Neighbourhood Perceptions, Evaluations and Wellbeing
Ayalon determined that “the importance of subjective mediators, rather than objective ones in explaining the association between perceived neighborhood characteristics and wellbeing.” Wellbeing was higher when perceived neighborhood disorder was lower and neighborhood cohesion...
Block out Traffic Noise
Block Out Traffic Noise Huang and colleagues’ work confirms the value of soundproofing in-town residential walls. The researchers report that “Road traffic noise was estimated at baseline residential address using the common noise assessment...
Why Objects Matter
Sharfenberger and associates determined that “being physically close to objects helps consumers to feel psychologically close to the more abstract meaning of these objects. Four experimental studies . . . indicate that being proximal...
Eating in darkness…
Veronique Greenwood’s article (“Some Restaurants Around the World Offer Dining With a Difference – Guests Eat in Complete Darkness. How Does This Change the Way We Taste?” 2023, https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230411-what-dining-in-the-dark-does-to-your-tastebuds ) really gets you thinking...
Sunlight
Vermeer has been the darling of the art world, and loads of people outside that hallowed circle, for years, and in “Why We Want to Live (and Work) in That Vermeer Light” Emily Barger...
Plants Prevail
As they do most Springs when plants revive outside, plants inside are a hot topic. In “Eight Ways Indoor Plants Can Improve Your Home” (2023, https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20230324-eight-ways-indoor-plants-can-improve-your-home) Dominic Lutyens shares that worldwide “a trend for...
Managing your at-work Energy Levels…
A Zhang-lead team found “a time allocation effect, such that for a given period of the workday (i.e., the morning or the afternoon), the greater the proportion of time a knowledge worker spent in...
We like what we know
Darda and colleagues share that they “we explored Northern American and Indian participants’ aesthetic judgments and preferences for abstract and representational artworks. . . . no evidence was found for an ingroup bias ....
Do our preferences change?
Aleem and Grzywacz looked at our responses to aesthetics over time and report that “A handful of studies that have measured aesthetic preferences at multiple moments show that preferences may change in as little...
Birdsong and Wellbeing
Hammoud and colleagues report that they “used the Urban Mind smartphone application to examine the impact of seeing or hearing birds on self-reported mental wellbeing in real-life contexts. . . . Everyday encounters with...
Language and Judgements
Rizzo and team’s work indicates how important word choice is for conclusions drawn; they found that “sensory language (e.g., words like ‘crumble’ and ‘juicy’ that engage the senses) shapes consumer responses to influencer-sponsored content....
The Hotter is gets, the Stuffier it feels…
Zhang and colleagues found that “Perceived air quality was reduced significantly as indoor temperature increased. . . . Higher outdoor air supply rate is recommended when indoor temperature rises. . . . The subjective...
Playing to boost Creativity
Mercier and Lubart share that “Games are powerful educational tools, and several early studies have shown the potential of video games and role-playing games to improve creativity. . . . the first study [Marcier...
Why you should Garden!
Research on the benefits of gardening continues to accumulate. Scientists at the University of Colourado Boulder report that “the first-ever, randomized, controlled trial of community gardening found that those who started gardening ate more...
Dressing for Work
Kim, Holtz, and Vogel report that “the results of a 10-day field study of employees from four organizations generally supported our predictions, showing that daily clothing aesthetics and uniqueness had effects on state self-esteem...
Historical Origins of the De-Cluttered Home
As those of us to whom Santa was generous this holiday season start to think seriously about where they’re going to put our gift haul, de-cluttering is getting a lot of attention, again. In...
Free Zones – in Praise of Basements!
Spaces where we can relax as we explore our own minds and work toward goals that are important to us are vital for our mental health. In “In Praise of Unfinished Basements,” Brady Brickner-Wood...
Barbie’s Dream House
Are you one of the millions of kids who played happily with a Barbie Dream House? If you are, you’ll relish reading Julie Lasky’s “A Six-Decade Tour of Barbie’s Dreamhouses” (2022, The New York...
Shiny or Matte?
Huang, Song, and Yang report that “glossy (vs. matte) finishes increase consumers’ perceived effectiveness of a problem-avoiding product while the reverse is true for a problem-approaching product. . . . we demonstrate that glossy [matte] finishes lead consumers...
Do you go to Antique shops?
You’ll be interested in Ross, Bolton, and Meloy’s work. They found that “The market for secondhand items – goods previously owned by others- is rapidly growing. Disordered environments, characterized by disorganized or messy product...
Learning in a Space
A UCLA press release shares that “Wearing VR headsets, participants explored one of two environments — a fantasy fairyland or a science fiction landscape — where they could click to learn the Swahili or...
Get Your Kids to Wild Nature
Weiss, Kahn, and Lam found that “Interaction with nature is vital for children’s physical and psychological development. . . . [we] tested our hypothesis that relatively wild areas of this environment would be positively...
Japendi is In!
Minimalistic Japanese design is having a moment, particularly when combined with Scandinavian design—which is not surprising. Lots of us seem to feel pretty stressed out and nothing makes us feel tense as fast as...
It’s Color of the Year Time, Again
Pantone has decided that the color of 2023 is—drumroll please—Viva Magenta. To get an idea what Viva Magenta actually looks like, click on either of the links below. The CNN article quotes Pantone as...
Art Matters
Something we talk about a lot at The Space Doctors is how art influences our wellbeing, how we think and behave. Alex Marshall, in the article at the link below (“Bringing World-Class Art, and...
Podcasting Acoustics
A press release from the Acoustical Society of America shares that “A high-quality podcast recording is one that does not capture sounds other than the podcaster’s voice. . . . Mechanical noise should be controlled...
Light at Night and Diabetes
Yu and colleagues determined that LAN (light at night) “is associated with impaired blood glucose control and an increased risk of diabetes. . . . The intensity of urban light pollution has increased to...
Go for a Winter Walk!
Researchers determined that “spending time in snowy surroundings can improve how you feel about your body. . . . Before and after walking in a snowy woodland in the Silesia region of Poland [people...
Sound, Complaints, Repercussions
Mueller-Trapet shares that “Whether it’s the constant stomping of feet or the thump from dropping something . . . ‘impact sounds,’ are one of the main causes for complaints in multi-unit residential buildings and...
Greenspace Metrics, Outcomes
Nieuwenhuijsen and team share that “Recently a new 3-30-300 rule of thumb for urban forestry and urban greening has been proposed. . . . The rule requires that every citizen should be able to...
English