, unified whole.” Redden and Hoch also learned that a collection of identical objects appears to occupy more space than sets of non-identical objects that actually occupy to the same total area. This effect can be used to influence perceptions of products and places as desired – and useful.

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In a ground-breaking study, Corney and his colleagues use information about the brain and the eye to explain the Helmholtz-Kohlrausch (HK) effect. The HK effect is the fact that “The colour of a stimuli can . . . alter its brightness. Specifically, stimuli that are more saturated (i.e., purer in colour) appear brighter than stimuli that are less saturated at the same luminance. Similarly, stimuli that are red or blue appear brighter than equiluminant yellow and green stimuli.”

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A study recently completed by Festini and his colleagues relates directly to nurses’ uniforms, but it is interesting to ponder what future related research might uncover about responses to environments. Festini and his research team found that when nurses in a pediatric unit wore brightly colored uniforms, their young patients were more comfortable and the patients’ parents were more confident about the quality of care being delivered than when the same nursing staff wore conventional, single-colored shirts and trousers.

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Sela and Shiv provide insights about how environmental cues influence behavior. Their research indicates that when people see a cue in their environment (such as a thrift store) it has a shorter term effect on their behavior when it is consistent with their self –concept (they believe that they are frugal) and a longer term effect on their behavior when it is inconsistent with their self-concept (they do not see themselves as frugal).

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Retail design can influence the ease with which customers can touch store merchandise. Peck’s and Shu’s recent research indicates that this tactile access may significantly affect sales. Simply touching an object increases a person’s possessive feelings toward it. People are, correspondingly, willing to pay higher prices for objects that they can touch than for objects that they cannot touch – as long as touching the object is a positive or neutral experience. If touching an object is unpleasant, the price people are willing to pay for it decreases.

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Environmental psychologists long ago determined that architects and non-architects regularly respond differently to the same building form. Now, neuroscientific research has addressed the issue of expertise and judgment and come to the same conclusions, finding “that expertise not only modulates cognitive processing, but also modulates the response in reward related brain areas.”

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In experiments with native Africans who have never listened to Western music before being tested, Fritz and his colleagues found that the happy, sad, and fearful emotions expressed in the unfamiliar music could be identified by the Africans. Not surprisingly, Westerners also could recognize the emotion being conveyed in the musical selections presented. The researchers conclude that “This indicates that these emotional expressions conveyed by the Western musical excerpts can be universally recognized, similar to the largely universal recognition of human emotional facial expressions and emotional prosody [rhythm and intonations found in spoken language].”

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Researchers Yeh and Huang have uncovered patterns in floral purchases by men and women; these patterns can reasonably be expected to reflect underlying gender preferences. Women are more likely to select flowers that they feel will influence their mood and that are unusual. Men choose flowers based on the sensory pleasure that they anticipate after the purchase is made.

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Mesmer-Magnus and DeChurch have found that most teams spend their time discussing information that is already known to all members of the group and that teams that talk more with each other are less effective at completing their chosen tasks. Teams that share more new information perform better than those who rehash well-known material. These findings have repercussions for workplace design as well as management practice. For example, physical or virtual “message boards” can be used by team members to share new or unique information that is available to them.

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When pairs of people are playing a piece of music together, their brain waves are more synchronized that when they are not playing together. Researchers are not sure whether the synchronization of brain waves is a result of, or a precursor to, the coordinated musical actions.

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Uchida feels that successful Japanese interior design reflects Japanese culture; his opinions are similar to those of many other researchers who believe that members of particular national cultures thrive in specific sorts of spaces. He describes a “national poetry of seeing” and the sacred status of the Japanese home. Uchida believes that the peacefulness found in home spaces spreads to public interiors in Japan because a consistent set of design principles is used within the cultural context.

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Everyone lip-reads. Our ability to lip-read is particularly important when we are in a moderately noisy condition. Thus, environmental aids to lip-reading (ability to orient interpersonally, etc.) are crucial in moderately noisy situations.

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People with musical training are better able to assess emotional components of sounds, such as baby cries. Strait and her colleagues studied the ability of musicians and non-musicians to respond to emotion by analyzing brainstem reactions to pitch, timing, and timbre. Musicians were found to have more “finely tuned” audio systems.

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People who feel disgust for social reasons make the same faces as people tasting disagreeable food. Chapman and his colleagues concluded “That a system with the ancient and critical adaptive function of rejecting toxic food should be brought to bear in the moral sphere speaks to the vital importance of regulating social behavior for human beings.”

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Exercise balls as classroom chairs? Yes. University students participating in a recent study who sat on exercise balls during class felt that they were better able to concentrate, take notes, and participate in class discussions when seated on exercise balls than when seated on conventional chairs.

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Aipperspach, Hooker, and Woodruff discuss the integration of technology into home environments. As they state, “Laptops, the Internet, cell phones, and BlackBerries make it possible to bring work home, providing alternative possibilities for time shifting and working from home that can have positive implications for working parents or for reducing the negative impacts of commuting. However, this ability blurs the distinction between home and work and can make the home ‘just another place to work,’ breaking down the spatial and temporal distinctions between work and home . . .While work is moving into the home, the home is also moving beyond the physical house – into cars or to third places like coffee shops. In some homes . . . kitchens are becoming vestigial as nearby restaurants and take-out shops expand the home. The home is even moving into virtual space as people spend increasing amounts of time in online environments – home pages, online communities, networked video games, or virtual worlds like Second Life.”

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Rehmeyer discusses the mathematics behind the number of colors required to shade maps and other objects so that colored spaces never abut other spaces of the same color. She describes Guthrie’s observations in 1852 that “Despite [English] counties’ meandering shapes and varied configurations, four colors were all he needed to shade the map so that any two bordering counties were different colors.” Rehmeyer also reports a recent mathematical proof related to more fully understanding this phenomena.

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Neighborhood conditions influence how people in them perceive their personal health. Poortinga and his colleagues found that “Both perceptions of the neighbourhood environment (i.e., access to amenities, neighbourhood quality, neighbourhood disorder, social cohesion, and neighborhood belonging) and the reporting of housing problems (i.e., heavy condensation, damp, draught, and mould) were significantly related to neighbourhood deprivation and self-rated health. . . Overall, this study produced some cross-sectional evidence that neighbourhood deprivation is detrimental to public health over and above the effects of individual socio-economic status. The implications of these results are that health policy should target ‘places’ as well as ‘people.’”

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Doodling counters daydreaming. People doing a boring task, for example attending an unexciting meeting, may daydream so extensively that their performance on their main task is influenced, but doodling seems to stop daydreaming without harming performance on that main task. So, sometimes locations should enable doodling.

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Falling on stairs can cause serious injuries. When people slip climbing stairs it may be because they have not lifted a foot high enough to clear the top of the step and bump their toe into the riser. When risers are marked with narrow vertical stripes and the tops of the steps have horizontal stripes, this is less likely to occur than in the reverse situation.

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Lugo and colleagues have contributed to the body of knowledge regarding how sensory information is noted and integrated. Their work has shown that the brain uses information about what it is currently sensing to change the way that it is focusing on the sensory world.

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Kahn and his colleagues synthesize material from several studies to assess the dangers of technological nature. “Technological nature” is defined as “technologies that in various ways mediate, augment, or simulate the natural world.” Examples include nature shows on television and robot pets. The researchers conclude that “The potential problems with technological nature, at least as we see it from this early vantage point: We as a species will adapt to the loss of actual nature. How could we not? We either adapt or go extinct. But because of biophilia – because of our evolutionary need to affiliate with nature – we will suffer physical and psychological costs. We will also be drawn to increasingly sophisticated and pervasive forms of technological nature, which will provide some but not all of the benefits of actual nature. In turn, there will be a downward shift (as there has been already) in the baseline across generations for what counts as a full measure of the human experience and of human flourishing. This shift makes and will continue to make societal change difficult. . . The problem of environmental generational amnesia may emerge as one of the central psychological problems of our lifetime.”

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Knutson and her colleagues have identified the four components of consumers’ retail experiences and determined their relative importance to purchasers. Most important is benefit to the consumer, followed by the convenience of the retail experience, and price (in terms of both money and time). The design of the online or physical environment is the fourth, and least important, component of consumers’ experiences.

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Elderly people who are more physically fit have larger hippocampi and better spatial memory than elderly people who are less physically fit. The same relationship between exercise and spatial memory was previously found in rodents.

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Are human scent preferences learned, or are they chemically determined? New evidence indicates both experiences and the physiochemical properties of the molecules being smelled influence preference. As Mandairon and her colleagues state “Even if pleasantness is the result of culture, life experience and learning, the present interspecies comparison shows that there is an initial part of the percept which is innate and engraved in the odorant structure.” Humans and mice find the same odors pleasant, indicating that scent preference can not be an entirely learned phenomenon.

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Pheromones are “the chemicals used to communicate between individuals of the same species. . . .Pheromones have been found across the animal kingdom, sending messages between courting lobsters, alarmed aphids, suckling rabbit pups, mound-building termites and trail-following ants.” In spite of popular press reports that these supposedly subliminal, powerful olfactory influencers have been isolated in humans, they have not.

Tristram Wyatt. 2009. “Fifty Years of Pheromones.” Nature, vol. 457, pp. 262-263.  

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Many designers collect information using surveys, but the people answering their questions do not always do so appropriately. People who are from collectivist cultures are more likely to inaccurately answer questions to present a socially approved image than people from individualistic cultures. Examples of collectivist cultures are China and India. In countries that are more individualistic, such as the United States and Germany, survey respondents are more likely to misrepresent information to present an inflated, unrealistically positive view of themselves. Both of these behaviors are unconscious.

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Shapiro and colleagues studied the responses of children with developmental disabilities (ages 6-11) and typical children of similar ages to dentists’ offices with sensory adapted environments. Both sets of children were less anxious in adapted environments, but the effects were particularly strong among the developmentally disabled children. The sensory adapted environments used “1) No overhead fluorescent lighting (50 Hz) or dental overhead lamp; 2) Adapted lighting consisted of dimmed upward fluorescent lighting (30-40 00 Hz), slow moving, repetitive visual color effects (Solar Protector, Rompa Co., Chesterfield, UK); and 3) The dental hygienist wore a head mounted LED lamp (Black Diamond Zenix IQ, Salt Lake City, Utah) directed into the patient’s mouth.” In addition, rhythmic music was played at 75 db over loudspeakers in the adapted spaces and was accompanied by a bass vibrator connected to the dental chair (Aura, Bass Shaker, model AST-1B, 4 OHMS; Unical Enterprises, City of Industry, CA). Developmentally disabled children were also physically restrained using a “’friendly butterfly’ papoose that ‘hugged’ the child tightly” while typical children wore a dental radiography vest that also produced a deep hugging effect in the sensory adapted environments.

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People who are mentally tired are fatigued more quickly when doing a physical task than people who are not. This has repercussions for the design of spaces like offices and schools through which people who are physically tired can be expected to move.

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Chan, Wan, and Sin have learned that different sorts of situations annoy people from different countries. This information can be useful to designers who develop public spaces, for example. Asians have a stronger belief in fate than non-Asians and also are more concerned about face, which is “a positive image of the self that is affirmed through interpersonal interactions.” Asians are more tolerant of failures that they can perceive are related to fate than Westerners; for example, not being able to see actions on a stage because they arrive late at an event after alternative viewing spots have been claimed. Americans are more accepting of social failures than Asians, but not as accepting of problems that could be related to fate.

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Memories, emotions, and familiar music are linked because they are all processed in the same part of the brain. Janata’s work indicates why particular pieces of music are so strongly associated with memorable situations.

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Recent research by the General Services Administration (GSA) provides additional evidence that working in an environmentally responsible workplace has positive psychological implications. A recent post-occupancy analysis of 12 GSA buildings indicates that “occupant satisfaction is higher in sustainably designed buildings. Occupant satisfaction is important because it correlates with personal and team performance. That often means higher productivity and creativity for an organization.”

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Human beings restock their stores of mental energy in restorative spaces. Work by Herzog and his colleagues determined that houses of worship are restorative places. This finding is consistent with previous research indicating that monasteries provide opportunities for mental restoration.

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How can architectural animations be improved? Researchers in Switzerland conducted an “analysis of award-winning architectural animations [that] established average shot length as a reliable and valid predictor for . . . judgments of salience, vividness, and diversity. A shorter average shot length resulted in more favorable ratings, while longer shot rates led to the opposite outcomes.” Researchers found that “Given these results, it can be said that the shorter the average shot length of the animation, the more enthralling, impressive, creative, and more technically accomplished it was judged to be.”

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Formaldehyde, which can lead to sick building syndrome, among other conditions, is released from carpeting, adhesives, and other building materials. Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina) and Fatsia japonica have been found to dramatically reduce concentrations of formaldehyde in the air of test chambers contaminated with formaldehyde.

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On February 16, 2009, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Prof. Brad Allenby of Arizona State University discussed the complex infrastructures of future urban spaces. Allenby reports that "The accelerating urbanization of the species is rapidly increasing the complexity of the urban environment for humanity as a whole. . . This makes urban-system infrastructure a critical component in maintaining stable, functioning societies and ensuring quality of life. . . We can't predict or identify all the problems and opportunities that may arise, but we can try to design our cities and their infrastructure so that we're better able to manage them when the problems and opportunities do arise."

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Nasar and Stamps have investigated the physical features of McMansions (super-sized infill homes) that are most likely to distress neighbors. A press release from The Ohio State University, where Nasar is a professor, reports that “Researchers found that people particularly dislike when these large homes, often derisively called ‘McMansions,’ are more than two times as tall as surrounding homes, and when their architectural style is not compatible with the neighboring homes.”

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Oral histories for places can be highly reliable and accurate. Aporta reviews the oral histories of travel routes that the Inuit use to traverse the Arctic. The ability of the Inuit to move in consistent ways, year after year, from place to place, is particularly remarkable because weather conditions cause their trails to disappear with each new storm and season. The Inuit use stored information about experienced aspects of the physical environment such as snow and ice conditions and wind directions to navigate. They transmit this information orally to others so that they also can travel from one place to another. The Inuit do not draw maps of their trails or use any other sort of written documentation of routes.

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The sense centers in human brains are continuously active. When there are no stimuli to be processed, a particular sensory center (for example, our vision center) goes into a sort of hibernating, computer screensaver-like mode. Researchers think that one of the reasons for this minimal activity level is that it “enables a quick start when a stimulus eventually presents itself, something like a getaway car with the engine running.”

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If mother mice are exposed to an enriched environment (for example one containing novel objects as well as opportunities for social interaction and exercise), their young also benefit cognitively. Thus, it is not just the environments that the young mice experience that determine cognitive abilities; these abilities are also influenced by their mother’s environment before they were born. The researchers found that this effect was present even when offspring were raised by foster mothers, which indicates that the ways that their mothers nurtured them did not influence this result. The authors indicate that this finding may also apply to human mother-child pairs.

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Szilagyi created a computer simulation to investigate optimal public transportation systems. When considering human psychology, individual car travel, and bus travel, he found that the urban transportation system that would likely satisfy most people uses large buses that run frequently in bus-only traffic lanes. People with day-specific travel needs, such as transporting something bulky in the trunk of their car, would have a relatively congestion-free ride in their individual cars if this optimal transportation system were implemented and other people would experience relatively pleasant bus rides under these circumstances.

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How we assess objects depends on which of our hands is dominant. Casasanto and Tarr report on one of their experiments: “To observe how movement and cognition are related, a study asked volunteers to identify which ‘fribble,’ made-up creatures, had good qualities, such as honesty or intelligence. Left-handers usually judged fribbles shown on the left side kindly, and right-handers the reverse. But all judged a fribble shown in a top position in a better light than they did one on the bottom.”

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Researchers at the University of Buffalo have developed software that can be used to design roads so that they are less likely to be covered with snow drifts and to position snow fences to keep drifts away from existing roads. The software, called “SnowMan,” as described by its developers, “is based on a combination of knowledge about the fluid mechanics principles that underlie how snow blows and drifts, with fieldwork . . . . on the characteristics of blowing and drifting snow.”

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Wakslak and Trope investigated issues that make the probability of events being discussed seem more or less likely. They indicate that “Inasmuch as a global, high-level-construal orientation has been evoked by activities as diverse as contemplating one’s values and priorities (Wakslak & Trope, 2008), using adjectives (rather than verbs) to describe something (Stapel & Semin, 2007), and even working in a room with a high ceiling (Meyers-Levy & Zhu, 2007), each of these experiences should dampen the perceived probability of an event under consideration.”

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The Wilson Quarterly uses information reported by Thomas Dohmen in Economic Inquiry to support some sports fans’ contentions that referees favor the home team. Dohmen indicates that “The most likely explanation [for why the referees favor the home team] is ‘that social pressure from the crowd directly affects the referee.’ A conclusion buoyed by the higher incidence of favoritism in track-less stadiums (where the partisan crowd is closer to the action).” The Wilson Quarterly adds: “Coming soon to a stadium near you: overhanging stands with crowd noise amped really loud.” “Home Field Advantage.” 2009. Wilson Quarterly, vol. 33, no. 1, p. 72.  

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Clay, writing in the Monitor on Psychology, reports information indicating that neither adults nor children can effectively perform several tasks at the same time. Physical environments are regularly designed to encourage multitasking. Clay describes research by David Meyer of the University of Michigan showing that tasks cannot be done simultaneously “Plus switching itself [between tasks] takes a toll: As you’re switching, says Meyer, you’re not concentrating on either task. And you need a mental warm-up to resume the suspended task. . . . Meyer and colleagues found that people lost time switching from one task to another. The amount of time they lost increased significantly as the tasks became more complex or unfamiliar.”

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Sometimes thinking too much before making a decision is a bad idea. Nordgren and Dijksterhuis found that “Whether evaluating abstract objects (Chinese ideograms) or actual consumer items (paintings, apartments, and jellybeans), people who deliberated on their preferences were less consistent than those who made non-deliberative judgments.” These less consistent judgments are less accurate.

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Recent research at Tel Aviv University has shown that many children who are generally anxious have balance problems. Previous research has shown the same relationship among adults. This finding has implications for the physical design of spaces, such as counseling areas that anxious people may be expected to use.

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In an interesting set of experiments, Mishra has shown that people believe that object attributes are contagious: “Despite the fact that the qualities (of a gift coupon or a product defect) cannot physically spread from one object to the other, people still believe in the contagiousness of qualities.” Mishra’s findings have implications for the display and discussion of objects in retail and other contexts. People participating in one of Mishra’s research projects were more likely to choose a bottle of soda from among a tightly grouped selection of bottles than a group of bottles that were further apart when they were told that one of the bottles in each set had a hidden gift certificate. When participants in another study was told that one of the bottles in each set (those close together and those farther apart) was defective, they were more likely to select a soda from the group with the bottles farther apart.

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Gifts of financial or other assets are more highly valued when they are received from family members than from other people. The special value placed on gifted physical objects has implications for the design of spaces and the placement of objects within those spaces. Bradford writes that assets with “symbolic value serve to nurture family ties from the past into the future.” As Bradford further describes, “Labels are not only ascribed to gifted assets, but are transferred from past to future generations through family caretakers who nurture both the symbolic meaning and market values of the gifted assets.” Some objects are even treated as surrogate family members.

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The patterns of beats in music have been shown to influence people psychologically. Recent research by Winkler and his colleagues indicates that babies who are only two days old can detect the beat in music, which implies that the ability to perceive the beat pattern in music is innate or learned before birth.

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TAES (Towards An Excellent Service) “is a free diagnostic tool that allows an organization to define for itself how it is performing against a model of best [park] management practice. At the heart of TAES is a framework that will enable parks and open spaces services to give themselves a regular, ongoing health check and to take the crucial next steps forward.” The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment developed TAES and it can be downloaded from their website (http://www.cabe.org.uk/taes ).

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What sorts of spaces seem most restorative for college students? In work building on Attention Restoration Theory, Felstein has found that “Students rated setting with views of dramatic nature murals, especially those with water, more restorative than settings with window views of real, but mundane nature with built structures present. Students rated settings that lacked views of real or simulated nature least restorative.”

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Song and Schwarz have assessed the relationship between how easy it is to pronounce the name of something, and how risky it seems. Previous research has shown that things with easier to pronounce names seem more familiar and are more positively received. The research by Song and Schwarz indicates that “stimuli with difficult-to-pronounce names were rated as more risky, independent of valence.” Thus these results are found with more positive risks (such as an amusement park ride being more “exciting and adventurous”) and undesirable ones (e.g., an amusement park ride’s likelihood of making one sick). This study has repercussions for the naming of places.

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Play England, the United Kingdom’s Department for Children, Schools and Families, and DCMS have identified straightforward principles for the design of successful play areas. A successful play space is defined by these groups as “A place in its own right, specially designed for its location, in such a way as to provide as much play value as possible.” The principles outlined include “designing to enhance the setting . . . [being] close to nature . . . [designing the spaces] so that children cam play in different ways . . . [creating places] where children of all ages play together . . . [designing] to enable children to stretch and challenge themselves in every way.”

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In a report about current office design practices prepared by the United Kingdom’s Office of Government Commerce and DEGW, famed researcher Frank Duffy of DEGW states, “Places and spaces will become far more – not less – important, in our new world of technologically enhanced, knowledge-based work. The case studies in this book amply demonstrate that it is not just rentable square feet but a wider range of intelligent and responsible services that civil servants and other office occupiers want and are beginning to get. . . The conventional, standardized, unidirectional supply chain through which office space is funded, developed and constructed will have to be reinvented as a more responsible demand chain - in the same way that hotels and retail are already, to some extent, changing patterns of user demand.”

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Oommen, Knowles, and Zhao have reviewed the research related to open plan offices. They found that workers in open plan environments are less productive, more stressed, and more likely to change jobs. As the researchers state: “The high level of noise causes employees to lose concentration, leading to low productivity, there are privacy issues because everyone can see what you are doing on the computer or hear what you are saying on the phone, and there is a feeling of insecurity.” Small, private, closed offices were seen as a better workspace alternative by Oommen and his colleagues.

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Tom Fawcett has investigated the relationship between preferred bus seats and response to social situations, temperament, and personal interests. He determined that the people who sit at the front of a bus (on the lower-level) tend to be gregarious, the people who sit in the middle of the bus are independent-minded, and that people who sit at the back of the bus (upstairs) are rebellious and concerned about personal space invasions. People who sit at the back of the bus downstairs are risk-takers. People sitting in the upper level front seats are oriented toward the future. Finally, some bus riders didn’t have seat preferences; they were able to fit in with any of the other passenger groups.

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Babies as young as 9 months old can distinguish happy from sad music. Flom and his fellow researchers state, however, “We make no claims about whether infants perceived affect in the music or experienced either happiness or sadness while listening to it.”

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As thermometer readings decrease, blood pressure readings increase. Recent research by Alperovitch and his colleagues has shown that this relationship holds for elderly individuals. Previous research had revealed this correlation in younger people. The causes of this relationship are unknown.

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Professors Jules Pretty, Jo Barton, and Rachel Hine of the University of Essex have used nature and wilderness experiences as a catalyst for change among young offenders in Essex. The professors feel that “the key element [of their program] was getting them [the youth] in touch with nature and away from negative distractions in their usual urban environments.” During their involvement in this program, offenders engaged in fewer “negative events,” as well as less criminal activity and substance abuse. The participants’ self-confidence, trust, belonging, and connectedness to nature increased over the course of the program.

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Plants help patients feel better, literally. Park and Mattson found that “Patients in hospital rooms with plants and flowers had significantly fewer intakes of postoperative analgesics, more positive physiological responses evidence by lower systolic blood pressure and heart rate, lower ratings of pain, anxiety, and fatigue, and more positive feelings and higher satisfaction about their rooms when compared with patients in the control group [no plants]. Findings of this research suggested that plants in a hospital environment could be noninvasive inexpensive, and an effective complementary medicine for patients recovering from abdominal surgery.” Ninety-three percent of patients with plants in their rooms said that these plants were the most positive aspect of their hospital room, while 91% of patients without plants in their rooms felt the same way about watching television in their room.

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Zeisel has extensively researched the social and physical environments in which Alzheimer’s patients should live. His new book, I’m Still Alive, effectively presents his findings. For example, regarding wayfinding: “For people living with Alzheimer’s the easier it is for them to comprehend and use an environment, the more empowered and independent they will be there. Naturally mapped residential settings and gardens, with visible landmarks indicating destinations and turning points, give them the opportunity to find their way. While wandering is often seen as a ‘symptom’ of Alzheimer’s, it is more realistically a natural tendency that everyone has to explore, to search, and to have a goal. In a setting that has no obvious layout, people living with Alzheimer’s wander. In a naturally mapped environment the same people walk.”

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Keizer and his colleagues have probed the Broken Window phenomena: when people see signs of petty neighborhood neglect, such as litter and graffiti, they are more likely to engage in similar violations of social norms. Their new research findings are consistent with previous support for this effect. Investigators found, for example, that people were more likely to use a prohibited entrance to a parking lot if bicycles were inappropriately attached to a nearby fence or to steal an envelope containing money from a mailbox if there was graffiti on the mailbox. The researchers conclude, “Signs of inappropriate behavior like graffiti or broken windows lead to other inappropriate behavior (e.g., litter or stealing).”

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The psychologically restorative effects of nature have been extolled for some time, by Stephen and Rachel Kaplan, among others. In a recent study, Stephen Kaplan and co-workers have further investigated and confirmed the benefits of walking in nature and viewing pictures of nature. They observe that, “Nature, which is filled with intriguing stimuli, modestly grabs attention in a bottom-up fashion, allowing top-down directed-attention abilities a chance to replenish. Unlike natural environments, urban environments are filled with stimulation that captures attention dramatically and additionally requires directed attention (e.g., to avoid being hit by a car), making them less restorative.”

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Henderson and Song present additional evidence that nearby open space is desirable. Not only do the prices of homes increase as their proximity to open spaces increase but “the value of being adjacent to public open spaces, having more public open spaces within waking distance of the property, and being closer to the nearest open space is greater for properties with smaller private yards.” Since market price reflect collective valuations, this evidence indicates that we value open space, particularly under conditions in which it would otherwise be in limited supply.

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US Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED points can be awarded for the creation of “healthful, comfortable, and productive workplaces,” i.e., those that are ergonomically strong. Ergonomics related points are allocated in LEED’s “Innovation in Design and Innovation in Operations” category. Alan Hedge has posted a checklist detailing USGBC requirements for ergonomics-related innovation and design points and a user survey that covers ergonomics issues (http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/cuergoUSGBC.html ).

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Research by Chen has shown that viewing (but not owning) visual art can be as beneficial to some people as owning art is to others. People who prefer variety in the art they experience can benefit by visiting art that they do not own; art collectors prefer a longer term relationship with particular pieces of art. Chen writes that “The present research challenges the presupposition that possession is the ultimate expression of consumer desire . . . [viewing] could also provide value of the extended self through immaterial memories that enrich human sense and life experiences.”

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Men have better visual-spatial skills than women. Do male infants have better visual-spatial skills than female infants? Recent research with 5-month old babies indicates that they do.

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The sections of the human brain that process visual information respond more strongly to objects of value than other objects. Value is determined by assessing past rewards. In addition, valued objects may be seen more clearly than other items.

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When the architecture of Western (i.e., in mainland Europe, the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand) condominiums conform to feng shui principles, those condominiums are worth more money than condominiums that are not designed recognizing feng shui’s tenets. As Bond states, “Feng Shui impacts positively on property values in the West.”

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In countries where people regularly bicycle, walk, or take public transportation to work, school, or shopping (termed “active transportation”), citizens are less obese. Americans are less likely to travel via active transport than Europeans, but factors other than lifestyle lead to these behaviors. Bassett and his colleagues indicate that it is easy to use active transport in Europe because cities are more compact, population density is higher, and infrastructure is more common that makes traveling by car less critical.

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People value living near historic homes. Research by Narwold has found that in San Diego, CA, “A [nonhistoric] house’s value is increased by 3.8% by having a historical house within 250 feet and by 1.6% by having a historical home located between 250 and 500 feet away.” A “historic home” in San Diego is one that has been designated as historically significant by the state.

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Westerhoff has effectively summarized existing research on how personality changes during the course of our lives. He reports that “People tend to be open to new experiences during their teens and early 20s . . . but after a person’s early 20s, the fascination with novelty declines, and resistance to change increases.” This evolution in openness to novelty has implications for responses to atypical environments.

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Adding photos of patients’ faces to medical files increases the empathy that radiologists reviewing those files feel for the patients shown and the care with which the doctors assess patient information. Photographs of individuals and groups who will use a space in development could be expected to have the same influence on designers.

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Kingston Heath, professor of historical preservation at the University of Oregon, discussed situated regionalism at the annual meeting of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments. He observed that “Buildings and settings, alone, do not make place . . . People, in their interaction with the natural and built environment, make place.” Vernacular architecture is thus in transition as the people who use a place change. Heath suggested that architects “need to be studying patterns of contradiction that show how past forms are being altered to meet the needs of people that haven’t been accommodated in design.”

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McDermott, Lehr, and Oxenham investigated the processes people use to recognize music and other sounds. They found that humans focus on patterns of changes (relative pitches as opposed to absolute pitches) when determining if they have heard a version (transposition) of a particular set of sounds before. Not only is relative pitch used in this way, but so is brightness (“perceptual correlate of the center of mass of the frequency spectrum . . .sounds with more high-frequency energy are brighter than those with less high-frequency energy”) and relative loudness.

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When human beings become disoriented in a space, what cues do they use to reorient themselves? Adults use features of a room (colors of a particular wall) and geometric information about a room (shape of space, for example) to reorient, but they use different information at different times. As Ratliff and Newcombe describe, “Adults favor geometric information in a small room [4 ft x 6 ft x 6 ft in the experiment] and rely on features in a larger room [8 ft x 12 ft x 8 ft in the experiment] . . . . experience in a larger room produces dominance of features over geometric cues in a small room.”

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Green design features are a very important consideration for people considering buying homes in master-planned communities. Green features that are important for people purchasing homes in green and conventional communities are: having open green spaces, a walkable community, energy efficient appliances, water efficient appliances, indoor air quality, and overall energy efficiency. People buying homes in either a green or conventional communities did not feel that it was important to have public transportation nearby or a dog park close by their new house.

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Tenants’ responses to the people who manage their apartment complexes have a significant influence on their satisfaction with those complexes. As James and his colleagues found after examining “the relative importance of seven core factors in determining tenant satisfaction: parking, noise level, landscaping, safety, building construction, office staff, and maintenance service . . . tenant relations with management office staff [are] the most influential factor in tenant satisfaction.”

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Sugiyama and his colleagues investigated which attributes of neighborhood open spaces influence health, life satisfaction, and walking (outdoor activity) for older individuals. They determined that among the people who participated in their study “pleasantness and safety of open spaces were relevant to participants’ life satisfaction, whereas the quality of paths to open spaces was associated with walking behavior. The distance to neighborhood open spaces was also correlated with life satisfaction.” No attributes of the neighborhood outdoor spaces studied were associated with participants’ health.

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People tend to travel from one place to another using the same route, time after time. Decisions about where to live, and whether to own a car or not have a significant influence on reasonable travel options, and “Using (and getting used to) certain modes of transport enhances the organization of daily activity patterns from the travel mode’s perspective. For instances, typical car drivers develop a space extensive and/or time intensive lifestyle, leaving no or little choice options to organize their daily activity travel.”

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Semenza and March researched the influence of straightforward community based interventions on the quality of life in urban neighborhoods. In a Portland, OR based project they determined that after an intervention “To engage low- to moderate-income, urban communities in creating pleasant amenities in the public right-of-way, including ecologically built information kiosks, benches, trellises for hanging gardens, and interactive art features such as large street paintings and art walls . . . [a post-intervention survey of people living within two blocks of the interventions showed that] 53% rated their neighborhood better than before and 44% or 53% rated their present neighborhood as an excellent or good place to live, respectively. In open-ended qualitative comments, 30% mentioned increased social interactions, 13% revealed an enhanced sense of place, 43% described neighborhood participation, and 20% discussed aesthetic aspects of their local environment.”

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Feelings of cleanliness influence moral judgments. Schnall, Benton, and Harvey found that after people were exposed to words associated with cleanliness or washed their hands, “[study] participants found certain moral actions to be less wrong than did participants who had not been exposed to a cleaning manipulation . . .The current studies provide evidence that, in the context of morality, purity is not just a metaphor. Presumably because human beings aim to distinguish themselves from other animals, they attempt to place themselves close to higher spiritual beings by being physically and morally pure . . . Because of its potential to lead people to regard moral actions as pure and good, cleanliness might indeed feel as if it were next to godliness.”

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The UK’s Designing for the 21st Century Initiative, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and the Royal College of Art have jointly assessed the workplace design related needs of office workers over the age of 50. Their findings are available in a report available at the website noted below. Among the general information reported: “The office spaces [open-plan spaces in the UK, Japan, and Australia] provided did not, facilitate the best environment for a host of essential knowledge-work activities which are dependent on deeper concentration. Planning, analysis, creation, processing and writing of large and complex systems of information require uninterrupted thought, a state of mind deemed difficult when the open-plan office . . . Generally, there were few spaces specifically allocated for concentration tasks. Inward-looking thought activities appeared to be underestimated in relation to the communication and teamwork aspects of knowledge work processes.”

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Does the weather affect human moods? German researchers studied the influence of temperature, wind strength, amount of sunlight, precipitation, air pressure, and length of time between sunrise and sunset on mood. None of these factors influenced the general positive mood of the population, although individuals did respond emotionally to them. The individuals tested did not respond consistently, so an overall effect was not observed. Temperature, wind strength, and sunlight did influence negative mood. Sunlight directly influenced feelings of tiredness, and influenced the effects of precipitation and air pressure on tiredness.

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Richard Latto, a professor at the University of Liverpool, has investigated popular abstract art images. He determined that “We like to look at the human body or parts of the body like the face and hands, stylized representations like stick figures and organic forms of the kind incorporated into the work of Salvador Dali and Francis Bacon. Certain landscapes and horizontal and vertical lines are also popular because they resonate with our visual systems, which have been tuned by evolution and experience to respond particularly to these biologically and socially important stimuli.”

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After children learn the names of colors, a different part of their brain is used to perceive color. Researchers found that once people have categories they can use to describe colors, they use those categories to perceive shades to which they are exposed.

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An optical illusion increases the likelihood of not accurately assessing the position of moving objects. This illusion increases the probability that tennis referees will make mistakes when ruling that a ball is out of play. Since moving objects are perceived to shift in line with the direction they are traveling, balls are more likely to be called out of bounds when they are in bounds than the reverse situation can be expected to occur.

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Children find different aspects of their environment significant than adults do, even if the adults are attempting to evaluate a space in the children’s context. Simkins and Thwaites discuss the importance of fully exploring children’s place-based needs by collecting information (through multiple methods) from children themselves, because “Places significant in the routine lives of young children do not always correspond with conventional professional, or even adult, priorities and, furthermore, they [study results] show there is a risk of loss rather than gain if such different perceptions fail to emerge during site and user surveys.”

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College students who are more frequent users of campus green spaces rate their quality of life higher than students who do not use green spaces as often. They also felt better able to apply what they learned than students less likely to use green spaces.

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Whether or not a baby is placed in an incubator after birth has been linked to depression levels in young adults. Babies who have been placed in incubators are less likely to be depressed as young adults and researchers hypothesize that this may be related, at least in part, to some feature of the physical environment within the incubator.

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The color red influences a man’s perceptions of a woman’s attractiveness. Men are unaware of the fact that red makes them feel a woman is more attractive. Elliot and Niesta observed this effect when men appraised photos of women wearing red shirts or assessed women whose photographs were framed by red borders.

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Miller and his colleagues presented evidence at a recent American Heart Association meeting indicating that listening to favorite music has health benefits. Their work has shown that music that makes listeners feel good produces an emotional response that improves blood vessel function, increasing blood flow. Music perceived as stressful reduces blood flow.

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People form stronger associations between themselves and nature than they do between themselves and the built environment. Schultz and Tabanico hypothesize that this may be because humans have a “biological predisposition for a positive association with nature.” They explore alternate explanations, however, and discuss the fact that “approximately 25% of our samples [exhibited] a stronger association between self and built environments.”

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Multiple factors could determine an individual’s satisfaction with his/her neighborhood. Fleury-Bahi and her colleagues have determined that the social image of the neighborhood and the relationships (or potential) relationships an individual has to co-residents are the key determinants of residential satisfaction. Physical features of the environment were included in the tested model.

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Van Patten and Williams have probed the meaning and significance of seasonal homes. They have found that these residences are viewed primarily as refuges from the demands of daily life. These spaces are often central to their owners’ conceptions of themselves, and the residents feel that it is important that they are integrated into the communities surrounding their homes and not be seen as “the summer people,” etc. Among those interviewed, “Regardless of whether respondents owned their seasonal home for only a few years or passed it down through the family, it was discussed as a central organizing fixture of life, often involving extended family. It was an anchor in an increasingly fragmented modern world.”

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Wayfinding involves finding our way through a space. Research by Spiers and Maguire has shown that “Wayfinding involves more than simply planning, and carrying out plans. It can evoke a range of emotions, spark interest in the surrounding environment and lead one to consider the thoughts of fellow wayfinders.”

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Designers can be asked to create virtual as well as physical places. Case has identified three forms of virtual environments: intelligent reality (“a digital environment where computers are invisible and intelligence is invested in everyday objects”), real reality (these “digital facsimiles of real environments . . .are tangible, are real . . . the paraphernalia required of virtual reality, such as helmets, gloves, chambers, and body suits . . . are no longer necessary. . . [and are] make possible by the rapidly evolving field of nanotechnology”), and neural reality (“neural reality is based on the possibility of placing nano-scale devices into our nerve systems, which can transmit all five sense”). He finds that “Their qualities will require a new approach to design, one that is dynamic rather than static and process oriented rather than object oriented.”

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Digitally designed architecture is transforming the built environment. As Reffat summarizes, “In digitally designed architecture, computational design models capable of dynamic transformation are replacing the static norms of conventional processes favoring computationally generated complexities. With digital architecture, the relationship between architecture and its means of production is being challenged by the digital processes of design and fabrication.”

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Bradley traces the evolution of the American office by focusing on the way in which the relative power of employers and employees has been manifested in workplace design. He observes that “the application of systematic management techniques to clerical labour had the effect of symbolically and functionally fusing workers with their desks, and the relationship between worker and desk thus became a vital concern . . . For office design, the convergence of the cubicle with networked computing marks a moment when, one might say, connection takes over from construction as the primary means of control. . . . In combination with ICT-supported surveillance of workflows, the flexible modular designs of modern cubicles and the ubiquity of the networked workstation embody the control afforded by this new panopticism, and carry forward a now largely automated clinical gaze with regard to the monitoring and operationalization of workflows. . . . As the interface between individual workers and the organization for which they labour, the desk has gone from being an elaborate and idiosyncratic private domain to a streamlined and very public point of articulation between worker and work.”

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Praus reports on DEGW research related to Generation Y and workplace design. DEGW found that the most important influences on company and job attractiveness were salary and career prospects. The physical design of the workplace and flexible work opportunities were both important as well, and equally so. In addition, “Efficient workplaces that can accommodate technology, flexible ways of working, and support leisure and family time will be critical to future business success.” DEGW collected information from German, Swiss and Austrian students entering the workforce in 2008 and human resources professionals employed by major global companies.

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Song and Schwarz have researched the influence of type font style on perceptions of activities described in typed messages. They learned that the readability of a typeface has important ramifications: “People misread the ease of processing instructions as indicative of the ease with which the described behavior can be executed. In the present studies, participants reported that the behavior would take more time, would feel less fluent and natural, and would require more skill, and hence were less willing to engage in it, when the instructions were printed n a difficult –to-read rather than an easy-to-read font.” This finding has repercussions for sign design. The easy to read fonts tested was Arial, and the more difficult to read fonts used were Mistral and Brush.

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Fostervold and Nersveen investigated the influences of varying the proportions of direct and indirect light in offices on worker experience. Their “analyses of health, well-being and cognitive performance revealed a short-term increase of somatic symptoms in [mixed direct and indirect lighting] and reduced long-term severity levels of job stress in [direct lighting]. Analyses of the combined groups showed, likewise, a short-term increase in subjective symptoms for direct lighting compared to indirect lighting and a long-term reduction in the severity level of job stress for uniform compared to mixed lighting.”

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Nostalgia counteracts loneliness. Including personally meaningful objects in a space can thus help boost mood and eliminate other negative mental states associated with loneliness. While “Loneliness reduces perceptions of social support, but increases nostalgia. Nostalgia, in turn, increases perceptions of social support.” The researchers conclude that “The past, when appropriately harnessed, can strengthen psychological resistance to the vicissitudes of life.”

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Scott Francisco discusses DEGW’s experience designing workspaces in the latest issue of Insights. He states that “Finding the right solution for workspace [design] is a ‘wicked problem.’ The process is not mathematical, linear, or rational. It is based simultaneously on meaning and markets, values and regulations, cultures and techniques – and each of these is in constant flux!”

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The US Green Building Council and McGraw-Hill Construction surveyed people who purchased green homes in the last 3 years. These researchers found that “Going green was the top reason cited by survey respondents for remodeling their homes. Environmental benefits such as lower energy costs and healthier indoor air were identified by 42% of respondents as the main reason for home improvements; 34% cited increased comfort; and 24% noted improved appearance.” In addition, “Almost half (44%) of homes renovated between 2005 and 2007 used products chosen for their green attributes.”

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When we feel we’re not in control of our own lives, we perceive our world differently than we do when we feel in control. When we’re out of control, our impressions of the world around us are distorted: “Adam Galinsky (Kellogg Graduate School of Management) and former Kellogg doctoral student Jennifer Whitson (University of Texas, Austin) report in the journal Science how even the most normal among us strive, intensely but unconsciously, to find and impose order in our unruly world. . . we trick ourselves into seeing and believing things that simply do not exist. . . finding meaningful and coherent relations among unrelated stimuli. . . Lack of control instills a need for order and leads to an occasional visual hiccup.”

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Bluish light in workplaces has positive influences on office workers’ attitudes and general alertness. When office workplaces are equipped with blue-enriched white light (17000K), white-collar workers have more positive perceptions of their own mood, work performance, and ability to concentrate than workers in white light (4000K). Workers under bluish light are also more alert during the workday than people working under white light.

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Hand temperature influences perceptions and behaviors. Williams and Bargh compared the responses of people who had just held warm drinks with people who had just held cold drinks and found that individuals whose hands had just been warmed judged others to be more generous and caring than people who had just held cold drinks. In addition, people were more generous when their hands were warm than when their hands were cold.

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The amount of green space near their homes is related to the weights of inner city children. Children living in inner city neighborhoods with more green space (as determined from analysis of satellite photographs) have significantly lower body mass index changes as they grow taller than children living in areas with smaller amounts of green space.

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Even pre-school children playing games experience a home field advantage. Han, Li, and Shi conclude that “The [pre-school] owner of a territory did enjoy an advantage over visitors. On another’s turf, visitors turned out to be more prosocial. Such a tendency to be prosocial was attributed either to the disadvantage of not being on one’s own turf or to the disadvantage of not being empowered to dictate terms.”

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Placing tops with shaped openings on recycling containers influences recycling compliance in public settings. Recycling is more likely to occur when containers have a top with either a narrow slit or a round hole for the disposing of paper or bottles, respectively. Duffy and Verges compared levels of recyclable materials present when these specialized lids were in use and when recycling containers did not have lids in the course of the project that uncovered the value of shaped container tops.

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The appearance of a neighborhood is the most important influence on how satisfied residents are living there. Hur and Morrow-Jones conducted the research that reached this conclusion to learn more about peoples’ intentions to move or remodel.

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Richard Mooney and Stephen Shea, researchers at Duke University, have found out why scents are important triggers of long term memories of other individuals. They determined that the same part of the brain assesses scents and forms long term memories of others.

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Scientists at IBM’s Watson Research Center in Cambridge, MA have created an interactive website where researchers can use innovative tools to visualize data they have collected (web address below). People who have collected information on a topic can upload their data to the site and use any of the assorted tools provided to develop ways to present that information visually to others. All data uploaded to the site are visible to future visitors. There is no charge for use of the visualization tools.

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Frances Kuo and Andrea Faber Taylor, professors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, have determined that children with ADHD can pay attention better after a 20-minute walk in a park than after a walk of the same length in a downtown area or in a residential neighborhood. In a rigorously conducted experiment, Kuo and Faber Taylor “calculated . . . that the dose of nature had effects the same size or even larger than the dose of [ADHD] medication. . . The evidence suggests that natural settings can benefit everyone, even children (and adults) who have not been diagnosed with ADHD.”

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Ozcan Vieira’s doctoral dissertation (Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands) focused on the influence of product sounds on human responses to objects. It is reasonable to extrapolate her results to the soundscapes of places. Vieira found that sounds influence expectations about product experience and that “a complimentary and meaningful relationship exists between a product and its sounds . . . a well-designed sound should be typical to the product, be informative about the product’s operation cycle, and convey implicit/explicit characteristics of the product.”

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Carney and his colleagues have analyzed the appearance of offices belonging to people who are politically liberal and to people who are politically conservative. They found that conservatives tend to have tidier and better organized offices than liberals. Offices belonging to liberals are more colorful, stylish, distinctive, comfortable, modern, and cluttered than those of conservatives.

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Researchers from the Center for the Built Environment at the University of California, Berkeley, have prepared a case study of the earth friendly building that houses the Carnegie Institute for Global Ecology at Stanford University. The researchers attribute the high occupant satisfaction with the structure and the building’s efficient use of resources to several factors. These include close collaboration between engineers, architects and the ultimate users; establishment of common resource-efficient goals; optimal solar siting of the building; readily accessible outdoor work/meeting spaces; radiant cooling systems; and a night-sky cooling system which sprays water (which is recycled) on the roof of the structure at night. Temperatures in the building are sometimes over 76 degrees F but there have been no complaints about these temperatures and the authors conclude that “This situation supports the theory of adaptive comfort, which states that in naturally ventilated buildings – where occupants are connected more closely to the outdoor conditions, have more control over windows, and access to increased air movement – people will stay satisfied in conditions outside of the comfort range of 68 to 72 degrees F.”

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Recent research by Finnis and Walton contradicts information from previous studies, which reported that walking speed was related to city size, with people living in larger communities generally walking faster than people in more rural areas. Finnis and Walton found that walking speed was more closely tied to the ease of walking through an area than population concentration. This research is important because “Knowledge of pedestrian walking speeds is essential to accommodate time budgets. Urban planners take time budgets into consideration when planning the placement of transit facilities. For example, a transit facility accessible to pedestrians within a 20 minute walk, assuming a walking speed of 80 m per minute, has a catchment area of 8 square kilometers. When walking speed is increased by 10%, the catchment area is increased by 20%.

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Pedestrians and cyclists over the age of 70 prefer different features in the routes they are traveling along than walkers and cyclists who are 40-49 years old. Older walkers and riders “appreciate pedestrian crossings, signalized intersections and cycle paths more than younger respondents do.” Older individuals prefer that paths be paved while younger individuals are more concerned that the routes provided lessen travel time. Older individuals are also more concerned about following rules as they walk and bike than people 40-49.

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Floyd and his colleagues assessed activity levels in 28 different parks in Tampa and Chicago. They found that in Tampa, people in parks walked more when it was warmer, when there were fewer organized activities (such as softball games), and when the park was located in an Hispanic neighborhood. People also walked more when there were fewer shaded areas. When there are shaded spaces, such as picnic shelters, people tend to sit under these structures and activity levels in the parks in general decrease. Walking in Chicago parks was also more prevalent when there were fewer organized activities at the park and in African American neighborhoods. The researchers observed that “Chicago study parks had more athletic courts, sports fields and playgrounds and lower levels of sedentary activity.”

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Since there have been cars, some people have been saying that the fronts of those cars look like faces and express personality. Windhager, Slice, Schaefer, Oberzaucher, Thorstensen, and Grammer are the first to empirically investigate this relationship and their findings are reported in Human Nature. The researchers found that humans infer that cars have specific personality traits, based on their head-on appearance: “Overall, people agreed which type of car possesses certain traits. The authors found that people liked cars most that had a wide stance, a narrow windshield, and/or widely space, narrow headlights. The better the subjects liked a car, the more it bore shape characteristics corresponding to high values of what the authors termed ‘power,’ indicating that both men and women like mature, dominant, masculine, arrogant, angry-looking cars.”

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Major changes in our environment, such as moving from one home to another, cause us to bring important values to mind and those values can guide our behavior. Verplanken and his colleagues, for example, found that participants in a study they conducted “who had recently moved and were environmentally concerned used the car less frequently for commuting to work” than participants “who were environmentally concerned but had not recently moved.” Both before and after the move, the distance that study participants needed to travel between work and home made driving and using other means to travel to work viable options.

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Creating places for worship builds community. Mazumdar and Mazumdar have written an interesting case study related to this phenomenon that focuses on Hindus in Southern California. They detail the process of creating a site for worship and the psychological challenges underlying those processes. The researchers’ work “demonstrates how the creation of the temple, with its specific architectural elements as well as its ritual and sociocultural activities all helped to foster, integrate, and solidify a sense of community. We posit that there exists an important relationship between religion and place, between sacred placemaking and community building and identity, and that sacred places not only express a group’s religious identity, they can also play a significant role in the formation of community.” The authors conclude by stating that although it is possible to worship via the Web and online prayer sites, “physical place continues to be an anchor in the religious lives of immigrants. Memories of past places, the desire to create new place ties, place activities and rituals all play significant roles in building a community in diaspora.”

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What do people do when they just feel like getting out of the house for a while? Cao and her colleagues have determined that when people feel like getting out of the house, attributes of their neighborhood determine if they go for a walk or bike ride. People are more likely to go for an undirected (purely recreational) walk or bike ride when there are more types of businesses within 1,600 meters of their home (even when visiting those businesses is not the primary reason for the walk), when there are more opportunities to socialize, when the neighborhood is seen as more attractive (e.g., appealing appearance of the neighborhood, high level of maintenance in the area, variety in housing styles, large street trees), if there are sidewalks and nearby parks, as well as when there is good public transit in the area. People living on cul-de-sacs are less likely to go on undirected walks.

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Mayer and his colleagues investigated the psychological ramifications of exposure to nature (either through being in a natural setting or viewing nature videos) and their results are consistent with previous related research. They determined that “Exposure to nature increased connectedness to nature, attentional capacity, positive emotions, and ability to reflect on a life problem; these effects are more dramatic for actual nature than for virtual nature.” “Real” nature produces the strongest effects, but “virtual” nature also has many psychological benefits.

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In a recent issue of Nature, Tuan reviews The Power of Place: Geography, Destiny and Globalization’s Rough Landscapes by Harm de Blij. Tuan describes how de Blij uses geographic maps to help readers understand “the resurgence of religious fundamentalism, the leveling of the playing field for the well educated, the roughening of the landscape for the illiterate and poor, the threats of climate change and of nuclear and biological terrorism.” Tuan, in his review, discusses the dual influence of culture and place on human experience, determining that culture (which identifies the resources to be valued and their use) has a more significant influence in this context than place (which provides various resources): “Culture can become a handicap, discouraging people from enriching themselves and developing further, Many people in the periphery bear the burden of culture even more than the burdens of nature and natural habitat. Culture may be a home for them, but easily turns into a cosy prison.” Yi-Fu Tuan. 2008. “There’s No Place Like Home.” Nature, vol. 455, pp. 168-169.  

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Mead and his colleagues assessed factors that encourage stair use and found that:

- Slow elevators do encourage people to use the stairs, even when the elevators are clearly visible. Prominently placed elevators are also convenient for people who cannot climb stairs.

- Elevator use also declines when the elevators are not as prominently placed as stairs, but “hiding” the elevators makes it more difficult for people who can’t climb stairs to move through a building.

- Stairs that can easily be seen from major walkways will be well used.

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Susan Rodiek has developed an instrument to assess staff and resident experience of outdoor spaces at assisted living facilities. Criteria positively related to successful outdoor place design include:

- Visual contact, when people are outdoors, with spaces outside the facility and potentially also with individuals who do not live or work at the facility, such as delivery people

- Ready accessible ways to travel between the main indoor resident space and the outdoors and places to linger (comfortably) near exterior doors

- Opportunities for residents to select from several pleasant outdoor activities (e.g., walking, swimming, games) and locations in which to engage in them<

- Design consistent with abilities of users

- Ability of residents to enjoy “a variety and abundance of nature elements, especially those found to be preferred by older adults, such as flowers, greenery, trees, water, and wildlife.”

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Some people can’t help getting lost. Researchers at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute have uncovered a human neurological condition what prevents people from learning to navigate even through very familiar spaces, such as their homes. Individuals with this condition do not have brain damage or cognitive impairments. They are simply unable to develop cognitive maps.

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Dreams are affected by what people smell as they dream. People who smell pleasant odors (i.e., roses) as they sleep have emotionally positive dreams, while people smelling unpleasant scents, such as rotten eggs, have unpleasant dreams.

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Systolic blood pressure in seniors is significantly reduced when individuals listen either to Mozart or to a binaural recording of ocean waves coupled with a voice encouraging listeners to relax. The decrease in blood pressure is greater, however, with the wave/voice recording than the Mozart recording; the binaural sound relaxes the parasympathetic nervous system.

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Researchers from Wageningen University (The Netherlands) and corporate sponsors are discretely observing diners in a specially outfitted “Restaurant of the Future.” Their goal is to learn how aspects of the physical environment, among other factors, influence diner behavior. Video cameras record diners’ actions – but video is not the only data gathering mechanism. People who have agreed to actively participate in the research program pay for their meals with a card that activates a scale that is flush with the floor they are standing on while paying, for example. Face recognition software analyzes the diners’ levels of enjoyment for particular food/design options. So far, researchers have learned that men’s perceptions of flavor are more likely to be influence by the color of dishes than women’s impressions of flavor. Diners’ spirits are also buoyed by fresh flowers on tables. Research is ongoing.

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In 2007, the Project for Public Spaces (PPS) investigated ways to increase the diversity of people using parks and similar places (“Placemaking in a Pluralistic World: Using Public Spaces to Encourage and Celebrate Social Diversity”). PPS determined that places that serve a range of cultural and socioeconomic groups provide:

- “Safe, spatially adequate territories for everyone [all potential user groups] within the larger space of the overall site.” [PPS quotes Setha Low and her co-authors of Rethinking Urban Parks: Public Space and Cultural Diversity to make this point.]

- Recognition of the cultural traditions, values, and preferences of all potential users in the nearby community

- Opportunities for community members to participate in the planning process

- Direct response to any sort of discrimination present in the community

- “Balance between official and vernacular uses, incorporating many different kinds of activities while simultaneously remaining flexible enough to accommodate values and preferences of different cultural groupings as they evolve over time.”

- Physical proximity of public spaces to members of different ethnic, etc., communities

- Correct definitions of the neighborhood planning unit so that it “it is conceptually broad enough to get individuals to think beyond themselves and their streets, but of a small enough scale to still support the notion of ‘neighborliness’ and encourage collaboration between community planners and stakeholders.”

- Educational and cultural experiences that are potentially interesting to members of different communities.

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The iPhone desk is here! Researchers at Durham University are merging features like those in the iPhone into the top of a school desk. The Technology-Enhanced Learning Research Group at Durham studied how people (students and teachers) interact in classrooms and incorporated what they learned into the design of these new desks. The desks were developed to make students more active participants in the learning process, and the learning process itself more collaborative.

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Music volume influences the drinking of alcohol. When music volume is so high that people cannot talk with each other, they drink more alcohol.

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Martin reports in Nature that architects are increasingly seeking inspiration from natural forms. His review of recent design work indicates that “biological patterns, structures, and mechanisms” are being appropriated for use in design.

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Schweingruber and Wohlstein have reviewed information about crowds included in introductory sociology textbooks and the write-ups they reviewed would not receive full marks – many are inaccurate. These experts on crowding contradict textbook writers by claiming that crowds are not chaotically violent, overly suggestible, irrational, filled with people who feel anonymous, or destructive, for example.

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Music generates an emotional response in people, or does it? Recent research by Zentner, Grandjean, and Scherer indicates that “Emotions were less frequently felt in response to music than they were perceived as expressive properties of the music.”

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Quite a bit of research has shown that individual personality is related to preferred place design. Extraverts, for example, enjoy being in more sensory stimulating environments than introverts do. Rentfrow and his colleagues have uncovered patterns in individual personalities across the United States, which have implications for the design of spaces in areas where individuals are more likely to have particular personality types. More specifically extraversion seems highest in the Great Plains, Midwest, and Southeastern states (highest overall in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, and Utah) and lowest in the Northwest and the Mid-Atlantic and East Coast States. In addition, openness is high in New England, Mid-Atlantic, and West Coast states and low in the Great Plains, Midwest, and South Central states. Openness “reflects curiosity, intellect, and creativity at the individual level” which also has repercussions for preferred places.

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Buyers valued environmentally responsible features in their homes. A recent poll determined that “Potential home buyers consider ‘green’ building features more important than luxury amenities. . . Almost half of the adults surveyed (49 percent) said features such as solar panels or energy-saving appliances were ‘important,’ compared to just 31 percent who rated luxury amenities important.”

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People who grow up in rural areas have a more positive attitude toward nature than people who grow up in the city. That positive attitude is related to a greater concern with preserving the natural environment.

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We search through physical spaces and our own minds using the same methods. As Hills and his colleagues conclude, “These results strongly suggest that there are general search processes underlying cognition and that these processes are used to search both in external physical space and in internal cognitive space.”

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Architect magazine asked five sets of architects to redesign Starbucks, based on their impressions of how these coffee shop spaces are currently used and what functions they will serve in the future. The architects created a wide range of new places, and all of their responses are available at the web address below. Participating designers were designLAB (Boston), Pentagram Architects (New York), William Massie/Cranbrook Academy of Art (Bloomfield Hills, MI), Studio Works (Los Angeles and Beijing), and STUDIOS (New York).

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It’s easier for humans to look at nature scenes than urban scenes. As Berto and her colleagues state, “Attention restoration theory states that exposure to restorative environments engages fascination or low-effort attention, promoting recovery of adaptive resources and providing the opportunity to rest and reflect.” When photographs high on fascination are seen, they are “viewed without really focusing on particular features.” Nature images are generally more fascinating than urban scenes.

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After surveying the available research literature, Thompson has concluded that the design of the physical work environment influences knowledge worker productivity. Thompson comes to this conclusion even though different researchers have used varying definitions of productivity: “there does not appear to be a universal understanding within business about the term productivity and this deficiency is duplicated in the arena of the office, particularly where the business is far removed from a data processing factory but trades in knowledge the policy division, the marketing team, the business development unit or the innovation squad.” He concludes by stating that “To date, there isn’t a formula to ensure the particular workplace design that guarantees optimum productivity – and quite rightly so. The age of determinism has passed. We must now ask ourselves that occupiers need for their business, rather than expecting organizations to fit into the text book model of space.”

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Mirrors seem to reduce prejudiced behavior. The researchers who observed this effect feel that seeing ourselves in a mirror makes us more likely to follow social norms.

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Social cohesion in neighborhoods has been linked to levels of schizophrenia among residents. Previous research has shown that neighborhood design is related to the social cohesion seen in a community. In a recent study, more new incidences of schizophrenia were seen in neighborhoods with low or high levels of social cohesion.

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Investigations with a variety of stimuli have shown that they are “evaluated less positively if they follow good stimuli than otherwise; stimuli are evaluated more positively if they follow bad stimuli than otherwise.” This research by Parker and his colleagues is the first to assess this phenomenon using musical selections. The contrast effect was also shown to hold with musical selections.

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When people listen to music that they have selected, they experience less pain. The type of music selected and its structure (rhythm, etc.) do not seem to be important; the key issue is that the music is selected by the listener.

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The Center for Health Design has initiated a continuing discussion of noise in hospitals. The group has already discussed the challenge of integrating good acoustics with good infection control: “Sound absorbing acoustical materials tend to be porous. The fact that such materials tend to accumulate dust and become difficult to clean is the challenge that needs to be addressed.” Dealing with porous sound absorbing materials is a long term issue, in the shorter term, “A few environmental modifications can be made quickly and at minimal cost to improve the acoustic environments such as higher-grade acoustical ceiling tiles, different wheels on equipment, foam in retractable door handles, and quieter flooring.”

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It’s hard to determine what is creative – particularly across fields as diverse as science and fine arts. Cropley and Cropley have come up with five criteria that can be used to do just that. They are relevance and effectiveness (which can be assessed in terms of correctness, performance, and appropriateness), generation of novelty (which can be judged based on appropriateness for diagnosis, prescription, prognosis replication, redefinition, combination, incrementation, reconstruction, redirection, reinitiation, and generation), elegance (evaluated in terms of recognition, convincingness, pleasingness, completeness, harmoniousness), and genesis (assessed in terms of foundationality, transferability, germinality, and seminality).

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People can, in general, identify which of their ideas are creative. People who are open to experience do a better job at identifying their most creative ideas than other people do. Openness to experience has been linked to higher levels of creativity.

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Apparently the phrase “cold and lonely” may have some basis in fact. Research by Zhong and Leonardelli has found that people who are socially excluded are literally cold. As the authors state, that their findings “highlight the idea that metaphors are not just language people use to communicate; metaphors are fundamental vessels through which people understand and experience the world around them.”

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Chuang and Chen outline an effective method for evaluating images. Their methodology includes several effective ways to develop perceptual maps. A description of their evaluation tool is available at http://www.ijdesign.org .

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Older and younger adults look at positively and negatively associated images at different times. Younger adults (18-25 years old during study) gaze at positive things while in a good mood and negative things while in a bad mood. Older adults (58-89 years old during study), in contrast, regulate their mood by looking at particular sorts of images. For example, older adults look at positive things when they are in a bad mood.

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Prof Burney Fischer and graduate student Brian Steed of Indiana University have carefully considered how to encourage effective management of street trees (trees along municipal streets). They feel street trees should be recognized as a “common-pool resource.” Common pool resources don’t have “existing rules or clear institutional arrangements to govern their use or protection. Resource sectors identified in this widely expanding area include scientific knowledge, voluntary associations, climate change, community gardens, wikipedias, cultural treasures, plant seeds, and the electronic spectrum.” Common pool resources benefit many citizens but “their use (or abuse) is difficult to control.”

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A study of pre-Baby Boomers/ early Baby Boomers (ages 50-75) living in Portland Oregon indicates that certain neighborhood features are related to increased obesity among residents. The population is more apt to walk for exercise in “neighborhoods with higher mixed-land use, high street connectivity, better access to public transportation, and more green and open space.” Citizens living in neighborhoods with “lower mixed-land use and higher densities of fast-food outlets” were more apt to be obese.

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Fawcett and his colleagues provide details to flesh out the long acknowledged differences in the visual preferences of architects and building users. Both architects and users reviewed images of suburban office buildings that differed in terms of roof shape (pitched or flat), wall material (traditional [brick] or nontraditional [metal or panels]), and architectural character (strong or weak, as judged by architectural experts). Building user preferences were most strongly influenced by roof shape, while architects’’ choices were most strongly influenced by architectural character. Researchers found that “Users main preference was for pitched roofs; they somewhat preferred traditional walling but were indifferent to architectural character. The architects’ main preference was for strong architectural character; they were largely indifferent to roof shape and walling. Therefore, a design with a pitched roof, traditional walling, and a strong architectural character would satisfy the principal preferences of both architects and laypersons.”

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The National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions recently released a report, Evidence for Innovation, Transforming Children’s Health through the Physical Environment, that reports, in detail, on the relationship between the physical environment and care outcomes for pediatric patients. The comprehensive report addresses ambient and psychosocial aspects of the pediatric healthcare environment. The report suggests, for example, that designers recognize the difference between the social needs of a young child and an adolescent, “Adolescents require a balance between privacy and intimacy and social interaction and an environment that takes one out of the traditional hospital feel.”

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Kang and Guerin found that some interior design projects are much more likely to be green than others. Specifically: “Designers specializing in child care and educational facilities most often used sustainable interior design practices. Other specialties, in descending order, were hospitality/entertainment, financial institutions, health care, government/institutional, corporate/office, residential, and retail design.”

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Nisbet, Zelenski, and Murphy have identified relationships between connection to the natural world and personality. Connection to nature was related to agreeableness and openness, “suggesting that high NR people [people highly connected to nature] may be more adventurous and easy going.” Connection to nature was also related to conscientiousness which “suggests that those who are most connected to nature may also engage in responsible environmental behaviors, or that a general sense of responsibility manifests itself in the environmental domain as in others.”

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Olympic athletes given the choice should select red uniforms over blue ones. Hagemann and his colleagues found that “Referees assign more points to tae kwon do competitors dressed in red than to those dressed in blue, even when the performance of the competitors is identical.” The researchers feel that this occurs because seeing red biases referees and leads them to award competitors wearing red more points, making this finding relevant in situations in which competitions are decided based on points awarded.

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Allen and his colleagues researched the relationship between the perceived flavor of foods and the consistency of those foods with values promoted by the people eating them. Not surprisingly, when foods being eaten symbolize values supported by the person eating them, they seem to taste better. This result can be extrapolated to products beyond food, for example, to environmentally responsible architecture.

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Hans Monderman developed strategies to calm (slow to safe speeds) traffic in several city centers, and Vanderbilt outlines the basics of these successful programs. They motivate drivers to drive more slowly by making them aware of the space that they’re driving through. One of the ways Monderman accomplished his objectives was through judicious removal of traffic signs and other street markings. When they are removed, drivers do not have a ready set of instructions on how they should behave, so they are forced to note their surroundings. Focusing on their environments causes most people to drive more slowly and civilly.

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Rosen reviews recent research on multitasking. Although the behavior is increasing, it is generally undesirable. Workers who are interrupted spend 25 minutes re-engaging in their work, for example.

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Rybczynski analyses why new homes are so expensive in his recent Wilson Quarterly article. He determines the cause is the price of serviced land and the scarcity of serviced lots, even at higher prices. Rybczynski credits taxpayer efforts to keep property taxes low as creating a situation in which “Municipalities were [are] unable to finance the up-front costs of infrastructure in new communities, as they had previously done, and instead required developers to pay for roads and sewers, and often for parks and other public amenities as well. These costs were passed on to home buyers, drastically increasing the selling price of a house.”

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In a meaty booklet sponsored by the American Society of Interior Designers, Jack Nasar discusses creating an environment that is high on visual quality. The text of the booklet, Visual Quality by Design, addresses, in detail, the six key attributes of human perception (complexity, order, naturalness, openness, upkeep and novelty) and details their relationship to visual quality.

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A team from Herman Miller has prepared a thoughtful analysis of future spaces, which is available at the Herman Miller website. Long, Magnolfi and Maassen consider environments “Imbued with intelligence . . .programmable . . . A programmable environment is as much about the creation and management of space as it is about the intelligence that is in it; it is an environment for people to occupy, to meet, to educate, to heal, to worship, and to enjoy one another’s company.” Their comments are valuable for people considering how future spaces will be different from the ones we currently use. For example: “The ability to control and shape their digital worlds has also raised people’s expectations for influence in the physical world, as evidence by self-authored ring tones, custom apparel, and self-designed automobile detailing” and “People can’t communicate completely through text and images. We derive meaning and energy through our presence and the physical company of others, feeding both our work and our play.”

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The Housing Market Renewal (HMR) Program has been operating in the United Kingdom since 2003. Its objective is “to create high-quality housing and successful, inclusive places for all in some of the most challenging areas of the country.” HMR’s recommendations to placemakers include:

-“Recognize that the value added by good design, which enhances the local character and historic environment, includes social cohesion, social heritage and stability, improved health and environmental quality.”

-Consider the long-term economic value of actions

-Select private sector partners who make decisions based on value and not cost.

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People who live in older neighborhoods (built before 1950) tend to be healthier than people who live in newer neighborhoods. These older neighborhoods are “designed to be more friendly to pedestrians and have a range of destinations for pedestrians.” The average man (6 feet tall) weighed 10 pounds less if he lived in an older neighborhood and the average woman (5 feet, 5 inches tall) weighed 6 pounds less if she lived in an older neighborhood.

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Most people are biased toward the left side of a space; they tend to see the middle as more toward the left than it actually is. People who are more interested than average folks in novelty seeking (having exhilarating and new experiences), are, however, biased to the right side of spaces.

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People living in poorer countries are just as concerned about environmental quality as citizens of richer countries. Dunlap and York comprehensively analyzed information from representative samples of citizens of several dozen nations to reach this conclusion. Previous research had indicated that citizens of poorer countries were less concerned about environmental quality than people from richer countries.

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Cama encourages designers to learn about the “Wow” experiences of people who will use the spaces they are developing. She discussed her work in the context of healthcare environments, but her findings are applicable to the design of all sorts of spaces. Cama has found that researchers often hear inspiring, unexpected comments when focus group members are asked about ideal environments that would deliver “Wow” experiences. She suggests: “Consult your community; they may in fact be savvier than you on what is important to their well-being and the special design features needed to “Wow” their experience within your healthcare facility.”

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A professor at Rensselaer is developing a way to use the human visual system as a programmable computer. Mark Changizi has “begun to develop a technique to turn our eyes and visual system into a programmable computer . . . Changizi has begun successfully applying his approach by developing visual representations of digital circuits . . . The wire in a visual representation of a digital circuit is part of the drawing itself . . . By perceptually walking through Changizi’s visual representation of a digital circuit, from the inputs downward to the output, our visual system will naturally carry out the computation so that the “output” of the circuit is . . . a one or zero.”

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Symmetry is a salient feature of the built environment. Du Sautoy explores the importance of symmetry in biology, chemistry, physics, art, music, and architecture. He discusses ways in which “The human mind is constantly drawn to anything that embodies some aspect of symmetry. Our brain seems programmed to notice and search for order and structure. Artwork, architecture, and music from ancient times to the present day play on the idea of things which mirror each other in interesting ways.”

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Dormitories where student rooms are grouped into suites have a lower sense of community than dormitories in which student rooms are arranged along long double-loaded corridors. Devlin and her co-authors indicate that “The current research stands in contrast to early research by Baum et al. (1975) in which residents of corridor-based housing were not thought to engage in groups based on proximity in the residence hall.”

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Loud music affects the amount of beer that is consumed in a bar. In the reported study, when sound levels were high (88 dB in this study) more alcohol was drunk, within a shorter period of time, than when music (Top 40 songs) was played at lower volumes (72 dB). Previous research had shown that fast music increases drinking speed and that people stay longer in bars with music as opposed to bars without play music.

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The population is getting heavier. Recent research indicates that a third of US hospital patients weigh more than 350 pounds and that 65% of the US population is overweight or obese. Designers of public spaces, such as healthcare facilities, must insure that the appropriate sorts of seating, with comfortable seat widths and back pitches, are provided for all space users. They must also make sure that features of the space design, such as doorway widths, are easy for larger individuals to use.

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Designers often ask people to make choices between various options. Mogilner and her colleagues have found that if the items from which people are to choose are classified into categories (even if those categories are meaningless) those making selections are happier with the option they have selected. The more familiar that people are with the items they are selecting among, the lower the impact of dividing options into categories on happiness.

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Vacant lots can benefit the humans living around them, according to a recent report by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE). CABE recommends “low-key” programs for vacant lots that “reduce negative and anti-social land uses.” Potential interventions include providing public access to these spaces (while minimizing vehicular access), planting easy to grow native plants in the spaces, and sponsoring temporary artworks in vacant lots. These vacant spaces can also be used for commercial purposes: “There is a long tradition of beekeepers producing some of their best honey from the flowers on the vacant urban land.”

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The sound of a television playing in the background influences how children play, even if the television is playing an adult program (such as Jeopardy!) that is of no interest to them. An experiment with 1, 2, and 3 year old children found that they played with age appropriate toys for shorter periods of time when a television was on nearby than when the television was off. It is possible that this change in play behavior may affect the development of children.

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The UK’s Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) has prepared an insightful report profiling ways that public spaces can be designed to accommodate global warming. As CABE states “Thoughtfully designed public spaces offer urban areas their best opportunities to adapt, offering water storage, cooling and carbon absorption.” Case studies from across the planet are used to illustrate the CABE’s point that “Spaces that are softer, greener, more organic and natural will store water and are critical to modifying urban temperatures. Green spaces with a generous planting of trees link to form a network offering cooler, cleaner air.”

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Perceived danger reduces restorative effects. As Herzog and Rector state, “The presence of a serious and potentially uncontrollable source of danger can damage the perceived restorative potential of a setting.” Restoration in this context refers to reduction in mental stress or exhaustion. In the end, “People see little promise of restoration from a walk in the woods unless they feel safe.”

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Humans have a different emotional reaction to the same piece of music when it is played by a human being and when it is played by a computer. When music is played by a human being, our emotional response to it is stronger than when it is played by a computer, although the computer rendition does influence listeners psychologically.

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Adding leafy plants to junior high school classrooms is a good idea. Even when a small number (6) of plants are placed at the back of a conventional classroom (out of the usual field of view of the students), students have “Immediately and significantly stronger feelings of preference [for the design of the classroom space], comfort, and friendliness [toward other students].” Students in the rooms with the plants have “significantly fewer hours of sick leave and punishment records due to misbehavior” than the students in classrooms without plants.

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Closed circuit surveillance cameras may make the areas filmed more pleasant places to be. Recent research has shown that when people are aware that they are being filmed, they are more likely to help other people who need assistance doing straightforward tasks, such as picking up dropped items. Helping behavior is most likely to occur when people think that camera feeds are being monitored.

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Trash cans can be redesigned to reduce littering. Placing a 50 x 70 cm mirror on a stand just above a trash can significantly reduce nearby littering. Passersby can see themselves in a mirror of that size beginning when they are around 50 m from the can; it is this self-view that seems to reduce littering.

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Perceptions of lighting quality in their open plan offices influence workers’ opinions about their work lives. Veitch and her colleagues determined that “Combined results from the two statistical approaches show that people who perceived their office lighting as being of higher quality rated the space as more attractive, reported more pleasant mood, and showed greater well-being at the end of the day.” Lighting quality is related to the amount of light that falls on relevant surfaces, the level of glare present, and the appearance of a space, in general.

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Children have particular concerns about hospital spaces that are designed for their use. Working with children from 4 to 16, researchers have found pediatric spaces in hospitals are designed to appeal to infants. The authors indicate that one of the ways to show children that designers realize that they are not babies is to allow them to control the light and heat levels in their areas. In addition, researchers found that even older children found clown images used in décor “creepy.”

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Research recently completed in the United Kingdom shows that being "green" is becoming the social norm. Researchers at the UK’s Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs found that only 30% of those surveyed felt that “being green is an alternative lifestyle, it’s not for the majority.” Forty-four percent of those surveyed disagreed with the statement.

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Watch cars with lots of bumper stickers carefully. Cars can be seen as personal territory, and Szlemko and his colleagues have determined that when cars have more territorial markers, such as bumper stickers or decals, they are more apt to be driven aggressively. As they describe, “Aggressive driving may occur when social norms for defending a primary territory (i.e., one’s automobile) become confused with less aggressive norms for defending a public territory (i.e., the road).”

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People from Eastern and Western cultures make different spatial judgments. Spatial judgments relate to line choices at supermarkets and selecting travel routes, for example. Research has determined that (as reported in an article related press release): “Independent thinkers [more probably from Western cultures] are more likely to misjudge distance when they need to take multiple features into account (like how winding a road is). Interdependent things [more probably from Eastern cultures] are less likely to make distance errors but more prone to other kinds of spatial errors (such as when intersecting lines on a map make one side of the line appear longer than the other). . . .Our data indicate that individuals with an independent (vs. interdependent self-construal are more likely to pay attention to only the focal aspects of stimuli and to ignore the context and background information in forming spatial judgments, resulting in biases. In contrast, interdependents are capable of going beyond the most salient dimension (e.g., direct distance) and incorporating other information (e.g., line configuration) in their judgments, leading to greater accuracy in these tasks.”

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British researchers are attempting to develop new methods to encourage people to conserve water by shifting the focus of the conservation conversation. Prof. Elizabeth Shove, from the University of Lancaster states that “Demand for water should not be seen as the consumption of a uniform substance but as a consequence of the things that people do that require water, such as washing, laundry, growing vegetables or children’s parties . . . A sociological perspective tries to understand how routines like the daily shower, and frequent laundering have developed and why it has become normal to value ‘freshness,’ ‘fitness,’ and instant relaxation. We need this information to work out which practices associated with water will respond to metering and price signals.”

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Kuna and his fellow researchers have recently collected additional information indicating that when people are speaking different languages, they behave differently. They report that “Language can be a cue that activates different culture-specific frames [behaviors]. The researchers worked with a group of bicultural Hispanic women and found that ‘The women classified themselves as more assertive when they spoke Spanish than when they spoke English . . .in the Spanish-;language sessions, informants perceived females as more self-sufficient and extroverted.’” The fact that mental outlook can vary based on the language being spoken has implications for the design of places that will be used by individuals who will speak different languages at different times.

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Marketing professionals are working to develop a culture which is consistent across multiple Asian countries. As Cayla and Eckhardt elaborate, “Cultural referents from cities of influence such as Tokyo, Shanghai, and Seoul are combined together to produce brand images that are clearly Asian, but not from a particular nation.” This has repercussions for place design, because effective places are consistent with the national culture of the country in which they are located.

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Scientists from the Wellcome Trust at University College London have determined that there is a center in the human brain that encourages people to be adventurous. As the related press release states, “The region, located in a primitive area of the brain, is activated when we choose unfamiliar options, suggesting an evolutionary advantage for sampling the unknown.”

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Color interpretations are highly suggestible. Recent research by Mitterer and de Ruiter shows just how much. Observers use objects that are consistently associated with a particular hue to identify colors: “The same hue is categorized as yellow when viewed on a banana, but as orange when viewed on a carrot. . . this categorization bias also affects the perception of other, color-neutral objects (i.e., artificial objects that can have different colors, such as socks and cars): Observers who see a banana with an ambiguous hue between yellow and orange later categorize this hue on a color-neutral object as yellow; observers who see a carrot with this same ambiguous hue later categorizes the hue as orange.”

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Information that we receive through our various senses is used together to interpret aspects of the environment. As Arabzadeh and his colleagues have determined, “Sensory signals from different modalities can be integrated, even for perceptual judgments within a single modality.” Previous research had shown that when several sets of sensory information convey information, that material can be integrated; this study establishes new ground by showing that “sensory input to one modality can change sensitivity in another modality.”

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Cook and Hayashi have identified consistencies between animal sounds and human emotional responses to music in major and minor keys. In human beings, major chords elicit positive emotions while minor ones are linked to negative emotions. Slot machines in casinos, for example, play “songs” in C-major to create a more comfortable environment for gamblers. As Cook and Hayashi observe “Across the animal kingdom, vocalizations with a descending pitch are used to signal social strength, aggression or dominance. . . vocalizations with rising pitch connote social weakness, defeat, or submission . . . the same frequency code has been absorbed . . . in human speech patterns: A rising inflection is commonly used to denote questions, politeness or deference, whereas a falling inflection signals commands, statements or dominance.” Major chords result from decreasing pattern of tones and minor chords from an increasing set of semitones: “The universal emotional response to these chords stems . . directly from an instinctive, preverbal understanding of the frequency code in nature.”

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Thinking about money influences how people behave in ways of interest to place designers. When people are reminded of money, by seeing images of it or thinking about their financial situation, for example, they sit further apart from each other than if they are not reminded of money.

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The smell of coffee does help wake you up. Scientists have found this response even in creatures that do not have any knowledge of the effects that the smell of coffee should have on them – recent research found that the smell of brewed coffee counteracted the effects of sleep deprivation on rats.

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Kahn and his colleagues have confirmed that looking at natural scenes through a window reduces stress. However, their research failed to find that watching real time images of the same nature scenes on a plasma screen also reduced stress. The investigators were surprised that the nature scenes viewed on a plasma screen did not reduce the heart rate of the study participants. This result may be explained by the way that images are presented by plasma screens.

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When the circadian rhythms of demented elderly people are disrupted there can be serious ramifications. As Riemersma-van der Lek and his colleagues state: “Cognitive decline, mood, behavioral and sleep disturbances, and limitations of activities of daily living commonly burden elderly patients with dementia . . . Circadian rhythm disturbances have been associated with these symptoms.” When bright lights (1,000 lux) were used in ceiling-mounted fixtures from 9 am to 6 pm in group care facilities across the Netherlands the intensity of these symptoms was reduced. The reductions were: 5% for cognitive deterioration, 19% for depressive symptoms, and 53% for the rate of increase in functional limitations.

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Getting rid of possessions, even ones shoved to the backs of closets, can be difficult, and new research sheds light on why. Psychologists have known for some time that people value things that they own more than things that they don’t own. Recent neuroscience research shows that this is not because the perceived values of objects increase after we acquire them, but because the perceived negative ramifications of their loss increase – that’s what makes it so difficult to actually take the fateful step of getting rid of something. Designers trying to reduce the amount of storage space required in a new space by convincing residents to pare down their possessions will be more successful arguing that the ramifications of being without an object are relatively minor than they will be arguing that the objects to be eliminated are not desirable.

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A research team at Rennsalear Polytechnic Institute’s (RPI’s) Lighting Research Center, headed by Mariana Figueiro, is investigating how best to regulate circadian rhythms with artificial light. An RPI press release states, “The human circadian system – the biological cycle that repeats approximately every 24 hours - requires daily light exposure to the eye’s retina to remain synchronized with the solar day.” A recent study conducted by Figueiro and her associates, and published in Neuroscience Letters, indicates that exposing people to blue or green light separately helps the circadian system function effectively, but that exposure to both light frequencies simultaneously does not. RPI will work with manufacturers to develop light sources that help regulate circadian cycles.

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How many alternatives should be provided for a Likert type question? Lozana and his colleagues have learned that the optimal number of responses is between 4 and 7, “With fewer than four alternatives the reliability and validity decrease, and from seven alternatives onwards psychometric properties of the scale scarcely increase further . . . if too many alternatives are offered and the subject has problems discriminating between them, there is greater likelihood of the introduction of new measurement errors.” According to wikipedia.com, “A Likert item is simply a statement which the respondent is asked to evaluate according to any kind of subjective or objective criteria; generally the level of agreement or disagreement is measured.” Designers often use Likert type questions to collect information from space and product users.

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Years ago, researchers determined that people were apt to consider individuals living in neighboring homes to be their friends. Research by Back and her colleagues shows that even when people have nothing necessarily in common, and are merely randomly assigned to seats near each other, they are apt to become friends: “Coincidentally being near another person . . . may promote the development of a friendship with that person.”

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Although music can induce emotional responses in humans, it may not necessarily do so. As Konecni states, 25 years ago he “made a plea for music psychologists to take into account in their research and theorizing that much listening to music does not occur in a social, emotional, and cognitive vacuum, but in the stream of daily activities . . . Since then, the proliferation of public and private places where music is heard has been relentless. . . no less than 44% of events somehow involve music, but, tellingly, in only 2% was listening the principal activity. Because an enormous proportion of all the incessant and mediocre sound is heard unwillingly, it seems virtually certain that most people, in order to remain functional, do not respond to it in any manner whatsoever . . . Much, if not most, music is ‘sonic wallpaper.’”

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Scientists from the Weismann Institute of Science have studied the human sense of smell and determined that there are general responses to smells, across all cultures. Their research “lend[s] support to the scientist’s theory that, contrary to the commonly held view that smell is a subjective experience, there are universal laws governing the organization of smells, and these laws determine how our brains perceive them.”

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Amit Almor, a professor at the University of South Carolina has published a study in Experimental Psychology that details why it is so difficult for human beings to talk on a cell phone and drive at the same time. His findings are applicable to places where people will be talking on a cell phone and doing a visual task, whether it be driving or walking. Amor found that “planning to speak and speaking put far more demands on the brain’s resources than listening.” He states that “In conversation, we compete with the other person. I suspect that the greater the urge to speak, the greater the distraction from the visual task.”

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Shopping is one of the mechanisms through which we explore our world. Erik Ottoson, defended his doctoral dissertation at Uppsala University in Sweden on June 3. In his dissertation abstract he states: “This thesis focuses on what is termed serendipitous searching – i.e. an activity of open browsing for anything that awakens the person’s interest. That means that people in the study are not just looking for certain things - they are also seeking to come to terms with what they are actually looking for. Ideals of what is beautiful, useful and reasonable materialize in conjunction with the experience of what is available and what is absent or out of reach. It is suggested that this mode of looking for goods is not only about purchase deliberations, but more importantly is a specific way of interacting with the world and making places meaningful.”

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Lawrence studied why people move from one house to another. His research indicates “psychological and social factors are more important than financial and functional reasons in determining housing demand and why people wish to remain in the same housing unit.”

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Parents often restrict the amount of time that children play outside because of concerns about traffic safety in their neighborhoods. Children are also often concerned about this issue. This can result in constraints in children’s activities such as children’s play being restricted to backyards or in driving children to school. Driving children to school, for example, creates a “social trap” – parents drive their children to school because of concerns about traffic, but add to traffic themselves in the process of chauffeuring their children to school. Interventions profiled by Carver and her colleagues that reduce parental and child concerns about traffic safety include measures that curtain car speed (speed bumps and road narrowing, for example), the construction and maintenance of sidewalks, and the installation of traffic lights along routes to school.

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Individuals working in spaces with live interior plants or window views have significantly higher levels of job satisfaction than people who work in spaces without live plants or windows: “Findings indicated that individuals who worked in offices with plants and windows reported that they felt better about their job and the work they performed. This study also provided evidence that those employees who worked in offices that had plants or windows reported higher overall quality-of-life scores.” Live plants in an office, even without the window views, lead to more positive psychological states.

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When CO Architects worked with cancer patients to design the Peter and Paula Fasseas Cancer Clinic in Tuscon, they learned “how sensitive the patients are during their illness; their bodies are fragile and they often have a heightened sense of smell while undergoing treatment.” The architects incorporated this information into their plans for the treatment center. Food service areas were designed so that food smells were minimized in areas used by patients. Designers considered not only smell when designing spaces but also to joints in walking surfaces to make sure that they weren’t jarring to patients in wheelchairs or using canes.

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Illies, writing in the latest edition of the IAPS Bulletin, states that he feels that architects have an ethical responsibility to their fellow human beings. More specifically, architects need to think about the implications of their:

“-Professional behaviour and interaction during the planning, designing and construction phase

-The function and use of a building

-The impact on nature

-The impact on individual users: their health, safety, and general wellbeing, including their psychological well being

-The influence on human behaviour, individually and collectively

-The cultural or symbolic meaning of buildings, given by choices in materials, colours, forms, aesthetic style, and the like.”

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When people are thinking about mating, for example when they are on a romantic date, they are more cognizant of signs of growth and decay in the world around themselves. In this situation people have a higher level of preference for yellow bananas over green or brown ones, for example. The authors found that in this situation “living kinds that are immature or past their prime are devalued, whereas living kinds that are at their peak become increasingly valued.” Preference for manufactured objects is not influenced in this way.

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When humans are sleep deprived they have moments of normal vision interspersed with periods of “slow response and severe drops in visual processing and attention.” The moments of normal processing give the sleep-deprived a false sense that they are processing information appropriately, so care must be taken in the design of spaces for people who might be sleep deprived, such as truck stops and student centers.

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The smell of burning frankincense has been scientifically shown to reduce anxiety and depression.

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The direction in we learn to read and write determines our interpretation of power in viewed scenes. People who read from left-to-right view items on the left as more powerful, while the reverse is true for people who have learned to read from right-to-left.

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The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) has prepared a comprehensive tool that can be used to assess the quality of the design of homes and neighborhoods. It is available at http://www.cabe.org.uk . Among the questions that the CABE suggests evaluators pose are:

“Does the scheme feel like a place with a distinctive character?”

“Do buildings exhibit architectural quality?” [Architectural quality is defined as “being fit for purpose, durable, well built and pleasing to the mind and eye.”]

“Does the scheme exploit existing buildings, landscape or topography?”

“Is the car parking well-integrated and situated so it supports the street scene?”

“Is the design specific to the scheme [or local context]?”

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Recent research by Santangelo and Spence is the first to show empirically that if you are trying to get people to look in a certain direction, it is best to provide them with both audio and visual information that causes them to look in that direction, instead of either an audio or a visual cue alone. The value of providing both audio and visual cues is higher when there is more going on in the environment in which people find themselves. This information is useful for designers who want people moving through a space they create to focus on an element of that space, for safety reasons, for example. This might be true at the top of a flight of steps that people might approach while speaking on a cell phone.

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Sometimes resident participation in the design process is not best. Lizarralde and Massyn, researchers from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, analyzed information from housing projects in South Africa and found that the “community-based approach has had unexpected consequences that perpetuate some of the shortcomings that profit-driven builders, planners and public projects have inflicted in South African cities: low densities, urban fragmentation, limited opportunities for economic growth., etc.” The case studies provided support these points and are interesting reading for urban planners.

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Jerrard and his colleagues studied the new product development lifecycle at small creative companies to learn more about willingness to take risks at those firms. They found that at risk-tolerant firms “A ‘free-spirited’ quest for adventure and independence was identified together with a search for products that ‘leave their mark.’ . . . . Emotional drivers are key elements in an entrepreneurial adventure – the hallmark being a positive attitude to risk. Consequently, it is clear that financial gain may be secondary to the personal benefits of entrepreneurial aspiration.” Researchers found that firms that moved forward with more risky designs had a lot of trust – in consumer demand for the product in development and in suppliers’ ability to produce the product in a timely manner. Successful firms also recognized that their products would be introduced into a complex world, where they could control very few elements, so that found ways to “draw on complex hedging of risks, often over long time periods.”

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The Brookings Institute has identified the cities in the United States with the most walkable urban places per million residents. Researchers defined walkability in terms of pedestrian convenience and Washington, DC “thanks to its mix of easily accessible employment, culture, retail, housing, and other amenities” had the most walkable places per million residents with 20 total walkable places or 3.8 per million. Runner up cities were Boston/Cambridge with 11 walkable places or 2.4 per million and San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose with 14 places or 2.3 per million. Researchers found that in older cities, walkable areas tend to be downtown while those in the suburbs are located near transit hubs. The researchers caution that walkable places have to “be unique to the environments in which they’re created, not formulaic.”

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Researchers have established a geometric way to represent musical sounds. This work by Clifton Callender (Florida State University), Ian Quinn (Yale), and Dmitri Tymoczko (Princeton) is profiled in the April 18, 2008 issue of Science. Using the system, different sequences of notes (such as chords, rhythms, and scales) produce different geometric forms. The investigators feel this sort of visual representation will “allow researchers to analyze and understand music in much deeper and more satisfying ways” and that this material can be applied to create new sorts of musical devises and new sorts of musical sounds. Since music has been shown to have a psychological influence on people, these potential implications could be very useful to people developing space-based experiences.

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The National Geographic Society sponsored a study that investigated environmentally sustainable consumption and behavior by consumers in 14 countries around the world. One thousand consumers in each of 14 countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Spain and the US) were surveyed. Participants answered questions “that measured their behavior in the areas of housing, transportation, food, and consumption of goods; each respondent earned a score that reflected the environmental impact of his or her consumption patterns, which included size and energy-efficiency of residence, commuting mode and distance, and use of fresh water, among dozens of other measures.” This study, the first to rank the behaviors of individual consumers and not countries as a whole, found that consumers in Brazil and India tied for the highest levels of environmentally responsible actions, followed by consumers from China, Mexico, Hungary, and Russia. The three countries with the lowest-scoring consumers were the United States, Canada, and France.

Although people in developed countries have many behavioral options, they often do not act in an environmentally responsible ways. Compared to people in developing countries, they are more apt to live in larger homes, use air-conditioning in their homes, own more cars, drive alone frequently and use public transportation infrequently, and be less likely to buy environmentally friendly products and avoid environmentally unfriendly products.

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When we move our heads quickly while listening to a sound, the sound seems to be coming from the direction in which our head is turning. A similar effect occurs when people change the direction in which they are looking quickly. These findings have implications for the design of spaces in which people are experiencing different sorts of stimulation simultaneously and being able to locate the source of one in particular is important.

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Investigators from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Canter have found that children at daycare centers are less likely to play outdoors if there is mulch near the playground. Teachers are concerned about children playing near mulch because the kids have been known to eat the mulch, throw it at each other, or get in caught in their shoes.

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Children living in areas with more trees are less likely to have asthma than children living in areas with fewer trees. The researchers reporting this association gathered data in New York City and found that this relationship was present even when socioeconomic status and population density were factored into the analysis. They caution that this association may result from tree density itself, or from other factors, such as the fact that children who live in areas with more trees may be more likely to play outside.

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Ariely discusses the sorts of relative comparisons humans use while making choices in his new book, Predictably Irrational. We compare options when making decisions and will eliminate potential choices when we do not have another choice to compare them to. We then select among the options for which comparisons are available, ultimately choosing the one with the most positive attributes.

Ariely’s text illustrates the way that choices are made, using the purchase of a house as an example. Imagine you are buying a new home and are looking at three different homes that are all about the same price in the end, after needed repairs are made, and that one of the homes is a contemporary design and the other two are colonials. One of the colonials needs a new roof – but remember, the owner has decreased its selling price by the cost of the new roof. Which home will you buy: “In the case of the three houses, we don’t know much about the contemporary (we don’t have another house to compare it with), so that house goes on the sidelines. But we do know that one of the colonials is better than the other one. That is, the colonial with the good roof is better than the one with the bad roof. Therefore, we will reason that it is better overall and go for the colonial with the good roof, spurning the contemporary and the colonial that needs a new roof.”

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Until approximately the age of 8, children do not integrate the information that they receive through their eyes and their sense of touch: “Unlike adults, children younger than eight can’t integrate different forms of sensory input to improve the accuracy with which they perceive the world around them.” One of the authors of the study that made this determination, Marko Nardini of the University of London states in the press release from Cell Press, “We already know that kids are more liable to get lost and disoriented, but this study suggests that a specific reason for that is poor ability to integrate different kinds of spatial information.” The researchers who worked with Nardini are Peter Jones, University of Edinburgh, Rachel Bedford, Oxford, and Oliver Braddick, Oxford.

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Keinonen and his colleagues have developed a design process model that is effective at “optimizing the efficiency of user studies . . . focusing on project specific relevant information . . . ensuring the profound creativity of collaboration.” The model, described at http://www,ijdesign.org , is particularly useful when there are limited resources available for research. After presenting their model, the authors work through a case study using it.

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Researchers Narayan Sastry of the University of Michigan and Mark VanLaningham from Tulane found that “New Orleans residents who lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina were over five times more likely than those who did not to experience serious psychological distress a year after the disaster.” This finding indicates a home’s psychological importance and was presented at the recent annual meeting of the Population Association of America.

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Objects have symbolic meanings - and social scientists have been talking about objects and their meanings for a long time. Money studied decorative objects in living rooms and found that there were three key reasons that they might be on display: “as familial obligation [gift from a family member, and recipient feels compelled to display it], as markers of memory [more general], and as commemorative objects [memories of more specific events].”

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Jonah Berger, from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and Grainne Fitzsimmons, from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, have recently completed a study detailing some of the subtle influences that store design can have on product choice. Color, for example, can call certain products to mind: orange beverages such as Orange Crush and Sunkist sodas are more likely to be top of mind among shoppers around Halloween when stores are festooned with orange holiday decorations, for example. As the researchers state, “Our results demonstrate that the prevalence of environmental cues as simple as color can affect product accessibility, even in noisy, real-world consumer environments.” Berger states that: “Marketers always think if they want a product to catch on, they have to think up a catchy slogan or come up with a slick advertisement to create a buzz . . . But we should also think about linking products to the environment and let the environment do the work for us.”

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Reducing the amount of advertising and signage along highways would improve driving safety, according to a paper presented by Oliver Clark and Simon Davies of the University of Hull at the 2008 meeting of the British Psychological Society. The advertising and signage create visual distractions that reduce driver reaction times.

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Kate Bonsall, of the Institute of Work Psychology at the University of Sheffield, presented a paper at the recent annual meeting of the Division of Occupational Psychology of the British Psychological Society that cast doubt on the value of hot desking. Bonsall defines hot deskers as people who “do not have a desk of their own.” She found that “Hot desking is associated with a weaker sense of cohesion within a team and may limit personal learning from knowledge sharing across the company.”

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The link between sense of smell and emotion is well established. New research by Li and his colleagues indicates that when we have a negative experience, scents present at the time are very clearly and solidly locked into our memories. These “trouble-linked” smells can then be picked out easily, even from similar scents from which they would otherwise be indistinguishable.

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When wallpaper and other sticky surfaces are being removed from a base object, the edges of the adhesive material will converge until a triangular point forms and the person removing the material must begin the removal process again, with a new piece of the sticky stuff. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Universidad de Santiago, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and University of Chicago say that this robust effect occurs because “as the strip is pulled, energy builds up in the fold that forms when the tape is peeling from the surface. The tape can release that energy in two ways: by unpeeling from its surface and by becoming narrower, both of which it does.”

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People often can not control ambient conditions in their workspaces - they may not be able to set lighting and heating levels, for example. Smith and her colleagues have determined that when people feel that they lack power, even when these feelings result from a temporary experimental manipulation, their performance on tasks such as planning is impaired.

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Welsh and his colleagues have recently completed a study with implications for the design of open workplaces. They found that when we are working and can see other people working we become less effective. Humans have an inherent desire to copy their co-worker’s actions, which may or may not be appropriate for the task they are engaged in at the time. This means that open workplaces are best for discussions among colleagues and not as effective as places to work when people are engaged in individual tasks. This finding is particularly relevant to industrial work settings.

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A recent Swedish study has found that commuting for one hour or longer every day has an influence on commuters’ levels of attachment to their towns and regions. Daily commutes of longer than one hour were linked by the researcher to lower levels of commuter attachment to their towns and their regions of the country. Gustafson, who conducted this study, likened geographic attachment to a sense of belonging.

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Recent research in the United Kingdom has found that the aroma of peppermint enhances memory, while the smell of ylang-ylang has the opposite effect. The scent of peppermint also increased feelings of alertness among those who smelled it during the research process, while ylang-ylang’s odor made people feel less alert and more calm.

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Research by Leung and her colleagues indicates that even a 45 minute multicultural experience, of a particular type, can lead to sustained, higher levels of creativity. To enhance creativity the 45 minute experience must “allow for juxtaposition and integration of cultural differences.” The authors feel that multicultural experiences enhance creativity because they present new ideas and concepts to people, create “the ability to see multiple underlying functions behind the same form,” cause people to think in new ways and access their existing knowledge differently, create a receptiveness to gathering new ideas from different sources, and enhance the ability to synthesize various sorts of ideas from different cultures. People who have multicultural experiences of the specified type will not be more creative after the experience unless they are open to new ideas and their social environment encourages learning. Interestingly, one of the examples of integration of ideas from different cultures provided by the authors was using traditional Ming Dynasty furniture in a modern New York apartment.

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Research presented by Dr. Stephanie Charleston (University of Sunderland) at the 2008 meeting of the British Psychological Society indicates that small stadiums may be big hits with fans. She found that football fans who felt their team’s stadium was too small rated the atmosphere during home games more positively than fans who felt that their teams played in stadiums that was the correct size. In addition, “Football fans found that relocating to a new ground was an emotional experience. Those who had supported their club for longest rated the experience of moving to a new ground as most emotional.”

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People often set the value of an object or place based on a distinctive feature of that item (such as size) that is not related to the continuing experience of that object or place. Hsee and his colleagues provide an example: “Imagine that a person chooses between homes. The two homes are identical on all aspects (including price, distance to work, etc.) except for the following: one house is 2,500 square feet in size and is situated in a location where the person will experience allergies and the resulting red eyes and congested nose from time to time, whereas the second house is only 2,000 square feet in size and is situated in a location where the person will not experience allergies. Although he realizes the difference in allergies, he predicts greater comfort from living in the larger home and therefore chooses the larger home. In reality, however, the difference in home size does not matter much in consumption experience, but the presence and absence of allergies matters a great deal. Therefore, the person may well be happier if he opted for the smaller home and were free from allergies. This decision bias has been referred to as the distinction bias, because the predictor is sensitive to a distinction (e.g., home size) that is actually inconsequential in the consumption experience.” When the house selection decision is being made, for example, the house is evaluated compared to other homes and not based on the continuing experience of living in the home.

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The demand for cohousing in the United States is increasing, according to recent research conducted by Dr. Jo Williams at University College London. Williams and others define cohousing as “private living units (houses or flats) with shared spaces such as a gym, office space, workshops, laundry facilities and a café.” The demand for housing of this type has traditionally been a niche market in the US because cohousing has a long development period (generally at least 5 years) and is expensive. Cohousing reduces occupant energy consumption by 60% compared to consumption in traditional homes and new development models are reducing resident risk and cost. As a result, “Developers are beginning to finance and build cohousing both in partnership with prospective residents and speculatively. Residents are also forming their own cohousing communities in existing neighbourhoods, by taking down fences, creating communal facilities and taking on the responsibility for general management and maintenance.” Since re-sale values for cohousing are above the market averages for their local communities, this housing form seems to be desired by consumers.

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For decades scientists have been investigating whether the language spoken by a person influences the way that they perceive the world around them. Recently, researchers from the University of Hong Kong have found new evidence, using neural-imaging tools, that indicates that the way humans perceive colors is influenced by the language that they speak.

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Researchers at the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada have developed a new, streamlined way to simulate the complex ways that daylight influences light levels in rooms with “dissimilar dynamic complex fenestration systems (such as windows with movable shadings) whose optical behavior (transmission, reflection and scattering) may change during simulation.” All relevant calculations are presented in the NRC article, which also includes suggestions for computerizing the required analyses. A case study provided further clarifies how the new methodology can be applied.

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The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) has comprehensively reviewed the features of childcare centers that optimize physiological and psychological experiences for children under 5 and their caregivers. Among the topics they address are the symbolic meanings that different spaces can acquire for young children. CABE recommends that special care be used in the design of symbolism rich places such as the space where kids say goodbye to their parents, places where children are taken when they do not feel well, and landmarks such as the reception desk. Citing the work of Alison Clark, the researchers state that “Many youngsters identify with their environment in a symbolic way. Surprisingly, features that might appear unimportant to adults actually form key elements of the nurturing environment for a child.”

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Bromberek’s research shows that even at “environment-friendly” tropical resorts, more air conditioning is often used than is required for guests to be comfortable. Tourists travel to the tropics, in part, for the weather they will experience there: “A different (psychological) position of tourists in the tropics made most of them see conditions there acceptable, and the use of air-conditioners in their accommodation not required. It follows that offering indoor conditions, which were further improved by the means of passive climate control would make conditions acceptable to an even larger number of guests.” Bromberek encourages resort designers to cool new buildings in the same ways local structures were cooled before electric air conditioning was introduced because those vernacular methods are effective at reducing air temperature and are also energy efficient.

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After listening to live guitar music with vocal accompaniment for 30 minutes, on average, pediatric hospital patients (aged 3 months to 14 years) had higher blood oxygen levels than before they listened to the music. Longhi and Pickett’s research is a pioneering work studying the effects of music on older children and their results are consistent with earlier work done with children in neonatal intensive care units. As the researchers state, their findings are important because it “suggests that music has an effect on the state of paediatric patients, potentially improving their physiological and psychological well-being.”

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People listening to dissonant music perform better on cognitive tasks than people listening to more pleasant music. Dissonant music may sharpen listeners’ attention in general: “It may be that dissonance brings arousal to optimal levels, thus sharpening concentration.” Bodner, Gilboa, and Amir played a recording of consonant or dissonant versions of a Finnish folk song for the participants in their study: “Both arrangements carried the same melody and were played in the same key and tempo . . . the dissonant version had only dissonant chords with no harmonic resolution, while the consonant version consisted of a blend of dissonant and consonant chords as typical to peaceful classical music.” Performance on the most difficult cognitive task included in the test battery was best when no music was being played.

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People who can more accurately mark the midpoint of horizontal lines are more moved emotionally by abstract paintings. Drago and her colleagues attribute this relationship to the fact that “For subjects to obtain the full evocative impact, it might have been important for the viewer to be attentive to the entire painting” just as people who are more attentive to an entire line can divide it more accurately.

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Many recent research studies have shown that, in general, when people are in a good mood they think more broadly and that aspects of the physical environment can lead to good moods. When people are in a good mood because they see something that they want to travel toward, however, they focus on their destination and don’t pay much attention to the physical environment between them and their objective. As Gable and Harmon-Jones state “Given the importance of approach-motivated positive affect states to biologically important outcomes such as reproduction, social attachment, and the ingestion of food and water . . . [they are] associated with decreases in the breadth of attention, as organisms shut out irrelevant stimuli, perceptions, and cognitions as they approach and attempt to acquire the desired objects.” This finding has design implications because often objects that put us in a good mood, such desserts in a buffet line, are visible in the distance and people must travel to reach them. People will be less cognizant of their environment as they move toward those desserts, and more likely to trip if there are changes in floor level, for example.

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Researcher Byoung-Suk Kweon from the University of Michigan has investigated why children do, or do not, walk or bike to school. She found that how children travel to school is strongly linked to their parents’ perceptions of the safety of the routes between their homes and schools. In 2004, less than 13% of American children walked or biked to school, compared to 50% who did so in 1969.

Kweon determined that “Parents were most concerned about the speed and volume of traffic students would encounter en route to school, the possibility of crime, and the weather.” Children riding their bicycles to school often ride on the sidewalk and not in bike lanes, apparently because parents are concerned about the safety of bike lanes. Parents seem apprehensive about walking safety when there is not a buffer between traffic and the sidewalk. Buffers at least eight feet wide, particularly ones with trees, lessen parental anxiety. Kweon’s work is important because, as she states, “Walking or biking to school helps children develop an early habit of engaging in physical activity, and that can lead to a healthier and more active population.”

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Pedestrians using mobile phones are distracted and less aware of information in the environment that surrounds them. People talking on mobile phones recall fewer details of the area they are walking through than people not talking on mobile phones. In addition, “Mobile phone users crossed unsafely into oncoming traffic significantly more than did either of the other groups [i-pod users and people without phones or i-pods]. For pedestrians as with drivers, cognitive distraction from mobile phone use reduces situation awareness, increases unsafe behavior, putting pedestrians at greater risk for accidents, and crime victimization.” The i-pod users observed “did not display a significantly higher rate of unsafe behavior than pedestrians not using i-pods or mobile phones.” Nasar and his colleagues feel that more observations of i-pod users are required before any conclusions are drawn about the safety of listening to an i-pod while walking.

Jack Nasar, Peter Hecht, and Richard Wener. 2008. “Mobile Telephones, Distracted Attention, and Pedestrian Safety.” Accident Analysis and Prevention, vol. 40, pp. 69-75.  

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Janneke Joly’s dissertation research details how thinking about other people influences us toward positive behavior. Mental reminders or physical images of people increase the likelihood that we will obey the social norms of our society: “Even when we are not in the company of others, we can feel obliged to keep to certain standards of behavior.” For example, when we think about other people, we are less likely to litter. When we are in a library, the physical presence of other people keeps us quiet – and brings to mind our society’s general rules for appropriate behavior. Even if people are not physically present, cues in our environment can bring them to mind and cause us to behave in line with our society’s rules. For example, when we see a table with silverware on it in a restaurant “We are more likely to be reminded of the norm ‘eat with a knife and fork.’” Even young children take note of physical cues related to social norms. In Northern Europe, St. Nicholas (or Santa Claus) is a symbol that influences children’s behavior: “When children see the saint’s typical mitre or big book [familiar images in Northern Europe], they are more likely to share their sweets with other children and find it more enjoyable to do so.”

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Senior citizens are being injured on escalators more frequently now than in the past. Researcher Joseph O’Neil (Indiana University School of Medicine) feels that although escalators are generally a safe way for seniors to move between floors, more older individuals are now being injured on escalators because today’s senior citizens are remaining active longer than members of previous generations. From 1991 to 2005, the escalator-related injury rate has risen from 4.9 injuries per 100,000 older Americans to 11 injuries per 100,000 older Americans. The mean age of the older Americans injured was 80, and most of the injuries were not serious (the most common type of injury involved soft-tissues and included sprains and cuts). Seventy-three percent of those injured were women.

Most of the escalator-related injuries related to slips or falls (85% of injuries) and “Most of the slip-trip-or-fall injuries happened while a person was standing on the escalator, not trying to step on or off or to pass another person.” O’Neil reports that “The reasons that older adults slip, trip, and fall on escalators are likely very similar to the causes of injuries in other situations . . . Factors that could contribute to a fall include poor equilibrium, decreased visual acuity, coordination problems, changes in muscle strength and balance, and lack of agility.” Jessie VanSwearingen (University of Pittsburgh), O’Neill’s research partner, feels that poor vision was responsible for many of these incidents, because vision in older people is worse than it is in younger people and “Older people are more reliant on vision for their balance than younger people are. . . Escalators are very disruptive to vision because both the escalator and the surrounding environment are moving.”

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People exposed to danger signals in their environments make more extreme judgments of the fairness of situations that are not in any way related to the danger signal than people not exposed to the same signals. Van den Bos and his colleagues believe that this is because these danger signals lead us to faster and more extreme reactions, in general, via the “human alarm system.” The human alarm system is used to “detect and handle alarming situations and . . . prompts people to process more alertly what is going on in the situations they find themselves in.” A flashing light is an example of an environmental danger signal.

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Canada’s National Research Council Institute for Research in Construction (NRC-IRC) has developed a suite of space design software tools that are available free or for a nominal fee at their website (http://irc-nrc-cnrc.gc.ca ). NRC-IRC developed these tools “to enable the design/construction industry to build projects that promote a comfortable, healthy, and energy-efficient environment.”

Several tools relate to lighting. They include DAYSIM (“an expert daylighting design tool that can be used to predict the annual amount of daylight in buildings of arbitrary complex shape, located anywhere in the world”), SkyVision (“enables users to predict skylight performance for any given day, using different design variables under virtually any conditions”), and Daylight 1-2-3 (used to “optimize the amount of natural light in a space together with its annual energy use”).

IA-QUEST assesses air quality in a space by predicting “the concentration of VOCs [volatile organic compounds] in ventilated spaces due to emissions from building materials and furnishings.”

Open-office design can be streamlined using COPE-ODE (an online program that “allows the user to input the properties of the office design of interest [e.g., cubicle geometry, material properties, lighting design, sound levels] . . . it also allows input of cost data, which facilitates a cost-benefit comparison of alternative workstation designs”) and COPE-Calc (helps designers develop spaces that provide normal audio and visual privacy for office workers).

Finally, IBANA “calculates indoor sound levels form aircraft noise for both residential and commercial building envelope designs.”

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Night-time exposure to noise increases our blood pressure, even if it does not wake us up. This effect is evident when noises louder than 35 decibels occur – whether that noise is from an aircraft, someone snoring, or some other source. Louder noises cause larger increases in blood pressure. The authors state that “We found that both systolic and diastolic BP [blood pressure] levels as well as HR [heart rate] increased with higher noise levels during the preceding minutes, independently of the noise source and of the sequence of the measurement during sleep time, which indicates absence of habituation.”

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Social factors influence whether individuals exercise in the areas outside their homes, just as physical features of their neighborhood do. Christopher Browning, assistant professor of sociology at Ohio State University, Ming Wen, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Utah, and Kathleen Cagney, associate professor of health studies at the University of Chicago, determined that neighborhood factors such as levels of poverty, trust among neighbors, perceived violence and “beliefs that neighbors help each other, all contributed to how much people exercised in a specific community.” An Ohio State press release states that “Other studies have found that exercise levels can be increased by improving the physical components of a neighborhood – such as creating high-quality parks, sidewalks and recreation centers. But Browning said this study shows that the social environment in a neighborhood needs to be considered along with the physical environment.”

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Indoor waterfalls have been associated with a decrease in the systolic blood pressure of people with dementia by Warmuth and Joseph. When an indoor waterfall was installed in the common area of a day care center for demented individuals, patient systolic blood pressure readings were reduced by 4 points on average (from 127 to 123); this change was statistically significant. Diastolic blood pressure increased after the waterfall was installed (from 69 to 71), and this change was also statistically significant. The decrease in systolic blood pressure was important because higher systolic blood pressure “intensifies the rate of cognitive decline.” After acknowledging the need to replicate their findings, Warmuth and Joseph state that “While the waterfall many not ever replace medication totally, the waterfall display may help to achieve reduced stress and stress-related decreases in systolic blood pressure readings.”

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People using Global Positioning System (GPS) mobile navigation systems walk through a space differently than people using maps or direct-experience to guide their travels. Researchers found that in a test situation “GPS users traveled longer distances and made more stops during the walk than map users and direct-experience participants. Also, GPS users traveled more slowly, made larger direction errors, drew sketch maps with poorer topological accuracy [meaning they had learned less about the route traveled], and rated wayfinding tasks as more difficult than direct-experience participants.” Direct experience participants initially walked through the test route with a guide who knew the path of interest, and then traveled the route alone. The GPS system used in this study had a 4 X 5 cm screen that showed a map of the area within 250 meters of the user’s current position. The information on the screen was updated dynamically as the user moved through space and people need to focus on those updates as they walked.

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A number of factors make a neighborhood seem disordered; the ones that are physical will be discussed here. Franzini and her co-researchers conclude that “Perceptions of disorder are more strongly associated with the fundamental and long-lasting aspects of observed physical disorder, namely physical decay reflecting boarded-up and abandoned buildings and overall conditions of buildings and public spaces, than with the presence of trash and graffiti, which can more easily be remedied by interventions.”

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Kelly and Hosking used a case study of a seaside Australian town to explore the relationship between owners of second-homes and the communities in which those second homes are located. Second-home owners studied were often very committed to the area around their second homes. Kelly and Hosking feel that if the contributions of second-home owners to the community are acknowledged and encouraged, the commitment of these nonpermanent residents will be enhanced, increasing their concentration in the population at the expense of people buying property purely for investment reasons.

Deeply felt psychological forces bond second-homeowners to the areas around their second homes, and these forces can have important implications. Citing Hull’s work on image congruity (“the fit between self-image and the meanings and values people associate with places”), the researchers state “whereas an individual’s primary residence may meet day-to-day functional needs, second homes might fit more closely with perceptions of self as reflected in the types of activities second-home owners engage in. As Hull argued, supporting people’s image congruity can lead to greater place attachment, which in turn has been linked with positive affective outcomes such as health and social interaction.” Additional research referenced indicates that higher levels of place attachment are also linked with more pro-environmental behavior, which can be very important in the sorts of rural communities often chosen by second-home owners.

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In neighborhoods where there is a main street that concentrates pedestrian activity, there is a greater sense of community than in neighborhoods that do not have a main street. A main street is defined by Pendola and Gen as “a pedestrian-oriented shopping street, fronted by buildings typically less than three stories in height, that serves as the principal commercial corridor.” This research confirms a long-standing assumption of urban planners and “implies that the benefits of main street development on sense of community are not limited to town planning but are also relevant to the most urban of settings.”

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People who have more dominant personalities favor vertical arrangements of objects more than people who are less dominant, even when the objects arranged have no social meaning. Moeller and her colleagues tested the hypothesis that more dominant individuals “are biased toward perceptual verticality [or “enhanced attention to the vertical dimension”]” and confirmed their hypothesis. Dominance in this context is the use of power to influence the lives of other people.

The reactions of these dominant individuals are consistent with metaphors that use a vertical arrangement to describe relative dominance and the fact that “more dominant individuals more frequently invoke vertical metaphors to think about themselves, other people, and their interactions with the world” than other people do.

The relationship between metaphors and perception seen in this study is congruent with recent research conducted by others. For example, Moeller, Robinson and Zabelina cite work by Meier and his co-researchers that revealed that negative assessments lead font colors to be perceived as darker.

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In girls, language processing is more abstract and in boys it is more sensory, according to recent neuroscience research conducted at Northwestern University and the University of Haifa. The researchers feel that this may explain why men and women seem to navigate through space differently: “Ask a woman for directions and you may hear something like: ‘Turn left on Main Street, go one block past the drug store, and then turn right, where there’s a flower shop on one corner and a café across the street.’ Such information-laden directions may be helpful for women because all information is relevant to the abstract concept of where to turn; however, men may require only one cue and be distracted by additional information.”

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Kumar and his colleagues comprehensively examined the relationship between problem behavior (truancy, cigarette use, etc.) by middle and high school students and physical characteristics of their schools. Several of the highlights of their study are presented here. School physical settings “have multiple dimensions, each imbued with different meanings and messages for students.” Attractive and clean classrooms communicate to students that the school values and supports their learning and growth. Student artwork on display “enhances students’ identification with the school and promotes involvement in schoolwork.” When classrooms are not clean and schools are not attractive, “students feel neglected and uncared for, resulting in higher levels of truancy.” A school attractiveness index was developed, with more points awarded for clean classrooms and halls; freshly painted walls; working drinking fountains; student artwork, awards and trophies on display; and “attractive” classrooms.

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Researchers have uncovered more evidence that how colors are perceived depends on the language spoken by the people looking at them – the language you speak influences the colors you see. The study reported is a pioneering work that uses brain imaging to provide direct evidence of this phenomenon. This research finding is consistent with Benjamin Whorf’s position that “the language a person speaks affects the way he or she thinks.”

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Schimmel and Forster have demonstrated that when people think about the future, they are more apt to view unconventional art as typical than if they do not think about the future. The researchers report that “Participants were more likely to accept unconventional artworks to the category of art after they had thought about the distant future compared to participants who had thought about their proximal [near] future.” The participants’ thoughts about the future related to life in general, and not in any way to art directly. Schimmel and Forster cite other research to support their conclusion that thinking about the future should also result in these unconventional artworks being liked more and being more highly valued monetarily. Other research also leads the authors to speculate that “Spatial distance also triggers a more global or abstract thinking style . . . unconventional artworks may be understood and appreciated more easily when they are presented farther away from the perceiver.” An example of unconventional art is Beuys’ Fat Corner which was (until it was accidentally destroyed by custodians) a pile of fat that was piled in a corner, where it melted and became rancid. A piece of conventional art is the Mona Lisa by da Vinci.

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McCormack’s and his colleagues’ research supports previous investigations of adults’ perceptions of distances to places in their neighborhoods. Adults overestimate distances to local destinations and their overestimations are most dramatic for places closer to home. In general, “Study participants tended to overestimate distances to destinations located closer to home and underestimate those that were located farther from home.” This effect was seen both among people who walked frequently through their neighborhoods and those that did not; McCormack and his co-authors only asked people to estimate the time to walk to places that were a reasonable walking distance from the study participants’ homes.

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Research showing that architects and members of the general public prefer different buildings is old news, but a new study probes those differences in preferences and produces interesting, actionable information.

Fawcett and his colleagues investigated the responses of architects and members of the general public to photos of suburban office buildings (“recently built, low- to medium-rise, freestanding buildings” in the suburbs) and found that each group preferred different images. Architects preferred buildings that independent judges had assessed as more highly styled (described as having stronger “architectural character”), and seemed to pay little attention to whether brick or some other material was used to clad the building or roof style. Members of the public preferred buildings with pitched as opposed to flat roofs. Their preference decisions were slightly influenced by the cladding on the outside of the structures (they preferred brick and traditional materials) and unaffected by how highly styled the design was.

The researchers conclude: “The users’ main preference was for pitched roofs; they somewhat preferred traditional walling, but were indifferent to architectural character. The architects’ main preference was for strong architectural character; they were largely indifferent to roof shape and walling. Therefore, a design with a pitched roof, traditional walling, and a strong architectural character would satisfy the principal preferences of both architects and laypersons.”

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Seeing different patterns in an environment can have a significant influence on the uniqueness and variety of items subsequently selected by individuals. This research finding has repercussions not only for place design but also for the selection of objects used in spaces.

Maimaran and Wheeler briefly showed individuals patterns of circles, squares, and triangles and then noted their behavior. They found that whether people saw only multiple copies of the same shape, a mix of all three shapes, or one instance of a particular shape amid multiple images of one other shape influenced behavior not related to the shapes - in the research project the types of Hershey’s chocolates, which did not vary in shape, selected by participants at the end of the research project. This effect was seen even when the exposure to the patterns was very subtle and not discussed with study participants. When people were exposed to a set of images in which all shapes were the same except for one, they were more apt to select a unique chocolate at the end of the experiment, when they saw to a mix of all three shapes, they were more likely to choose a varied selection of chocolates at the end of the experiment.

When discussing the practical implications of their findings, Maimaran and Wheeler state that “The simplicity of these shape arrays enables one to use them in very mundane situations to convey various concepts. For example, a brand that wants to subtly convey its uniqueness could choose as a logo one of the uniqueness arrays [pattern with all shapes the same except for one] presented here. Through this subtle linkage of the company with uniqueness, the company might help to avoid the types of counterargument likely to accompany more blatant company claims . . . Because such stimuli, on the face of it, do not convey any particular construct, they are unlikely to be recognized as potential biasing or persuasion agents. . . . The fact that these arrays affect choice when consumers do not even actively think about them extends the range of possible implementations of these ambiguous visual stimuli, as it allows subtle and non-obtrusive usage of these arrays to convey certain ideas and affect choice behavior.”

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Intensity of pro-environmental sentiment, length of time living in the desert, aesthetic opinion, gender, and young children in the household influence desert residents’ landscaping preferences. Yabiku and his colleagues investigated Phoenix residents’ preferences for home landscaping in one of the following styles: native desert (“all native desert plants, no irrigation, no turf grass”), xeric (“ some native desert plants, minimal drip irrigation, no turf grass”), oasis (“no native desert plants, drip and sprinkler irrigation [present], turf grass ‘islands’”), or mesic (“no native desert plants, sprinkler or flood irrigation [present], extensive turf grass”). Researchers found that residents generally preferred that the landscapes at their homes use more water intense landscape styles instead of dryer styles, with women, people with children in their household, and people who have lived in the desert for longer periods of time being particularly averse to dry landscape styles. People who found the desert beautiful showed higher preference for a desert landscaping style. In addition, “Stronger [pro]-environmental attitudes did not lead to a preference for xeriscapes but did lead to compromises on the amount of turf grass preferred in lush landscapes. This may contribute to the ‘oasis’ mentality commonly found among area residents.”

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People with and without formal training in design evaluate products more positively when they have been put in a good mood than when they have not been put in a good mood. Locher and his colleagues put individuals in a good mood by giving them a small gift of candy (that they did not eat during the experiment). Aspects of the physical environment can also be used to put people in a good mood. As the researchers state, “Results of these studies provide evidence that aesthetic judgments can be enhanced by an experimentally induced positive mood state.” Previous research has shown that people who have been put in a good mood “are likely to adopt creative, open, constructive, and diverse thinking styles, to use broader cognitive categories, and show greater cognitive and behavioral flexibility across a wide range of tasks and settings.”

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Physical distance cues influence emotional experiences. Research conducted by Williams and Bargh, has shown that people respond differently to situations after they have thought about two things that are either relatively close together or two things that are relatively far apart. In the Williams and Bargh experiments, people briefly thought about two points on a simple Cartesian plane that were relatively close [(2,4) and (-3, -1)] or slightly further apart [(12,10) and (-11,-8)]. Having people think about the points further apart, as opposed to the closer set of points, had the following effects, it: “muted the emotional impact of fiction,” “produced lower estimates of the caloric content of unhealthy food, but not healthy food,” (which is an emotion based assessment) and “decreased the reported strength of emotional attachments people felt between themselves and their family and hometown.”

The work by Williams and Bargh builds on earlier, related research. For example, “people are more likely to understand two objects as being in a power relationship if they are aligned vertically rather than horizontally” and judgments of how positive or negative words are is “facilitated when positive words are presented in the upper half of a computer screen and negative words are presented in the lower half (“up” is “good,” “down” is “bad”).”

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The façade of medical buildings influences the perceived quality of medical care and expected comfort level to be experienced within the structure. Buildings that are larger and those that are more expensive looking are associated with higher quality care. Larger buildings are also associated with the highest level of comfort and the higher a person’s income, the stronger that relationship. Results suggest that “Those with greater financial resources seek out more physically impressive faculties.”

Residential style offices were included in the analysis. Traditional house type offices are perceived as homey and clean. Devlin found that “People do want high-tech architecture . . . but at the same time may feel some comfort with what is familiar.” A residential setting is more familiar than a more monumental setting, but “facilities that were truly residential in scale may have been too small to inspire confidence.”

Facades linked to higher perceived quality of care and comfort have more windows, good maintenance, and a professional appearance. The facility façade that resulted in the highest quality care rating was described as “clean, updated, professional, with good windows, modern, top of the line but uncomfortable, and rich but impersonal.” The facility façade associated with the highest expected care ratings had large windows, appeared new and modern, was nicely maintained, and had a professional ambiance.

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Perkins + Will developed a copyrighted pediatric hospital room for long-term patients after interviewing medical professionals, former patients, and parents of former patients. The layout of the room creates several activity zones, which allows professionals, parents, and patients to retain a sense of control and feel connected to the outside world. The layout of the room also insures families sustain their relationships with young patients. To make the room more “homey” a refrigerator drawer, microwave, coffee maker, and food storage area is included in the room. This allows some access to familiar foods, and their tastes and smells, and also means that parents do not have to leave the room as frequently to find food. A large screen at the foot of the patient bed helps the child to maintain contact with their schoolmates and the Internet, as well as watch television programs and play video games. People in the room can also get a feel for what is happening outside the hospital building by using the large screen to view images from a camera mounted on the roof of the building. A desk that can be shielded from the rest of the room’s occupants by a glass sliding door allows parents to fulfill professional obligations. This desk area was placed near the door of the room, so that parents can enter and leave without disturbing a sleeping child and so that parents and medical professionals can share information easily.

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Our first view of a space has a significant influence on how information about that space is stored. A recent study has found that this first impression is used to organize the data about the space in long-term memory. Long-term memory organization schemes influence factors such as ease of recall.

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Homeowners can be guided toward making their homes more environmentally responsible (“greener”). Easy access to green products increases the likelihood that they will be used. British homeowners surveyed indicated that if there was a wider assortment of green products available for purchase in local stores, they would be more likely to install and operate them. Autonomous operation and attractive appearance are also important features of successful green products. Autonomy is important because time pressure is one of the most significant reasons why people do not make their homes more environmentally responsible. Interviews with residents also revealed that green products installed by others are often removed from homes and replaced with lower-performing alternatives that are perceived as more aesthetically pleasing.

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The context in which an image appears influences how we perceive/interpret that image. This happens because the context influences what we expect to see, and those expectations determine what we perceive – sometimes leading us to imagine things which aren’t there. With a vague background, we have a lot more opportunities to fill in missing data than we do with a bright, clear background, and we are apt to “see” images that are consistent with that vague background. This is why we are more apt to imagine things in poorly lit shadowy areas.

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Sensation-seekers are apt to make larger changes in their stock portfolios than people who are not sensation-seekers. It is reasonable to extrapolate from information about these financial behaviors to the conclusion that sensation-seekers change the design of their surroundings more dramatically than other individuals. Psychologists define sensation-seekers as people who “search for novel, intense, and varied experiences generally associated with real or imagined physical, social, and financial risks.”

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Designers are often asked to create spaces or products to store excess possessions, but instead of creating storage space, it often would be more appropriate to reduce the amount of material being stored. Belk and his colleagues determined that it is beneficial for individuals with too many possessions to work with professional organizers. Data gathered from organizers indicate, “Over 90% of the population in the United States lacks organizing skills.” In addition, many of the excess possessions are present because the owners have a deep emotional attachment to these objects, which they use them to define themselves: “The clutter in our informants’ homes was not composed of unwanted things or disposable waste. To the contrary, their clutter was more likely to be composed of possessions that have deep symbolic meanings for them.”

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Differences in individual behavior prevent scarce resources from being exhausted, researchers from the Universities of Freibourg and Bonn found. Christina Matzke and Damien Challet built a model describing the use of hot water at youth hostels, where it is generally scarce. The researchers determined that differences in the control mechanisms of individual showers result in the average shower temperature being more stable and keep showerers from draining the supply of hot water. These differences do require that individual shower takers work harder to make the water in their showers the correct temperature. The researchers also applied their model in other contexts, such as electric utility use. They summarize their findings by stating, “One thing is always true, the more individualistic the behaviour of those involved in the market, the more stable the whole system becomes.”

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Art, of any sort, increases the perceived value of consumer products with which it is associated. This effect is not tied to the content of the artwork, but is related to associations people make to artwork, in general. Hagtvedt and Patrick found that “Products associated with art are perceived to be more luxurious than those associated with non-art and that these perceptions of luxury mediate [are responsible for] the influence of art on product evaluation.” In the series of research projects completed, art was associated with products in advertisements or by being imprinted on the product itself.

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Pediatric hospital room design has recently been the focus of a Perkins + Will (P + W) research team. P +W worked with the University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital’s doctors, nurses, patients, and patient families to learn more about the design of the ideal pediatric hospital room. The researchers determined that the pediatric patient room qualities that were most important to users were comfort, control of the experience of being in the room, and a connection to the outside world. In addition, children who had been patients in the Minnesota Children’s hospital were asked about the light in their dream hospital room: “Responses included lava lamps, a sky on the ceiling, and the ability to paint the room with color.”

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Researchers have found that green spaces in cities are becoming the accepted standard of comparison for natural areas, even though these urban places may be entirely created by human beings. Green spaces in cities generally have a wider range of plants than naturally occurring areas outside of cities, but often have fewer animal types than natural spaces outside the city. Cities are also warmer than the surrounding countryside.

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Accurately scheduling projects, particularly those that require creative input, is difficult. Recent research documents that we often underestimate how long tasks will take to complete and do not effectively plan ways to finish them more quickly. When we consider options to speed up tasks, we focus on differences in the ratios of times to completion of various plans and not the absolute amount of time saved under different scenarios– it can be a better use of time to speed up a slower task than to make an already quick task quicker, for example.

Svenson has found that it is unusual to complete a task before the original due date, even when a serious effort is made to do so. She states that “When people judge the time that can be saved by increasing the speed of an activity, they are often victims of a time saving bias. That is, they overestimate the time that can be saved by increasing the speed.”

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Researchers have identified a relationship between the concentrations of various population groups in an urban neighborhood and incidence of psychosis. Ezra Susser and Hans Hoek from Columbia University found that “Immigrants who live in neighborhoods where their own ethnic group comprise a small proportion of the population are at increased risk for certain psychotic disorders.” The team from Columbia feels that these results indicate the effect that environment and social experiences can have in the onset of psychosis. Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder.

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In the United States, virtual experiences of nature are becoming extremely realistic and, simultaneously, the amount of time people spend in the real outdoor environment is decreasing. Pergams (University of Illinois at Chicago) and Zaradic (Bryn Mawr College) fear that the increased realism of recorded nature scenes leads people to find actual nature experiences less appealing and to have a reduced desire to interact with real nature or to preserve it. The researchers feel that virtual nature experiences, which often portray exciting interactions with nature, may make direct nature visits seem boring. In addition, video scenes that portray difficult situations, such as dangerous animals, may make people who rarely visit nature afraid to visit natural locations.

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The Project for Public Spaces (PPS) has found that planners’ concerns about parking can result in less successful designs for public places. The PPS has determined that “The current obsession with parking is one of the biggest obstacles to achieving livable cities and towns, because it usually runs counter to what should be our paramount concern: creating places where people enjoy spending time.”

The PPS has distilled their years of experience thinking about parking in public places into recommendations for designers. The Project for Public Spaces has observed that parking does not draw people to an area; it’s the inherent ambiance of a place that draws visitors. They cite downtown Cambridge, MA and the French Quarter of New Orleans as places where it is difficult to park that have many visitors. The PPS suggests that money that would be spent on parking be used to create destinations that are more attractive to potential visitors. They have also found that when parking laws are more rigorously enforced, the parking situation in an area can actually improve. In addition, they recommend that parking timing mesh with the nearby requirements. Metered parking in front of a post office may allow two hour stays, for example, while people visit the post office for much shorter periods. In that situation, the PPS would recommend that meters in front of the post office be changed to briefer parking periods. They also suggest “Some parking spaces should be more expensive to encourage high turnover.” Angled parking is recommended, because it allows about 50% more cars to park than parallel parking. Angled parking also slows traffic, which makes streets more pedestrian friendly.

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Green home purchasers are very satisfied with their new green homes. A recent survey of green home buyers conducted by the National Association of Home Builders and McGraw-Hill Construction indicates that 85% of recent purchasers say they are more satisfied with their green home than their previous, “nongreen” home. Sixty-three percent of the people surveyed were motivated to buy green homes because of lower operating and maintenance costs incurred by energy- and resource-efficient homes. The demographic profile of recent green home purchasers is: affluent, female, well-educated, in their mid-forties, married, and more likely from the South or West. In addition, “More than 60 percent of those surveyed say that consumer awareness, additional costs and the limited availability of homes are obstacles to green homes gaining a bigger market share. However, when looking at the “biggest” obstacles, green homeowners view education as the biggest hurdle to overcome.”

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An analysis by Ann Mack, a trend forecaster at the JWT advertising agency, indicates that many American backyards will be changing soon. Her work suggests that the energy that Americans have been devoting to interior design will soon shift outdoors. The design of backyards will become more elaborate; she foresees “basic pools will morph into tropical oases, outdoor kitchens will rival their indoor counterparts, and gardens will grow into jungles.” Mack also expects a coming mania for home grown produce, and much of this will come from backyard gardens.

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Children as young as 3 navigate through space using landmarks, according to recent research conducted at Bristol University by Dr. Alastair Smith. Previous research had indicated that children did not use landmarks to chart their course until approximately age 6. This research is immediately applicable by designers creating spaces through which children can be expected to move independently.

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People who prefer classical music are more influenced emotionally by listening to classical music than people who prefer another musical genre are by listening to the same classical music. This finding builds on previous research indicating that music listeners select for themselves has more of an influence on their mood than material selected for them by others. This research is significant for people who develop soundscapes for public spaces.

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Giving workers control over dimming the lighting levels in their workspaces is a good idea. Workers who can control the dimming of lighting levels at their workstations modify lighting levels in ways that consume much less energy. In addition, Newsham cites research indicting that “there is growing evidence that individual dimming controls improve occupant satisfaction” and that individual dimming control may improve “some aspects of performance” by workers.

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Laypeople and professionals may have different opinions about the design of the same housing development. Both groups do tend to agree on issues related to distinctiveness, attractiveness, integration with surroundings, the quality of the public open spaces, and the availability of public transport and local services. They regularly differ in their opinions of how the layout of a community influences safety. Researchers from the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment hypothesize that this may be because laypeople are not as aware of the relationship betwe