INCIHUSA   20883
INSTITUTO DE CIENCIAS HUMANAS, SOCIALES Y AMBIENTALES
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Daylighting and Cognition. Experimental Studies on Working Memory and Attention in clerical and educational contexts
Autor/es:
MONTEOLIVA, JUAN MANUEL; RODRIGUEZ, ROBERTO; PATTINI, ANDREA; ISON, MIRTA
Lugar:
Eindhoven
Reunión:
Congreso; Experiencing Light 2012; 2012
Institución organizadora:
Human Technology Interaction, Eindhoven University of Technology
Resumen:
Nowadays we might be indoors around 90% of our time: During our childhood we spend several hours at school and as adults even more hours at work. This paper introduces our interdisciplinary research on the influence daylight in human cognition, specifically in working memory and attention in office environments and schools.Clerical contexts: Since the early 1980s, the study of Visual Display Terminal (VDT) work has focused on visual comfort and postural problems. However, the introduction of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in offices added a constant cognitive processing load that might be beyond human capabilities (Wästlund, 2007). The hypothesis behind this investigation is that glaring lighting conditions might be related to non-visual effects affecting ICT operators´ cognitive efficiency and effectiveness. In order to confirm that hypothesis we designed an experiment to verify if glaring scenarios could generate not only visual strain but cognitive strain as well. We used an emulated window in a laboratory to investigate glare not just as a visual stressor but also as a cognitive one. The experiment took place inside the experimental light laboratory at CCT CONICET-Mendoza Argentina. We measured cognitive efficiency and effectiveness on 25 volunteers. Cognitive efficiency was assessed by means of RTLX; Cognitive effectiveness was measured as working memory span with the RST method. A three factors at two levels full factorial experiment was designed resulting in eight treatments. The factors were the luminance contrast between the task and the source and the apparent size of the latter. The third factor was the way the task was done, shifting or not vision between the source and the task. To characterize lighting conditions on each treatment we built luminance maps from HDR images and then calculated Daylight Glare Index (DGI) with Evalglare. We complemented objective glare analysis with the subjective sensation of glare of the participants with GSV scale. We conclude that RTLX failed to predict variations in cognitive efficiency caused by the glare source. The results for the RST objective variable showed the cognitive effectiveness was statistically significant lower (p-value < 0,05) in those treatments where the volunteers had to toggle their sight between the glare source and the task. Also, lower working memory spans were found in higher glare rated treatments. Considering those results we can state that the source acted as an attention distractor, linking working memory span with the attention management capabilities of the individuals.Educational Contexts: Natural lighting is one of the classroom´s most critical environmental factor and has been strongly associated with the performance and health of school children. In our context, one of the most significant risk factors for school failure is the attentional dysfunction in childhood; issues that affect academic performance and social development. In this context we present an interdisciplinary study. The following field experiment was conducted during morning shift in November 2011 (pre-summer) to test our hypothesis that "classrooms with natural light source might improve attentional efficiency?. The experiment took place at República de Chile primary school in Mendoza, Argentina. The sample size was 24 third grade primary students (14 men and 10 women). Attentional skills were assessed with was the Differences Perception Test -FACES- and its evaluation parameter was "attentional efficiency." This parameter allows assessment of individual performance on tasks that combine sustained and selective attentional skills, which is the dependent variable of the study. The independent variable was the type of primary lighting source. We selected two classrooms of the institution with the same morphological characteristics (8.1 m x 6.5 m x 3.8 m), each one adapted with a different light source: (a) Natural and (b) Artificial. Both conditions had the same light uniformity and lighting levels between 100-300 lux of horizontal illuminance on the work-plane without sun patches or glare sources. Our results showed no statistically significant relationship t (44) = 0.655, p >0.05 (0.516) between attentional efficiency and the light source type. However, new evidence emerged from this experiment, and further studies are in development in order to find an expression that would relate the attentional effectiveness with a time factor.The studies presented are framed within ´the third stage´ of lighting profession, dealing with the effects of lighting on basic psychological mechanisms, such as memory and attention. We addressed our investigation questions from a systemic perspective, analyzing the complex relationship between the subject, the task and the environment in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, as components of the overall performance of the task.