It seems a lot of us are having trouble sleeping in our homes (see this article for neuroscience research-based insights on creating a place where people sleep well).  So many of us are sleep challenged that multiple hotel chains are developing spaces where we can sleep like a baby, actually probably better than a baby. Sosenko shares that “A.I.-assisted beds, on-call hypnotherapists and sequestered guest rooms, including one inside a stainless steel sculpture, are taking sleep tourism to the next… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

As Jordan Valinsky and Eva Rothenberg report in “Here’s What the Starbucks of the Future Looks Like” (2024, CNN,https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/17/food/starbucks-accessible-store-design/index.html ) Starbucks is making big changes, ones that should make their sites more pleasantly accessible by all. Valinsky and Rothenberg share that accessibility-augmenting design elements to be used include “softer indoor lighting that ‘minimizes glare, shadow patterns and backlighting.’ . . . The store design will also take acoustics into account by using materials that minimize background noise or echoes, which… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Nagayama found that having multiple worksites can boost our creativity.  Via a survey they probed  “the relationship between MLW [multiple-locational work] . . . and worker outcomes, such as engagement, creativity, and well-being. . . . The results showed a positive association between MLW and all three outcomes, with the strongest relationship being observed for creativity. Additionally, locational feature diversity . . . .  amplified the positive association between MLW and creativity. . . . MLW can enhance creativity through… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Van der Wouden and Youn (as reported by Ayshford) studied “17 million scientific publications over the past 45 years find[ing] that researchers who collaborated locally were much more likely to gain new knowledge from their teammates than those who collaborated at a distance. The trend was especially pronounced for researchers in science and engineering, as well as early-career scholars. . . . being together physically—reading body language, mulling a problem at a whiteboard, and teaming up to use specialized laboratory… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Nguyen and colleagues report that their “research evaluated the cost-effectiveness of three hypothetical SB interventions: behavioural (BI), environmental (EI) and multi-component intervention (MI). . . . The effectiveness of the modelled interventions in reducing daily sitting time (informed by published meta-analyses) was modelled for the Australian working population aged 20-65 years. . . .  SB [sedentary behaviour] interventions are not cost-effective when a reduction in sitting time is the outcome measure of interest. The cost-effectiveness results are heavily driven by… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

The façade of your home is the face that it presents to the world. Just like our own faces have a big effect on the instantaneous opinions formed of us as people, the front of our house significantly influences the impression that others form of our home, and us.  It’s not just the fronts of our homes that send out messages to the world, so do storefronts and the entrances to offices and healthcare facilities and schools. The messages sent and received also guide people to act in particular ways when they approach a structure, pass through its doors, and travel about inside, working, socializing, etc. What can neuroscience tell us about how we should “present” our homes to the world?  Scientists have found that: We find familiar façade forms comforting.A key word in the last sentence is “familiar.” That does not mean exactly the same as every other, it does mean “understandable.” Too much the same doesn’t allow much unspoken communication of who residents are, which adds to resident and viewer stress.  A façade that is totally different from any façade that’s ever been built is great for catapulting us into mental efforts to understand how to use it—questions…

Spring can often seem to be the season for burnout, the winter has been long, and just before the plants really spring back to life, our existences can seem bleak—and we all work too hard. Neuroscience research indicates some ways we can realistically use design to make ourselves feel slightly less burned out: Create spaces where you can actually get done what you need to get done—no lying to yourself about this or imagining a rosier situation than actually exists.If… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Dominic Lutyens in an article for bbc.com (“Inside the Homes That ‘Whisper Rather Than Scream Luxury,’” 2024, https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240208-inside-the-homes-that-whisper-rather-than-scream-luxury ) writes about the rise of quietly luxurious spaces. As he reports, “In his foreword to the book [Quiet Luxury], Wim Pauwels writes: “‘Quiet Luxury refers to understated architecture and interiors made with very high-quality materials. All interiors are a non-ostentatious take on luxury, with a focus on exquisite materials and fabrics, muted colours, timeless designs, pared-back chic. It is all about… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Harris and Whiting found that “Participants in online classrooms struggle to make sense of emotional interactions. This is due to the separation of physical place between persons and the inability to see the reaction of bodies in online classrooms. . . . This study uses a micro ethnographic approach to observe two online multicultural education courses over a 7-week term to explore the normative and socially organized practices of affect and emotion. . . . Findings suggest the emotional geography… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Lou, Wang, Yuan, and Lu used data from Hong Kong to measure assessed WTP (willingness to pay) for various design features in homes: “We first simulate the metrics of five housing attributes under different layouts, i.e., spatial daylight autonomy (sDA), spatial glare autonomy (sGA), natural ventilation effectiveness (NVE), predicted mean vote (PMV) [temperature], and energy use intensity (EUI). Then, WTP for these attributes is disentangled from housing prices. . . . findings demonstrate that a 1 % increase in sDA, sGA,… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Neighbourhood design and some parenting practices seem to be related. Mygind and colleagues state that “There were no observable associations between residential greenness [i.e., Normalized Difference in Vegetation Index] within a 1,600 m network radius and parenting practices, mother-infant bonding, or infant socioemotional function. The findings were largely corroborated by sensitivity analyses (i.e., NDVI within 100, 250, 500, and 1,000 m and distance to park). Shorter distances to a park were associated with less hostile parenting. More residential greenness (1,000 and 1,600 m)… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Forrester and colleagues report that “This study aims to empirically test whether identifying as a supporter of either New South Wales (NSW) or Queensland (QLD) rugby league teams influences the extent that their respective team colours blue and maroon are associated with positively and negatively valenced words. . . . NSW supporters were faster and more accurate when categorizing positive words presented in blue than maroon font and negative words in maroon than blue font. While QLD supporters did not… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Horton, Adam, and Galinsky share that “Enclothed cognition refers to the systematic influence that clothes can have on the wearer’s feelings, thoughts, and behaviors through their symbolic meaning. It has attracted considerable academic and nonacademic interest. . .  To determine whether the larger body of research on enclothed cognition possesses evidential value and replicable effects, we performed z-curve and meta-analyses using 105 effects from 40 studies across 24 articles. . . . our results . . . affirm the evidential… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

After our houses and our cars, our furniture may be our biggest investment.  Sofas, chairs, tables . . . none of them come cheap and modern life seems to require multiple pieces for each room in our home—all of which can make setting foot in a furniture store (whether for new or used pieces) a petrifying experience (if you actually were petrified, you might easily become someone else’s furniture). In this issue we’re going to focus on furniture—what yours should… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Once you decide what materials your furniture should be made of, other questions come to the fore:  What should that furniture look like at a very, very basic level? Regardless of our personality, culture, and other similar factors, humans will respond in predictable ways to lines that they see, in 2-dimensions in upholstery and 3-D in the shapes of the furniture itself (for example, a line drawn along the top of a sofa or the legs of a table). We… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

We tend not to think too much about what a design option feels like when we’re pondering choices available to us—but what we feel with our skin has a powerful effect on how we think and behave—and not just if what we’re feeling is itchy, icky, or sticky. Humans find soft textures, like flannels soothing to touch and the more textures that get added to a space the higher our energy levels go, more textures means more information that we… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

As with so many things, it all depends.  How you arrange your furniture should depend on how you intend to use the space it’s in.  Logic prevails.  And try to invest in the bare minimum (you have other things to do with your money, but you can’t just give away Aunt Esther’s sofa if you inherit it either).  More furniture in a space will make it seem smaller, more crowded. Your kindergarten teacher was right, we do interact more freely… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Read this article on personality and design to learn more. Also, remember that furniture style sends all sorts of messages nonverbally.  Select accordingly.  Are you and your family modern farmers (even though you live in Manhattan)?  Are you so tuned in to what’s au courant that comfort doesn’t matter at all?  Are you into your ethnic heritage?  Want to say something else to yourself and others about what’s important to you? Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Holly Williams, in a recent post on the BBC (2024, “The Joy of ‘Cosycore’ and Hunkering Down,” https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240105-the-joy-of-cosycore-and-hunkering-down) reiterates just how wonderful a cozy, hygge inspired space can be at this time of year.  We discussed hygge in detail in this article.  In a place-based-comfort section of her article Williams shares that “The Danish concept [hygge], for ‘a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being’ (as, once-more, defined by the OED), exploded in… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Think that nonverbal signaling via design is silly?  Read Tim Dowling’s 2024 article in The Guardian, “Shelf-Absorbed: Eight Ways to Arrange Your Bookshelves – And What They Say About You” (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/jan/17/shelf-absorbed-nine-ways-to-arrange-your-bookshelves-and-what-they-say-about-you). Dowling’s work does not seem science-based, but it does shed light on something all of us are doing all the time, trying to figure out who other people really are, in part based on what spaces they have some control over look, etc., like. We do this at home,… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Many of us are not in the best of all moods as we slog our way through the beginning of any year – whether we live in the Northern Hemisphere and it’s just too cold, or the Southern one and it’s too hot (we will not mention the lucky few who live near the equator where the weather is often idyllic all year round). When the cold and the hot keep us indoors thoughts naturally turn to changing things up… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

When we’re spending more time inside our home can start to smell stuffy, particularly if we can’t open the windows because it seems hot or cold outside—and stuffiness is bad for our wellbeing, mood, and cognitive performance. So, adding very faint, light amounts of air scents can seem like a good idea. But which ones are best? Science has clearly established the effects different scents can have on what goes on in our head: Smelling pleasant scents boosts our mood,… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

As the new year dawns, many of us decide to spend time at creative endeavours, and design can help with that! The findings that follow are place-independent; they hold, and can be applied, whether people are at home, in a corporate workplace, at a co-working site, or somewhere else entirely.  Also, always remember, that a lot of creative work, even tasks that have officially been delegated to a group, is actually done alone—the material in the next few paragraphs is… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

This a time of year when many of us are travelling, but spending time in planes, trains, and automobiles can be quite a challenge psychologically—and of these modes of transport, being airborne can be the most taxing. Why? The pandemic has sensitized all of us to coughs and sneezes—so hearing them not makes us tense—even when they’re allergic reactions to the cat traveling in the next seat. When we’re stressed, wherever we are, our mood and our ability to process… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

We tend to focus on what a space we’re developing looks like and that can be a big mistake. For most of us, happily we have multiple sensory systems operating simultaneously and we’re pulling in information on multiple channels, which all gets integrated in our heads as discussed in this article.  Something that is often not acknowledged as we’re designing is that different people have different dominant senses.  The information that you receive through your dominant sense has the most… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Latini and associates report that “a new design approach for preliminary assessment of BD [biophilic design] intervention in VR is presented [in their paper]. . . . . [it compares] three office layouts (Indoor Green, Outdoor Green and Non-Biophilic) and three acoustic scenarios (Office, Office + Traffic and Office + Nature). . . . participants . . . . [completed] three cognitive tasks for each acoustic condition. . . .  The findings of the cognitive tests revealed that audio-visual connection with nature can positively… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

We may need to reevaluate how we manage light at night in our homes.  Blume and teammates found that “Ambient light however does not only allow us to see, it also influences our sleep-wake rhythm. . . . .  If light consists solely of short wavelengths of 440 to 490 nanometres, we perceive it as blue. If short-wavelength light activates the ganglion cells, they signal to the internal clock that it is daytime. The decisive factor here is how intense… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Guo, Yanai, and Xu set our to evaluate “the associations between garden factors (i.e., garden visit frequency and perceived garden quality) and older adults’ [mean age 79] psychological well-being outcomes (i.e., positive well-being and self-rated health) and to investigate the mediating role of neighborhood social environment factors (i.e., outing frequency, social participation, perceived neighborhood social cohesion, and perceived neighborhood attachment) in these associations. . . .  both garden factors were positively associated with positive well-being and self-rated health. . .… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

A Heffler-lead team determined that “Greater early-life digital media exposures may be associated with atypical sensory processing. Further research is needed to understand why early media exposure is associated with specific sensory-related behaviors, including those seen in autism spectrum disorder, and if minimizing screen media at a young age can improve subsequent sensory-related outcomes.” Data about TV and video exposures were collected at 12, 18, and 24 months old and regarding sensory processing at around 33 months old. Karen Heffler,… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

De la Osa and team collected data from children 3 – 11 years old: “Exposure to greenspace has been associated with mental health benefits in children; however, the available evidence for such an association with anxiety is still scarce. . . . [In the de la Osa-lead study] Long-term exposure to greenspace was characterized at both residential address and school as (i) surrounding greenspace based on satellite-derived indexes (normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and Vegetation Continuous Field (VCF) across different… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

A team of researchers from the University of Exeter “analysed data . . . collected as part of the BBC’s . . . Forest 404. . . .Participants listened to a range of environments in the study, from coastal and woodland settings in the UK, to a tropical rainforest in Papua New Guinea. . . . Participants reported therapeutic effects from listening to landscape elements such as breaking waves or falling rain. Hearing wildlife in these environments, and birdsong in… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Khoury reports that “Flies are more than a nuisance. They are the carriers and transmitters of numerous diseases, including particularly dangerous ones such as cholera, typhoid, and gastrointestinal illnesses. . . . In hot, humid countries like Indonesia, flies are a part of everyday life. . . . Many school canteens are open-air, making it even easier for flies to access the food. . . . After observing plates of food on either a brown wooden table or a similar… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Groth, Block, and Newman state that “The explosion in digitization means that individuals increasingly have the opportunity to choose between digital and physical versions of creative works—for example, between eBooks and paperback books. However, despite the popularity of digital objects, many people continue to prefer physical equivalents. We suggest that one reason for this preference is that physical versions of works are felt to embody the essence of their creators. Across six studies, we find that physical versions of creative… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Humans have lots of skin, with lots of nerves embedded in it.  All those nerves are churning away, second after second, sending millions of impulses to your brain – giving you all sorts of information about the world around you. When we’re selecting the materials/products that are nerve endings are reading – that new dining room table or countertop, replacement knobs for kitchen drawers, the travel case for our laptop that we’ll lift time after time, etc.—we often don’t put… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Textures on surfaces are often seen, so they influence how people think and behave, even if no one ever reaches out to touch them: We prefer glossy surfaces to ones that are matte so they brighten our mood as long as they don’t generate glare. If the walls in a room have rougher texture, that space is judged as more spacious than an area of exactly the same size that has smooth walls. Shiny surfaces, particularly underfoot, are often felt… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

In 2023, researchers have reported that: Symmetrical things seem more functional and reliable and asymetical ones more fun and exciting—useful information when you’re making choices. At-work sound volumes of about 50 dBA are best; at these sound levels wellbeing is optimized. We’re most relaxed in spaces where sunlight penetration levels are around 15-25% of floor area. Looking at moving water for as little as 3 minutes can promote mental health.Listening to the sound of gently moving water is more relaxing… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

As you move through the Winter months where you live, you may find conversations with those you’re “cooped up” with getting a little tense.  Some science-based suggestions for smoothing your interactions with those you’re sharing (an often too small) space with, with various levels of easy-to-execute-ness include: Adding warmer colors to surfaces—that’ll increase the likelihood of positive discussions as the people you’re talking with will themselves seem warmer. Warmer, dimmer light, as from a candle or a fire, is relaxing… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Pantone has named their colour of the year for 2024 – Peach Fuzz (visible here: https://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year/2024?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAj_CrBhD-ARIsAIiMxT-Srg5ERWiVQ_tNUUMnjWt_lx8EBYLwJ0511CQeVK2yE55oN6TMUFoaAo_BEALw_wcB). Sometimes the colours of the year that Pantone selects seem, well, wacky, but this year’s seems right on the mark.  It is the sort of unsaturated light color that science indicates is relaxing to look at and we can all use to feel a little more relaxed as 2024 unfolds, with scheduled elections, etc. Pantone describes their colour of the year like this: “PANTONE… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Gungormus and colleagues link planting trees to experiencing less pain: “Sensory stimulation has shown the capacity to modulate pain mechanisms. . . . A single-group, pretest-posttest clinical trial was used. . . . healthy adults performed an afforestation activity for 90 minutes. . . . results showed significant reductions in the cold pain intensity at the moment of detection . . . mechanical pain sensitivity . . . and increases in the thresholds of pressure pain detection . . .… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Sleboda and team’s work may be handy as you attempt to convince your family and friends to act in more environmentally responsible ways.  The researchers collected data as “Participants chose between one gourmet food gift basket without meat and dairy and another with meat and dairy. . . . the gourmet food gift basket without meat and dairy was less likely to be chosen when its label focused on its content (stating ‘vegan’ or ‘plant-based’) rather than on its benefits… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Zushi’s team shares that “Prior research indicate that emotional states can alter taste perception, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. . . . The first experiment investigated how anxiety affects taste perception when individuals are aware of their anxiety. Participants watched videos inducing relaxation or anxiety, then were divided into groups focusing on their emotions and those who did not, and the taste perception was measure. The second experiment investigated the influence of awareness directed toward emotions on taste evaluation, without manipulating emotional states. This focused on cognitive processing of taste through evaluations of visual stimuli. Results showed that sweetness perception is suppressed by the evocation of anxiety, whereas bitterness perception is enhanced only by anxiety with awareness.” Naoya Zushi, Monica Perusquia-Hernandez, and Saho Ayabe-Kanamura.  “The Effects of Anxiety on Taste Perception:  The Role of Awareness.”  i-Perception, in press, https://doi.org/10.1177/20416695231216370

If you’re interested in synaesthesia, take a look at Cytowic’s work, available at the link, below.  Cytowic shares that “Synaesthesia has already caused a paradigm shift in two senses. For science, it has forced a fundamental rethinking about how brains are organized. It is now beyond dispute that cross talk happens in all brains; synesthetes just have more of it that takes place in existing circuits. The other paradigm shift lies within each individual. What synesthesia shows is that not… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Zhou and Pan report that “participants were tested under different illuminance levels and correlated color temperatures (CCT) for three distinct reading durations. Reading efficiency during the task tests and objective measures of brain activity by monitoring participants’ electroencephalograms (EEGs) were used as key factors to assess participants’ fatigue levels. By analyzing the subjective and objective results, we found that paper reading efficiency was significantly affected by changes in the lighting environment. Also, based on the results of this study, we… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

As one year ends and another begins we’re driven to think about the high and low points of the last 12 months and to plan for the next 12, and beyond.  All of which leads to New Year’s resolutions, specific plants for making the next year more successful (however we define success) than the last. Since design has such a big effect on how we think and behave, starting 2024 off with plans to elevate design-based experiences makes lots of… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Looking for tips for keeping your New Year’s resolutions? Look no further: Open the curtains and let in the natural light. We not only process information more effectively in natural light, our cognitive performance is better, but we also get along better with other people when we’re bathed in natural light – which is often good for keeping resolutions.  Too dark for natural light to help? Turn on some more lights, make your space brighter, you’ll have more self-control. You’ll… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

As The Space Doctors has discussed oodles of times, human beings continually “read” the world around themselves, trying to determine what it has to “say.” All of which sounds like a lot of mumbo-jumbo, hardly worth the number of pixels required to communicate it. But it’s not. The film industry knows how much skill we have deciphering the signals being sent by design—that’s why they have whole sets of people to create sets used—and why they pay those people so… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

The research is very clear that being active, really using your muscles throughout the day, has all sorts of benefits beyond burning calories (although burning calories is indeed a good thing). Taking a walk, for example, indoors or outside, on a treadmill or not, has been shown to help our brains work more effectively and also to boost creativity, for example, while we’re walking and for a while afterwards—so creating opportunities to walk, with exercise equipment or paths through your… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Want to feel warmer?  Make sure you’re surrounded by warm colours and nix the cooler ones.  The difference in perceived temperatures can be as much as 5 degrees Fahrenheit. Similarly, when we see images of warm places or other reminders of warm parts of the world, we feel warmer, even without changing the temperature on the thermostat. Heat up your world by ditching the surfaces that feel cold to the touch like metals and make sure you have plenty of… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

When biophilic design principles are applied at places where people are learning and teaching, good things happen—moods and cognitive performance improve (for students and teachers!)—which is always a plus, whether trigonometry or Latin grammar or colour theory feature in the lesson plan for the day. When schools are biophilically designed they feature: Loads of natural light but mechanisms to eliminate glare. Natural light is great for elevating our mental performance, whether you’re trying to think creatively or not, but glare… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

The neuroscience research makes it very, very clear that being in a biophilicly designed space elevates our wellbeing. Need proof of the value of indoor biophilicly designed spaces?  Here’s a representative sample of research project findings: People feel very comfortable in biophilicly designed spaces (Kellert, 2012). So comfortable that the odds increase dramatically that they get along well with other people and their brains work to their full potential, for example. Joye (2007) reports, in general, that biophilic design has a positive effect on human emotional and cognitive functioning; Determan Akers, Albright, Browning, Martin-Dunlop, Archibald, and Caruolo (2019) identified the same effects in children in biophilicly designed classrooms. HyunLee (2019) determined that people staying in a biophilicly designed hotel were in better moods than people staying in other places. The amount of stress we’re experiencing is likely at lower, manageable levels in biophilicly designed spaces (Wijesooriya and Brambilla, 2021), which can have desirable effects on our health as well as our minds. Wijesooriya and Brambilla also found that biophilic design improves our mood, cognitive performance, and creativity. Being in a biophilicly designed space decreases blood pressure while improving memory performance (Yin, Zhu, MacNaughton, Allen, and Spengler, 2018). After we’ve been…

What could be more biophilic than a treehouse? In October, Tow Vanderbilt reported on the treehouses designed by Takeshi Kobayashi (“A Treehouse Builder Who Creates Impermanence:  Japan’s Takashi Kobayashi Has Found Freedom in the Canopies,” 2023, The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/20/t-magazine/takashi-kobayashi-treehouses.html  ). Vanderbilt shares that “Treehouses stir some primordial instinct; the protohuman Australopithecus erected night nests in trees. Our shoulders seem built for brachiation, and the human hand today, with its ridged palms and the ability to grasp between the thumb and first digit, still bears the traces, notes Frank R. Wilson in ‘The Hand: How Its Use Shapes the Brain, Language and Human Culture’  (1988),  of an evolutionary move that ‘permitted improved climbing and locomotion along trunks and branches.’ The publication in German, in 1813, of the novel ‘The Swiss Family Robinson’ — about a family marooned on a remote isle — sparked the first modern vogue for treehouses. With industrialization, they came to stand as a sort of symbol for the lost vitality of our engagement with the natural world.”

M. Brown, in a recent article in The New York Times reviews recent efforts by many to link their locations/products/services to specific scents in consumers’ minds (“When You Think About Your Credit Card, Does a Fragrance Come to Mind?” 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/20/realestate/mastercard-fragrance-scent.html ). Over the last few decades, many sorts of organizations have been actively scentscaping environments they control to make desired outcomes (whether that’s increased sales or improved cognitive performance or something else entirely) more likely. As Brown reports in… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Yang, Sedikides, Wang, and Cai “formulated several hypotheses: (a) nature fosters authenticity, and it does so through at least four plausible mechanisms: self-esteem, basic needs satisfaction (autonomy, competence, relatedness), mindfulness, and positive affect; (b) self-esteem is the strongest mechanism overall, and autonomy is the strongest mechanism of the three basic needs . . . and (d) authenticity mediates the positive influence of nature on longer term psychological well-being (higher life satisfaction and meaning in life, lower depression, anxiety, and stress).… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Researchers have learned more about how who we are influences how we write about nature; the same demographic factors likely influence thinking more generally.  A Langer lead team found that “female authors tend to use more species names when they write. . . . The researchers . . . explain how factors such as the author’s gender, place of residence or age influence the importance given to nature in their works. . . . [the researchers] found that, on average,… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Chatterjee, Mishra, and Mishra share that “Nominative determinism manifests as a preference for a profession or city to live in that begins with the same letter as a person’s own name. . . . To examine whether the effect occurs in the real world, we use large language models trained on Common Crawl, Twitter, Google News, and Google Books using two natural language processing word-embedding algorithms (word2vec and GloVe). After controlling for relevant variables, we find consistent evidence of the… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Danvers and colleagues learned that “spending more than 75% of time alone was associated with much higher loneliness scores. . . . people who spend very much or very little of their time surrounded by others tend to report the greatest loneliness. . . . loneliness is particularly high among people who spend a very high proportion of their time alone (more than approximately 75% of their waking hours). Spending a moderate amount of time alone (from approximately 25% to 75% of waking… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Lopez, Choi, Dellawar, Cullen, Contreras, Rosenfeld, and Tomiyama’s report that “Satiation can play a role in regulating eating behavior, but research suggests visual cues may be just as important. In a seminal study by Wansink et al. (2005), researchers used self-refilling bowls to assess how visual cues of portion size would influence intake. The study found that participants who unknowingly ate from self-refilling bowls ate more soup than did participants eating from normal (not self-refilling) bowls. Despite consuming 73% more soup, however, participants in the self-refilling condition did not believe they had consumed more soup, nor did they perceive themselves as more satiated than did participants eating from normal bowls. . . .  We found that most results [of the Wansink-lead study] replicated. . .  results suggest that eating can be strongly controlled by visual cues, which can even override satiation.” Alejandra Lopez, Alyssa Choi, Nadia Dellawar, Brooke Cullen, Sonia Contreras, Daniel Rosenfeld, and A. Tomiyama.  “Visual Cues and Food Intake:  A Preregistered Replication of Wansink et al. (2005).”  Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, in press, https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001503

Nurmi and Pakarinen’s work “challenge[s] the commonly held belief that virtual meeting fatigue manifests as exhaustion (i.e., active fatigue) resulting from overloading demands and instead suggest that participation in virtual meetings may lead to increased drowsiness (i.e., passive fatigue) due to underload of stimulation. Using subjective and cardiac measures (heart rate variability), we investigated the relationships between virtual versus face-to-face meetings and different types of fatigue (active and passive) among . . . knowledge workers during real-life meetings. . .… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Ward and teammates found that “Odors for instance are often perceived with visual cues; these sensations interact to form our own subjective experience. This integration process can have a profound impact on the resulting experience and can alter our subjective reality. . . . Vision is dominant in our multisensory perception and can influence how we perceive information in our other senses, including olfaction. We explored the effect that different odors have on human color perception by presenting olfactory stimuli… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

The season of mingling is upon us!  It seems that most of us pack in the majority of time we spend socializing with others during the last few months of the year. People have a powerful drive to socialize with each other, even the most introverted, introverted among us need to spend time with other humans, as the need strikes us.  No human is ultimately a human without other humans. That socializing can go better or worse, depending on not… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Mingling means sharing spaces, etc., and the personalities of the people doing that sharing and the design of the space being shared can have a major effect on how well it all goes. People who are extraverted thrive in spaces which are much more energizing (for more information on whether experiences are energizing or relaxing, read this article) while people who are more introverted do best when they are able to carefully curate their sensory experiences. Extraverts draw energy from… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Men and women can experience spaces in different ways for physiological reasons that seem quite distinct from their sexual preferences. Because female fingers tend to be smaller than male ones (women are often shorter than men), they have a better sense of touch, they may perceive textures on surfaces differently than men because both have the same number of nerve endings in their fingers but in women those nerve endings are clustered more closely together. A chair arm that might… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Invited to a party at the home of someone with design training and feeling all is not quite right? Designing training causes us to find different aspects of interiors familiar—and we like what’s familiar. This means that designers may choose options for their own homes, etc., that seem novel or unusual compared to those freely chosen by people with less training. Being an expert can also cause us to see the world differently, quite literally.   People who have designing training… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

When we’re mingling we’re often cooking and eating.  How do the food smells we’re likely to encounter influence our time with others? Scents that make us feel nostalgic improve our mood, whether those scents are from food or something else. They also boost our self-esteem, optimism, and social connections to others. Sweet orange, that’s the scent of the fruit that we normally eat, reduces anxiety levels. So does the smell of vanilla. The scents of lemon and mango are relaxing.… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

A place where you feel nostalgic can be good for your mental performance as well as your soul. Sensory design can make nostalgic experiences more or less likely.  Scents can lead to nostalgic thinking for groups of people, for example, and so can seeing memory-evoking images.    And when people are nostalgic they’re more apt to: Think more creatively. Have higher levels of self-esteem and optimism Be in better moodsnce… Feel more connected to other people Believe that their lives are meaningful.… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Lundberg, Craig, and Peloza share that “Across four studies, we find evidence for a positive relationship between temperature and risk-taking, using multiple operationalizations of temperature and measurements of risk. . . . In particular, thermal imagery is promising, as the use of imagery is ubiquitous throughout the marketplace. . . . By leveraging the flexibility of warm thermal imagery, marketers may activate their patrons’ inclination toward seeking rewards and taking more chances. . . . temperature manipulations do not need… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Trawinski and colleagues had British and Chinese people look at Western representational paintings and report that “Eye movements were recorded while participants viewed the paintings with each painting split into face, theme of the painting and its context regions of interest (ROIs). . . . With respect to the time-course of fixations across ROIs, Chinese participants focused more on the theme, and less on faces (and vice-versa for British participants), in a period starting around 2 s after the onset… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Dai and colleagues found that “It is common that marketers design and position pretty products more to female consumers than to male consumers, suggesting they generally believe that females have a stronger preference than males for product form over function and apply this belief to their marketing practices. However, this research demonstrates that this belief is often inconsistent with actual preferences. Across seven studies and four follow-up studies, involving both hypothetical and field settings, we demonstrate that both marketers and… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Michels and colleagues share that “Before and after Trier Social Stress Test, 91 participants . . . inhaled one odor during 10 min: Scots pine, grass . . . or control (i.e., demineralized water). . . . Both nature olfactory exposures improved some stress outcomes. Both were associated with lower cortisol in non-stress conditions, but only grass odor was more beneficial for negative affect [mood] decrease after stress. No effect on heart rate variability was seen. . . . In non-stress… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Miniatures, the sorts of items that would be at home in the most intricate doll houses, are finding their ways into many retailers in North America—which is intriguing—are these tiny things helping us wax nostalgic or indicating our residential aspirations?  Maybe they’re becoming more plentiful for both reasons or another factor is in play. In “Recreating a Bygone China, One Miniature Home at a Time,” Wivian Wang (2023, The New York Times,https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/19/world/asia/china-miniature-homes-nostalgia.html) shares that there is a “growing community of… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Design can encourage people to feel nostalgic, using images, objects, or scents, for example.  Abeyta and Juhl’s work, building on previous studies, “hypothesized that nostalgia, a bittersweet emotion that entails reflecting sentimentally on the past, helps restore meaning for lonely people. . . . Results [of two studies conducted] supported the hypothesis: The relation between loneliness and meaning deficits was reduced among nostalgic individuals and this was driven by the fact that nostalgia (whether measured or experimentally induced) was linked… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Rosa and teammates reviewed published studies and found that “some horticultural interventions plus usual care (i.e., continuing normal routine for healthy people or treatment for unhealthy ones) may reduce depressive symptoms more than usual care alone, with most studies suggesting a moderate . . . or large effect. . . .  Our findings suggest that some horticultural interventions are effective and safe to use as a complementary strategy to reduce adults’ depressive symptoms.” Claudio Rosa, Talisson Chaves, Silvia Collado, Lincoln… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Di Dio and associates report that participants in their study “were asked to give beauty (BJ) and liking (LJ) judgments. . . . Aesthetic judgments were made in a blind-baseline condition, devoid of authorship information, and a primed condition, where authorship information (human or robot) was provided. . . . The human-authored paintings received a [significantly] higher liking rating in the primed than the blind and robot conditions; opposite, the robot-authored paintings received a lower beauty rating in the primed… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Konijnendijk reports that “Having trees and other vegetation in sight from one’s home, place of work, or school has important mental health and performance benefits. . . . With public green spaces in proximity to one’s home stimulates regular use of these areas and results in positive impacts on mental, physical, and social health. After analyzing existing guidelines and rules for urban green space planning and provision, a new, comprehensive guideline is presented, known as the ‘3–30–300 rule’ for urban… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Winn and colleagues report that “Natural materials, biomorphic forms, and the incorporation of plants and green elements are all strategies to implement biophilic design. Biophilic design can improve the cognitive and physiological health of individuals in interior environments. The purpose of this study was to assess if the integration of biophilic design in a virtual simulation of crew quarters on the International Space Station (ISS) can help improve emotions, while also improving cognitive and physiological responses in individuals. . .… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Bailey, Anderson, and Cox “explore[d] the mechanisms of active and passive leisure influence through real-time tracking of mental states while incurring a standard ‘dose’ of social media and walking. Results indicate that social media induces anxiety and mental focus, while walking enhances relaxation and meditative state. Geographic information systems (GIS) reveal that natural elements along various urban walking routes are associated with higher inward attention, and that unimpeded greenways may be more mentally restorative than built environments.” Andrew Bailey, Madison… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

When going outside can seem like a burden, looking at it from inside seems like a better and better option.  Take a minute now, while fixes are relatively easy and pleasant, to fine tune what your through-the-window experiences will be like. Think back to last winter -were there drafts around your windows?  Fix them now.  Drafts waste energy and make your space the wrong temperature for you to live your best life, they stress you out.  As discussed in this… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

The first language we speak can influence how we experience spaces and the objects in them for the rest of our lives. Our earliest language influences what we pay attention to (because we need to pick words for those situations) and what we expect as we live our lives. Language becomes a sort of lens through which we perceive our world. Some examples of how follow. Talking colour: How our first language categorises colours is really important.  Regardless of the… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Arbuthnott learned via a literature review that “Nature exposure increases prosocial behavior, decreases antisocial behavior, and increases ratings of social connection and satisfaction. Prosocial and antisocial behavior effects are observed with brief nature exposure, both actual and virtual. Social connection effects are observed with long-term nature exposure, such as neighbourhood greenspace. . . .  As members of a social species, the quality of our interpersonal relationships and a general sense of connection to others are essential for overall health. Relationships… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Lehberger and Sparke’s work confirms that gardening is good for our mental health.  They “replicated a study conducted in 2020 in Germany, which focused on comparing garden owners and non-garden owners. Almost exactly one year after the original study in 2020, we collected matched data from . . . people living in Germany in 2021. We again found that garden owners had significantly greater life satisfaction and better mental well-being than non-garden owners. . . . garden owners spent substantially… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Researchers have determined that “as little as 40 decibels of traffic noise – the typical level of background noise in an office environment or kitchen – has a detrimental effect on cognitive performance. Researchers at Chalmers’ Division of Applied Acoustics have conducted a laboratory study in which test subjects took concentration tests while being exposed to background traffic noise. . . . subjects had significantly poorer results on the performance test, and also felt that the task was more difficult… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

With the global PR tsunami pushing people into theatres to see the new Barbie movie, it seems that the colour pink is everywhere. Looking at relatively unsaturated, light shades of pink is definitely relaxing and may help us effectively manage our diets—so pink has pluses, even without its cultural signalling power, which is more or less positive, depending on your worldview. In “The Colour Pink and How the New Barbie Film Might Subvert Our Expectations” (found at bbc.com, 2023, https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20230718-the-colour-pink-and-how-the-new-barbie-film-might-subvert-our-expectations)… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Scherz and colleagues found that people have different sorts of thoughts about other people and about places in different sorts of public spaces.  The researchers determined that “Self-related thoughts were less likely in a nature conservatory compared to a [indoor] mall. . . . Participants felt closer to people nearby and around the world in the conservatory. . . . More social and environment connection occurred in more natural parks. . . . while visiting the conservatory, participants were less… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Ojala and colleagues share that they gathered data “in two rooms: a room with wooden elements and a control room without wood. The participants first performed cognitive tasks by the computer to imitate typical office work and increase their stress level and then had a rest period in an armchair in the same room. . . . The anxiety felt was clearly lower at the end of the experiment in the wooden room than in the control, while the other… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Sharam, Mayer, and Baumann determined that a “nature-view condition [ability to see trees and blue sky] had a significant positive effect on creative fluency (i.e. quantity of output) but not on the quality of creative responses. . . . nature-views significantly enhanced positive affect [mood] and reduced negative affect.  . . . These results indicate that affect, and specific cognitive processes, are restored [refreshed] by incorporating biophilic elements into architectural design. . . . Our findings, in concert with earlier… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Design can definitely make you feel happy, what’s technically known in the psych biz as improving your mental health. Being happier can be good for your physical health, it can make your immune system function more effectively, but it also makes your brain work better, helping with problem solving and creative thinking, for example, all while making it more likely that you’ll get along better with other people—even if you’re not a member of their fan club. The single most… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

The findings that follow are place-independent; they hold, and can be applied, whether people are at home, in a corporate workplace, at a co-working site, or somewhere else entirely.  Also, always remember, that a lot of creative work, even tasks that have officially been delegated to a group, is actually done alone—the material in the next few paragraphs is relevant to both solo and group work areas.  And spaces that support creativity are great areas for innovation, as well. Research… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Wild swimming has been having a moment, for the last few decades, and likely will get even more attention when people swim in the Seine during the 2024 Paris Olympics—although jumping into the Seine and swimming around seems like a pretty atypical wild swimming experience. What does the science say about wild swimming? Basically, that it’s a very good thing, for your mind and body—and how could it not be with all the positive “biophilics” present simultaneously when you swim… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

The Wonders of Awe Eva Rothenberg (“Why Looking at Awe-Inspiring Art Could Lead to a Happier, Healthier Life,” 2023 https://www.cnn.com/style/article/awe-wonder-art/index.html) gets to the root of why awe is good for us. As she details, “It may be a sunset, a stirring orchestral number or a striking painting — whatever gives you goosebumps or makes you shed a tear. Experts believe that consistently seeking out these awe-inspiring experiences could lead to a significantly happier and healthier life. . . . Research… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Research study with mice indicates that “Environmental context plays a major role in chemical dependence and addiction, inducing or reinforcing compulsive drug-seeking behavior. . . . ‘To understand what this means in humans, simply think of someone who always drinks at the same bar and feels like going in for a beer whenever they’re walking past it,” Longo [Beatriz Longo, professor of neurophysiology, UNIFESP’s Medical School] said.” “Environmental Context Strongly Influences Drug Dependence, Study Shows.” 2023.  Press release, Agencia FAPESP.… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

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 was perceived to be higher, for example. Liat Ayalon. 2023. “Perceived Neighborhood Characteristics and Wellbeing: Exploring Mediational Pathways.”  Journal of Environmental Psychology, vol. 88, 102020, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.102020 The Irish Times reports on a study completed by Brouwer and van Rossum who found that “living in a safer neighborhood can have a greater impact on weight loss than how close your home is to a gym of grocery store.  Factors such as inadequate street lighting, groups of loitering children, and heavy traffic all have an association with difficulties losing weight. . . . In the long term [18 months], safety was associated with an average decrease of 3.2 percent in weight and an average reduction of 2.6 percent in waist circumference.” “Want to Lose More Weight? Move to a Safer Neighborhood, Study Says.”  2023.  The Irish Times,https://www.theirishtimesnewstoday.com/want-to-lose-more-weight-move-to-a-safer-neighborhood-study-says/

Shepherd,  Selvey, Earon, and Wiking studied row house communities in Denmark and in the United Kingdom and learned that “The key drivers to happiness [resident wellbeing]: balancing the private and the communal; personalising the physical layout; sensing nature; experiencing local identity; and engaging in the decision-making process. The five key drivers guided the development of ten spatial and policy recommendations for public and private developers, architects, and communities to help them design happier homes and neighbourhoods. . . . The… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Water has been and will remain crucial to our species continued existence—so, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that neuroscientists have studied how seeing and hearing water influences what goes on in our heads, how it leads us to feel and yes, even to behave. Rigorous studies have determined, for example, that: The positive implications of seeing and hearing water result when the water experience aligns with the sort of water our ancient ancestors would have experienced in a lovely… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

For better or for worse (mainly for better), most of us have multiple senses working at the same time, all bringing information from the world around us into our brains.  All of that material gets combined in our heads, encouraging us to think and behave in particular ways. Each of us has a dominant sense, one that’s just a little more sensitive than any of the others, one that’s the more powerful driver of our brain’s response to the world… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

There are oodles of benefits from hearing nature sounds as you live your life. You may not have added a nature soundtrack already because you think they’re hard to find or expensive.  Not so!  Search “nature soundtracks” on your Internet browser of choice and you’ll find options that will please your ears and brain as well as your wallet. Why is working in nature sounds worth the effort? They speed our recovery after we’re stressed and help us feel generally… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

In the course of your lives you’ve likely seen people respond to spaces and/or objects in them in a way that seems much more subjective than objective.  Rest assured, the differences that you think you’ve seen don’t indicate that something is not working correctly inside your own head—sometimes our perceptions of situations are distorted: Sensory experiences can have a halo effect, making simultaneous other experiences seem a little better than they otherwise would. So, if you’re hearing music you enjoy,… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Felszeghy and teammates set out learn how listening to music influences stress levels and performance of manual tasks by studying dental students listening to what was categorized as “slow background music”: “the music reduced stress but also increased motivation to learn and practice. . . . Time use and quality of cavity preparation were enhanced. This study lends support to the use of slow background music in preclinical cariology training, as it appeared to have helpful effects on dental skills… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Feeling things as it turns out, relates to believing things.  Dinse, Newen, and Tegenthoff learned in a study using hypnosis that “If we sincerely believe that our index finger is five times bigger than it really is, our sense of touch improves. . . . When the participants signaled that they understood the opposite hypnotic suggestion that their index finger was five times smaller than it actually was, their sense of touch deteriorated accordingly. The study shows that our tactile… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Mygind and colleagues determined via data collected for 5-to 12-year olds that “Vegetation cover around the home might support the formation of social skills through higher order reasoning about emotion experience and cause and effect as it relates to other people.”  Laerke Mygind, Gillian Clark, Felicity Bigelow, Matthew Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, Luke Knibbs, Suzanne Mavoa, Trine Flensborg-Madsen, Peter Bentzen, Jarrad Lum, and Peter Enticott.  2023. “Green Enrichment for Better Mind Readers?  Residential Nature and Social Brain Function in Childhood.” Journal of Environmental Psychology,… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

This is the season for thermometer debates—the windows open (or close if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere) and in homes and offices people use whatever means at their disposal to get the temperature set at the levels they like. To end the debate (or at least move it on to a new topic):  Our wellbeing is best, our bodies and our brains do their best work when the thermometer is set at around 70 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit and humidity… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

A lot of people make a lot of money creating and publicising trends, in design and elsewhere.  They’d like you to think that your only option as a rational human being is to follow the latest trends. They are wrong. The most important thing that you can do, design- and otherwise, is to be true to yourself.  Don’t do something because other people are doing it—whatever is “trending” might be right for them and not for you or right for… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

When our ears are happy, the odds get pretty good that the rest of us is as well.  What can you do to create an acoustic haven? Keep echoes down.Echoing stresses us out.  Use soft surfaces, such as upholstery, a few wall hangings, a carpet or two, etc., when you can. Listen to music whenever you’d like.Your heart starts to beat in time to whatever you are listening to so when there are fewer beats per minute you’re relaxed while… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

It may not seem that the language we’re speaking should have much effect on our responses to designed spaces but indeed it does. We pick up on social cues such as the language being spoken in an area and will, if we are familiar with the culture linked to the language in use, act in accordance with that culture when we are in a space.  So, a person who is bi-lingual in French and Chinese will maintain personal space distances… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Fjaestad and team’s work confirms the value of gardening; they learned via data gathered from people 46 to 80 years old that “Compared to participants who did not engage in gardening, those who gardened for ≥150 min per week were more likely to report better mental wellbeing . . . and life satisfaction. . . . these effects were stronger for participants aged 64 years and older. These findings contribute to a burgeoning body of research that indicates gardening may be… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

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 to an object reduces the psychological distance to the object’s meaning and enhances the benefits that consumers associate with the object. . . . material objects may . . . act as triggers for future consumption episodes. For example, wearing a festival entrance bracelet may not only allow consumers to connect to a self-defining meaning, but also fuel the desire to re-experience that meaning by visiting the festival again. . . .  experiences such as vacations or music festivals may constitute important self-relevant meanings, they are also ephemeral. Material objects that can be held or carried (e.g., souvenirs, shirts, and bracelets) allow consumers to hold onto these meanings and, in a figurative sense, carry them along with them.” Philipp Scharfenberger, Daniel Wentzel, Luk Warlop, and Verena Riegler.  2023. “The Proximal Self:  Why Material Objects Are Particularly Relevant for Consumers’ Self-Definition.”  Psychology and Marketing, https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21804

Sun and colleagues found that “A reduced risk for PPD [postpartum depression was associated with total green space exposure based on street-view measure [500 m buffer. . .], but not NDVI [normalized difference vegetation index], land-cover greenness, or proximity to a park. Compared to other types of green space, tree coverage showed stronger protective effects. . . . Street view-based green space and tree coverage were associated with a decreased risk of PPD. The observed association was primarily due to… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Living small is living thoughtfully.  You may be living small for all sorts of reasons, but it’s unlikely that you’re doing so by mistake.  To actually live and work in a small space, and survive, takes more effort than living and working “regular size.” Television shows and magazine spreads make living in a small home or working in a tiny workplace seem like time spent in a fairy wonderland, like being in an expertly crafted puzzle box where everything fits… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Why you or someone you care about has decided to live in a tiny home influences what you can do to make living in one a pleasant experience. Some of the reasons that people live in tiny homes or work in small spaces include: The affordable alternatives are awful. Running life or work from a small space is often cheaper than other options available (i.e., paying for more square feet).  It can be inexpensive to share, but sharing requires identification… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

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 . . . when American abstract artworks were assigned with fictional American, Indian, Chinese, or Turkish artist names. Aesthetic ratings for artworks were similar across Indian and American participants, irrespective of the cultural label they were assigned. . . . An ingroup preference for Indian and American/European representational artworks was found in Experiment 3—participants preferred artworks depicting content from their own culture compared to another. Effects across all experiments persisted when controlling for participants’ age, education, art experience, and openness to experience. The modulation of art perception and appreciation by contextual information may be flexible and more influenced by cultural content depicted in artworks than simple cultural framing.” Kohinoor Darda, Alexander Christensen, and Anjan Chatterjee.  “Does the Frame of an Artwork Matter? Cultural Framing and Aesthetic Judgments for Abstract and Representational Art.”  Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, in press, https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000569

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 as two weeks. . . . we measured aesthetic preferences for different colored objects at six-time points, spanning a month. We found that aesthetic preferences were not stable and tended to drift stochastically [randomly] over time. Small statistically significant drifts occurred already after 20 min, and large ones happened after 2 weeks. . . . instability was greater for ‘hard’ choices between colors that were close in chromatic space as well as in their average preference rank. Males were more unstable than females, and instability tended to decrease with age. Surprisingly, no personality traits were found to correlate with how the participants’ aesthetic preferences changed over time.” Hassan Aleem and Norberto Grzywacz.  “The Temporal Instability of Aesthetic Preferences.” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, in press, https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000543

The gardens that have the most positive effects on our minds and our bodies actively apply important principles of biophilic design. We have discussed biophilic design in detail in here (and search in our search bar for Biophilic Design) Biophilic design informed gardens: Incorporate natural materials into anything built—which means that furniture is wooden, steppingstones are wood or stone, etc. Bonus points accrue when these natural materials develop a patina over time, as copper fittings on a shed or on… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Listening to just the right sorts of nature sounds can be as cognitively refreshing and good at reducing our stress levels as seeing nature, in real life or in photos or videos, all of which is as great for our physical health as our mental state. You may be able to develop a garden space on your home or an area on a balcony that makes these sorts of soundscapes more likely—and if not, play a nature soundscape you find… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Gardens can be planned so that the scents that they generate serve well those that smell them.  From a psychological perspective the best scents for your garden to produce (also, the best garden-based scents to include in your house generally) are: Floral smells, in general, because they boost our mood. Any odors that improve our mood also lower our stress levels.  We are also less anxious when we smell florals, especially jasmine and hyacinth. Orange scents as they have been… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

We can build and use our homes in ways that increase our positive bonds with the people who live nearby. Sit on your front porch or steps if you have them from time to time to increase the neighbourliness of your neighbourhood.  Keep up your property, mow the lawn when it needs it, for instance, to also boost neighbourly good feelings.  We’re better neighbours when we know where our property begins and public and other people’s spaces end. If you… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Want people to do something particular in a space?  Sit quietly and read?  Enjoy a movie with others without interjecting comments for all to hear?  Eat using the table manners their grandmother would be proud of? Then create spaces that will remind them of acting in just the desired ways in the past. In our earliest days, when we are learning the basic rules of our societies, we learn to behave in certain ways in certain places.  We learn that… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Carbon reports that “When we attend sculptures in museums, they might fascinate us due to the mastery of the material, the inherent dynamics of body language or due to contrapposto or the sheer size of some of these statues such as Michelangelo’s David. What is less convincing, however, is the life-alikeness of the face. Actually, most visitors experience dead faces, dead eyes, and static expressions. By merely adding paraphernalia to a face (e.g., a facemask or sunglasses), such unalive sculptures… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

New research confirms that experiencing higher levels of light at night may not be healthy for people, particularly pregnant ones.  A study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology Maternal Fetal Medicinereports that “Pregnant adults who had greater light exposure three hours prior to sleep had a higher risk of developing gestational diabetes than those who had less exposure during this period. . . . Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that occurs during pregnancy. It can… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Rahal, Wells, and Evan “examined the [relationship between] school greenspace . . . and a standard literacy enrichment program . . . over a one-year period for a large sample of ethnic minority (95%) elementary school children . . . attending predominantly low-income schools . . . throughout the state of California. . . . On average, reading interventions conducted in schools with greater greenspace were more efficacious in improving individual students’ reading outcomes over a one-year period than reading… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Movies and television shows and books and magazine articles (every sort of media, it seems) makes city living seem oh so exciting and in many ways quite irresistible.  Country living is presented as fine, of course, if you must—it does have advantages of clean air and green space galore—but it just lacks the panache of life in the city. (No one seems too psych’ed about life in the suburbs except, or course, those of us who do so quite happily). But what, really, are the benefits of spending time in the city? Being in many cities around the world means you’re likely to spend more time walking around than you probably will living somewhere where it’s so easy to pop out into the car whenever there’s anything you need or want to do, and that can be good for your waistline, your heart, etc. All this walking and also, potentially, rides on public transportation, make it more likely you’re living in an environmentally responsible way, at least transportation-wise—how green your actual city life is, is dependent on lots of factors, such as how your in-city home is heated and cooled.  But, regardless of how environmentally responsible your city life is,…

Once you get yourself to the city, renting or buying a place, you have to spend time living there. But humans developed into their current forms living in nature. Over the aeons our brains have come to process the information that we pull from the world around us in ways linked to good lives when we’re living in the countryside.  Developing spaces in line with these “countryside” conditions is the essence of biophilic design, which we’ve talked about in this… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Although there’s always the chance (day or night) to pop out of an urban residence, it’s even more important that that a home in the city aligns with your personality than that one outside the city does as you’ll likely have less outdoor nature in the city to escape to when things get tough.  We’ve talked about considering your personality, and the personalities of people you will share a space with, when you create spaces to live and work in… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

When you are selecting a home, in the city or elsewhere, it’s important to make up your own mind about the options available to you and not be cajoled into living here or there by the opinions of agents of various sorts who report that they have design or similar training—specifically, whether these other people like a space or not. Trusting the opinions of architects and interior designers pre-design is something that should be done with care. Architects and interior designers… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Pets living in cities lead very different lives than their country cousins.  In this era, city dogs are likely to have some access to nearby green areas, but that’s not necessarily the case.  City cats seem much less likely to spend time outside in their relatively harsh environs than cats in more rural areas. Regardless of whether your pets are getting all the time in nature that they might like, to frolic about like their primordial selves (at least, when… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

February 10, not coincidently, probably, just before Valentine’s Day, Ronda Kaysen writes, in The New York Times, about people who live together, who love each other, who choose to sleep in separate bedrooms (“I Love You, But I don’t Want to Sleep with You,” https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/10/realestate/couples-separate-bedrooms.html). Acknowledging that when someone is deeply annoying (for example, because they snore) some sort of fix is in order and that people do indeed need their own space, a territory that’s all their own (for… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

On January 31, in an article for The New York Times, Tim McKeough writes about designing spaces for children, that are, miraculously, developed keeping kids’ needs in mind (“How to Create a Playroom that Appeals to Children and Adults, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/31/realestate/kids-playroom-design.html). Way too often the needs of actual users don’t get much attention when environments are being created, which makes applying environmental psych in ways that can have the biggest payoffs less likely. As McKeough reports “Thanks to an awareness that… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Bergefurt and colleagues determined that “Previous research showed that office workers are mainly distracted by noise, influencing their mental health. . . . at home, employees were distracted by noise and when having a small desk. Those with a dedicated workroom were less distracted. . . . although only correlation inferences could be drawn from the current dataset, the findings do suggest that suboptimal workplace conditions, also when working from home, may lead to lower transient as well as chronic… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Gregory and colleagues report that “Savoring—an emotion-regulation strategy that involves deliberately upregulating positive affect—has many benefits, but what enhances savoring in the present moment? Drawing from life-history theory, affective and developmental science, and social-psychological frameworks, we examined the idea that perceptions of uncertainty––perceiving the world as random and unpredictable—enhance subsequent savoring. . . . we found that individuals who perceived more uncertainty showed increases in subsequent savoring in their daily lives. . . . individuals who watched a film that… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Soares and Storm report that “The photo-taking-impairment effect is observed when photographed information is less likely to be remembered than non-photographed information. Three experiments examined whether this effect persists when multiple photos are taken. Experiment 1 used a within-subjects laboratory-based design in which participants viewed images of paintings and were instructed to photograph them once, five times, or not at all. . . . and the photo-taking-impairment effect was observed when participants took multiple photos. [During] Experiment 2. . .… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Wang and Chang report that their “study takes popcorn packaging as an example to explore the impact of packaging colour on consumers’ taste perception and preference evaluation. . . . Four experimental package design colours (red, blue, yellow, and white) and three popcorn tastes (sweet, salty, and tasteless) were used. . . . The results of this study indicated that . . . yellow and red packaging are suitable for a sweet product, blue is suitable for a salty product,… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

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 evaluations collected during intervention experiments showed that perceived odor intensity by visitors upon entering the room increased significantly, meanwhile the satisfaction and acceptability of air quality reduced considerably at the indoor temperature of 27 °C than that at 24 °C. . . . the calculated CO2 emission rate… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Sometimes people create a whole space without considering what the ambient soundscape will be.  They may consider where to place speakers for the sound system they will install but not what user ears will experience when that sound system is off. The sort of floorplan in place, the zones you’ve established, have a lot to do with the acoustic situation. Try to group spaces that will be similarly noisy together (say, the kitchen and the family room) and separate spaces… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

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 (2022, The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/magazine/creativity-basement.html) explores the psychological benefits of being able to spend time in storeroom-like unfinished basements.  Speaking of spending time in their parents’ basement on trips home they share that “I can still spend hours there alone, reading and writing until my… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Every day is not a good day, no matter what colour you paint the walls in your office and regardless of the pattern and texture of your entryway rug.  The design of the places where you spend your time can, however, elevate your mental health and wellbeing when you know how to use it to your advantage, when you put design-related science to work. In this article we’ll cover things you can do to give your own mental health, and… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

You may be thinking that the only way your design decisions will influence your physical health is if that oh so pretty throw you buy to make your winter sofa cozy or that incredible rug you find at the Moroccan street fair off gasses something deadly into your home. If that’s what you’ve been thinking, you would be wrong. Clearly, filling your home with deadly chemicals has an undesirable effect on your physical health, but in this era, as consumer… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Lots of environmental psychology research was conducted during the pandemic and investigators largely confirmed findings from previous studies.  Data collected during the pandemic, mainly during 2020 and 2021, verified that: Ventilation has a significant effect on human wellbeing and performance. Natural light boosts our mood, people in homes with more of it fared better psychologically. Access to green space, in nearby, comfortably walkable parks, or, even better, in private spaces in gardens/back yards or on balconies/terraces, has a very powerful… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

When people visit our homes we want it to smell “good”—the amount of air freshener sold during the holidays, particularly of holiday scents like cinnamon-y ones, indicates that we may actually be desperate to make sure our homes have appealing smells over the holidays. The scents you add during the holidays can make your home a better place to live all year round. That cinnamon smell, for example, can be particularly handy to have around if creative thinking is important… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

The end of the year is the time for lots of idealized thinking about positive conversations—maybe memories of previous ones around a holiday table, planned ones with family and friends in front of a fire, or never to happen ones during which acrimoniously divorced parents reconcile. Pleasant in-person conversations, the sort where everyone participates and says positive things to each other, are more likely when: Everyone can maintain the personal spaces from others they desire in particular situations—so chairs can… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Even those of us who are not particularly religious are likely to have spiritual thoughts in conjunction with our end of year holidays.   How can you boost the “spirituality” of your home? Make the intended space a mentally refreshing place to be. Bring in green leafy potted plants and images of nature, either in photos or paintings, for example.  If there is a view of nature outdoors, open the drapes, which during daylight hours will also being sunlight into the… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Looking for New Year’s resolutions to ring in 2023?  Yes?  Then resolve in the year ahead to: Cut the clutter in your home, as discussed in this article. Add opportunities to mentally refresh, as reviewed here. (do also search top right in our brilliant search engine!) Get into biophilic design, for example, bring in some green leafy plants, let in more natural light, and as you refresh your home, add more items made of natural materials, as discussed in this… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Interested in opera and in neuroscience?  You’ll be fascinated by this article merging the two:  Frank Rose’s “Music, Science and Healing Intersect in an A.I. Opera” (The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/28/arts/music/artificial-intelligence-opera.html). A taste: “’We’ve started to understand that cognition — that is, the working of the mind — exists far outside our head,’ [Alex Khalil, a former U.C. San Diego researcher who now teaches ethnomusicology at University College Cork in Ireland], said. “We used to imagine that the brain is… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Winet and O’Brien report that “In eight experiments with nearly 6,000 total participants, [they]explored whether people tend to prefer novel, exciting experiences, such as trying a new restaurant, or familiar ones, such as returning to an old favourite—and whether those preferences shift with the amount of time people believe that they have left to enjoy similar experiences. . . . the researchers [determined] perceived endings seemed to push participants toward familiar things. They found evidence that it was not simply… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Research by Fauville and colleagues in the virtual world is probably relevant in real life also:  “the impact of three nonverbal cues displayed through video conference screenshots (i.e., gaze direction, distance between the face and the camera, camera angle) on impression formation. . . . Findings showed significant effects of gaze and camera angle on impression formation, with gaze [at the] camera positively associated with likeability, social presence and interpersonal attraction, and with high camera angles increased interpersonal attraction and… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Bhat and associates report that “The present study investigated the effects of attending lectures in sitting and standing postures on executive function of young adults. . . .  Attending a lecture in a standing posture was found to improve executive function (response inhibition) measured with reaction times (for incongruent stimuli) and ERPs [event related potentials]. . .  Standing might improve executive function compared to sitting among young adults in a simulated lecture environment.” Mayur Bhat, Keshab Dehury, Baskaran Chandrasekaran, Hari… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Sun and colleagues had “pregnant women between 8 and 14 weeks’ gestational age . . . view one of three, 5-min, VR [virtual reality] videos of an urban scene with different green space levels (i.e., non-green, moderate, and high) after a laboratory stressor, the Trier Social Stress Test. . . .  We found that visual exposure to a green space environment in VR was associated with both physiological and affective [mood] stress reduction among pregnant women, including lower systolic blood… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Also, recently, another study has been published laying out how good for our mental state it is to be around pets (dogs in the case of the newest study)—a research project like this draws attention like this every few years, it seems. The latest findings are profiled at: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/06/health/petting-dogs-brain-study-wellness-scn(Sandee LaMotte, 2022, “What Petting a Dog Can Do For Your Brain”).  An excerpt: “You get to sit next to both of these fluffy friends and pet their fur. Guess which one… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Designing workplaces where dogs thrive (just like their owners and where both dogs and owners might potentially do their best work) is a topic that is getting or needs to get more attention in human resources departments, etc., as more and more organizations establish dog-friendly office policies to entice people to return to onsite work.  (For more details, see this article, for example: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62912862). The suggestions that follow are just as applicable to workplaces as they are to homes. Dogs… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

How do you design spaces that will make your moggy and pooch happy? environments (except for the much-needed retreats mentioned earlier), maybe more so than some of their human companions. Try to build in animal height sightlines through a space whenever is reasonable and comfortable for pet-affiliated humans. Views inside seem to give pets a feeling of control, they have ideas of actions they can take, as needed, to evade undesirable situations (such as requests to go outside on rainy,… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Humans have very special relationships with shiny, reflective surfaces.  Some scientists think that this is because our sensory systems developed to find them particularly pleasant as the surfaces of bodies of clean fresh water often mirror the skies around them and surrounding vegetation. All else being, the same, we prefer glossy surfaces to matte ones. Shiny floors may be perceived to be slippery by people looking at them, however, and shiny window frames and similar surfaces can generate lots of… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Most of us, happily, have well-functioning eyes that make it easy for us to look around us, but what are the best sightlines for us through a space? Having a sightline view of at least 50 feet through a window into the space outside or at least 15 feet into the distance as we work is best for our mental performance and our eye comfort. The very best views for us across a space allow us to see outside.We reap… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Organizing a fundraiser?  You’ll be interested in research conducted by Pfeiffer, Sundar, and Cao.  Their work indicates links between language used and the effectiveness of charitable appeals and it is possible that their findings can be extended to design’s effects on appeals experienced.  The Pfeiffer lead team report that “Charitable appeals generally address relatively serious topics. Since formal language style is more context congruent in communicating this seriousness, it should be more effective in expressing the emotional arousal or the… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Vitale and colleagues report that via “data from an 18-country sample (N = 15,743) the current work extended previous research by examining: a) blue spaces (coasts, rivers, lakes, etc.) in particular; b) associations between adults’ recalled childhood exposure to blue spaces, frequency of recent visits to green and blues spaces, and adult subjective well-being; c) the role of childhood exposure to blue spaces on intrinsic motivations to spend time in nature; and d) the consistency of these relationships across different countries. .… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

A research team based at the University of Michigan is making available, without charge, an easy-to-use tool that can be used to determine how well a particular area supports the cognitive health of aging brains.  The press release for this achievement notes: “A new tool, an interactive map developed by University of Michigan researchers, allows you to plug in your address and assess how your neighborhood could support healthy cognitive aging under a theory U-M scientist Jessica Finlay and colleagues… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Zones, whether they’re created by walls or via darker and lighter (more brightly lit) spaces drive our activities in powerful and useful ways. It is important to acknowledge, right off the bat, that we can create zones within a structure (or outside it) in a variety of ways, some of which are more architectural (for example, walls and doors and variations in ceiling heights) and others that are more based in interior design, such as lighting of different colours, edges… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

The Scandinavians have been doing it for aeons – they hygge (different languages use different terms but “hygge” is the one that English speakers are most familiar with). Hygge makes a space cosy and a wonderful place to spend a long, dark evening—and there’s a lot of scientific support for how the North people have been doing it for generations, long before there was much of what we currently think of as “science” even around. According to tradition, and to… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

As the days grow shorter, your opportunities to paint whatever might need painting in your home fewer.  So, the question of the moment becomes:  what colours should you select for those walls, ceilings, doors, and floors? Science tells us that: If you have positive associations to a colour, it’s a great option for you to use in a space.For example, if your grandmother’s dining room was painted the lightest of light violets and you had lots of fun with your… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Just as the season for painting inside may be ending, so is the one for hanging wallpapers.  Science can tell us a lot about which patterns are best on walls and what researchers have learned about seeing patterns on walls is also applicable when they’re in upholstery and also on rugs. Investigators have determined that: Colour combinations that feature different shades of the same hue (for example, several different shades of blue or several types of greens) or colours that… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Scientists have carefully probed how furniture design influences how people think and behave: An article earlier in this issue discusses patterns for upholstery, etc., here. Wood grain is relaxing for us to view and helps us mentally refresh, so it’s a good choice for furnishings. It’s positive effects on cognitive performance make it a particularly good option for home offices. Glossy surfaces are preferred to matte ones. Curving forms, in the backs of sofas or table legs, for example, bring… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Patrick Jordan, in a short but incredibly important book (Designing Pleasurable Products – An Introduction to the New Human Factors, 2000, Taylor and Francis), lays out how design can make our lives better.  His findings are relevant whether you’re building a homestead or re-designing a teapot.  It can provide: Physio-pleasure “has to do with the body and with pleasures derived from the sensory organs. . . . Socio-pleasure . . . is the enjoyment derived from relationships with others.  This… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

The design of artists’ studios is currently getting a lot of attention.  For example, Clare Dowdy of bbc.com (“Behind the Scenes:  10 Revealing Images of Artists’ Studios,” https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220914-behind-the-scenes-10-artists-studios-through-the-centuries ) probes studios depicted in James Hall’s book In The Artist’s Studio:  A Cultural History.” Being an artist, and what artists actually need to do well, has evolved over time—and the images Dowdy shares of artists’ studios cover centuries of art history.  The studio shown that seems like it would work best… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Stress of any sort is bad for our physical and mental health.  That’s why The Space Doctors often cover topics such as aligning environments with the task at hand and personality and culture, for example.  Also, when we’re stressed by one aspect of our environment we tend to feel more negatively about others, whether that sort of “reverse halo effect” (which is known as a “horn effect”) is deserved or not. In these pages we often talk about using colour… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Abrams writes about online trials; her work indicates factors that legal professionals feel are important in physical courtrooms.  Courtrooms “tend to feel grand and formal, bedecked with wood panelling, an American flag, and security guards.  In a more familiar setting—the living room or the break room at work—might behaviour and decision-making differ? ‘Many times, when people come into the courthouse, they’re acting nonchalant,’ said Judge Richard Young. . . . ‘But once they see the courtroom, the jury chairs, the… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Song and Sela reports that “compared with using a personal computer (PC), making choices using a personal smartphone leads consumers to prefer more unique options. The authors theorize that because smartphones are considerably more personal and private than PCs, using them activates intimate self-knowledge and increases private self-focus, shifting attention toward individuating personal preferences, feelings, and inner states. Consequently, making choices using a personal smartphone, compared with a PC, tends to increase the preference for unique and self-expressive options. .… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Sathian and Lacey determined that “The sensory systems responsible for touch, vision, and hearing have traditionally been regarded as mostly separate. Contrary to this dogma, recent work has shown that interactions between the senses are robust and abundant. Touch and vision are both commonly used to obtain information about a number of object properties, and they share perceptual and neural representations in many domains. . . . Touch and hearing both rely in part on temporal-frequency information, which leads to… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

We build relationships with places just as we do with other people and those relationships can be good or not so great.  Also, as with humans, there are advantages to positive relationships, the sorts that long soliloquies in lifestyle and travel magazines rework and discuss at impressive levels of detail. When we bond to a place: Our physical and mental wellbeing in that place are elevated, along with how well our brain does all the things we ask of it.… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Humans usually like to be in places that seem familiar to them—but familiar does not mean exactly the same as spaces previously encountered, just consistent with those other places in important ways, areas where we spend time benefit often from being reminiscent of expected conditions. When people are asked to give their impressions of pictures of residential spaces the ones that are preferred are those that are familiar, which are also seen as the most beautiful. The same goes for… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

In 2019 the Happiness Research Institute released The GoodHome Report 2019:  What Makes a Happy Home? and their findings echo those shared above: “after surveying over 13,000 people and interviewing nearly 80 people in 10 European countries.  Expert interviews were also conducted with people with expertise in architecture, psychology, sustainable property development, neuroscience, city planning and social sciences; also, the content of social media posts that contained the hashtag #happyhome were analyzed.”  The investigators learned that “Happiness with our home is almost three times… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Design can influence the bonds we form with other people, just as it can affect how attached we feel to a space.  We’ll form more positive and lasting attachments to other people in certain circumstances: For building bonds, there’s nothing better than spending time together, in the same place at the same time; so if you must Zoom, get together IRL as well when you can. The main reason for this is that we communicate on so many channels beside… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

It may seem that planes, trains, automobiles, buses, and other vehicles that move you from place to place (and some that you’ve only seen on a screen somewhere, such as spacecraft), are designed entirely by engineers, one of whom is deputized to pick a garish or just plain ugly print for the upholstery (probably as part of a dare from colleagues).  It turns out there are all sorts of designers involved with how modes of transport and the hubs at… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Plants and Biophilic Design You’re very apt to see potted plants, real or artificial, in any transit hub because research has shown that when plants are present in public spaces, people are friendlier, which can help diffuse potentially difficult situations before they begin.  For roughly the same reason you’re apt to see mirrors/reflective surfaces in hubs; when we can see ourselves, we’re more likely to follow social norms—to pick up our trash, not slug other people, etc. As a traveller,… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Have you ever found yourself getting all agitated while waiting in a queue for tickets? Bouncing from one foot to the other while you’re waiting for the shop assistant to finish helping the people in front? Ever stood in a passport line at the airport? You’ll know how frustrating it can be sometimes. We have some tips and clues for people designing for “queues” that will help your customers, users and visitors have a better experience. Researchers have learned a… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Although more and more things around us are being automated, from hotel check-ins to whole dining experiences, that doesn’t mean that we necessarily like working with a robot or anything “smart”. Did you know we prefer to interact with technology in different ways in different sorts of spaces? We’re more willing to share information about ourselves in smart homes than we are in smart workplaces, which has implications for how “smart” any technology can actually be. Unless smart technology is carefully calibrated for space users those users will likely come up with some “system” to manipulate it to do what they need it to do. In one famous incident, it turned out that motion sensors that kept lights on were placed so that they were unlikely to be activated by space users.  The space users set up a Drinking Bird toy, that’s the plastic bird that bobs up and down, dipping its beak into a glass of water in front of one of the motion sensors, so the lights never turned off when people were working.  Since the Drinking Bird was not deactivated at the end of the workday, the lights in the area were on continuously, 7 days a…

Trupp and colleagues found there are significant benefits to looking at visual art and cultural content electronically, even very briefly: “When experienced in-person, engagement with art has been associated—in a growing body of evidence—with positive outcomes in wellbeing and mental health. . . . Participants [in this study] . . . were asked to engage with one of two online exhibitions from Google Arts and Culture (a Monet painting or a similarly-formatted display of Japanese culinary traditions).  With just a… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Krpan and van Tilburg share that they “developed and empirically evaluated the Aesthetic Quality Model, which proposes that the link between [visual] complexity and beauty depends on another key visual property—randomness. According to the model, beauty judgements are determined by an interaction between these two properties, with more beautiful patterns featuring comparatively high complexity and low randomness. The model further posits that this configuration of complexity and randomness leads to higher beauty because it signals quality (i.e., creativity and skill).… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Benedetti and colleagues found that circadian lighting in offices can improve how well people sleep at night.  They “tested the effects of optimized dynamic daylight and electric lighting on circadian phase of melatonin, cortisol and skin temperatures in office workers. We equipped one office room with an automated controller for blinds and electric lighting, optimized for dynamic lighting (= Test room), and a second room without any automated control (= Reference room). Young healthy participants (n = 34) spent five consecutive workdays in each… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Almost all of us have art of some sort in our homes, but that art can range from a Picasso to a first finger painting by a grandchild.  Art can be most useful in our homes when it: Images to which you have positive associations, because you know the artist, because your grandmother gave you the painting, because they bring something you value about your culture to mind, because they were done in a style or by a person you… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Recent research related to seeing yourself during Zoom calls may be useful in other contexts, for example, when you see yourself in a mirror as you speak.  A study published in Clinical Psychological Science indicates that “the more a person stares at themself while talking with a partner in an online chat, the more their mood degrades over the course of the conversation. . . . the findings point to a potentially problematic role of online meeting platforms in exacerbating… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

If you’re trying to create a space where someone with ADHD will feel comfortable: Make sure that workspaces, and home offices, for example, are as distraction-free as possible. That means, only work-related items on a dedicated work surface, a properly adjusted thermostat (so there’s no reason to pop up and fiddle with it), blinds adjusted to eliminate glare, etc.—all organized before a work session gets underway. Task lighting illuminating only what is being worked on can also boost concentration on… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

And why shouldn’t it be (always)?  Research consistently shows that no matter where on the planet you ask, people are more likely to tell you that blue is their favourite colour than any other shade.  There are fundamental reasons for our blue preference:  in our early days as a species blue was important to us, it was the colour of the sky on a fair-weather day and a water hole seen from a distance—and fair-weather days and water were crucial to our survival.  We’re using the same sensory apparatus now as we did aeons ago, and it seems we’ve inherited from proto-humans mental pleasure in processing the colour blue. For some news on blue: Why Your Favourite Colour is Probably Blue https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220601-what-your-favourite-colour-says-about-you Cobalt Blue Is Color Rushing Our Summer https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/03/style/cobalt-blue.html

It’s nice to feel at home even when you aren’t-but unless your luggage is much, much larger than the suitcase I travel with, you can’t take much of your home with you when you travel. There are some things that you can do to feel at home where you are, wherever that may be: Keep the same smells. The scents we smell are processed in such a primordial part of our brain that they have a direct route to our… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

 We’re more apt to feel safer, that where we live is more “neighbourly,” and actually be more secure when: Cooler colours predominate in the space we’re in. We’re sitting or sleeping so that we can easily see anyone entering the room we’re in (ideally with the door opening in a way that shields us from the view of anyone entering as they begin to open that door). This works even better when there’s something behind us, a wall, a tall plant, a column, or something similar that would prevent any real or imagined, living or more ephemeral, evil-doer from approaching us from the rear.  In a restaurant, a seat in a booth with a view of the door is a very secure-feeling location, for instance. Windows in rooms where we might feel more vulnerable, such as bathrooms, are smaller and allow less view into the space from outdoors—skylights can work well in these spaces. Windows from homes overlook walkways. We have a front porch wide enough for at least one chair. There is a sidewalk in front of our house. It’s clear what space is ours and what is theirs—for example, a white picket fence or a shorter hedge surrounds…

When you’re asking yourself if you should make a change, you’re answering your own question.  When a space doesn’t seem comfortable anymore, it isn’t. A place can seem less comfortable for a variety of reasons, some grounded in how exactly the space is used (not enough bedrooms for all residents, no space large enough for a table for all family members to share, you have taken up painting and there’s no place to set up your easel, for instance), and… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Fukuie and colleagues report that “Hearing a groove rhythm (GR), which creates the sensation of wanting to move to the music, can also create feelings of pleasure and arousal in people, and it may enhance cognitive performance, as does exercise, by stimulating the prefrontal cortex. Here, we examined the hypothesis that GR enhances executive function (EF). . . . participants underwent two conditions: 3 min of listening to GR or a white-noise metronome. . . . Our results show that… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Pappas reviewed many published studies and determined that “Visually cluttered roads, confusing signage, and broad thoroughfares that practically beg drivers to stomp on the accelerator can encourage behaviors that raise risk. . . . Design choices like medians, trees, and cycle lanes can obstruct drivers’ views of the horizon and move their focus close to the front of their cars, encouraging more cautious driving.” Stephanie Pappas.  2022. “Improving Traffic Safety.”  Monitor on Psychology, vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 47-55.  Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Straffon and colleagues found that “Self-made objects tend to be favoured, remembered, valued, and ranked above and beyond objects that are not related to the self. On this basis, we set out to test whether the effects of self-relevance would apply to visual art, and via what mechanisms. In three studies, participants created abstract paintings that were then incorporated in a dot-probe task, pairing self-made and other-made stimuli. Our findings confirm that attention and preference are higher for self-made (vs.… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Zeloni and Pavani share that “In Western music and in music of other cultures, minor chords, modes and intervals evoke sadness. . . . we asked expert musicians to transcribe into music scores spontaneous vocalizations of pre-verbal infants to test the hypothesis that melodic intervals that evoke sadness in music (i.e., minor 2nd) are more represented in cry compared to neutral utterances. Results showed that the unison, major 2nd, minor 2nd, major 3rd, minor 3rd, perfect 4th and perfect 5th… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Ouyang and colleagues report that “Many retailers use seemingly innocuous dividing lines to separate product alternatives on their websites or product catalogs. . . . a dividing line can influence consumers’ perceived quantity of the product alternatives displayed. . . . consumers perceive a smaller number of products displayed on a page when these products are separated by a dividing line compared to when they are not. This effect occurs because the dividing line separates the products into top versus… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Investigators lead by van Egmond report (in a study published in Nature and Science of Sleep) that “young adults when sleep-deprived evaluate angry faces as less trustworthy and healthy-looking. Furthermore, neutral and fearful faces appear less attractive following sleep loss. . . . The participants spent one night with no sleep at all and one night with an eight-hour sleep opportunity. [Data were collected] in the mornings following both nights.” It seems likely that whether one has slept or not… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Huang, Wang, and Chan studied links between image sizes on packages and evaluations of the contents of those packages; their findings can probably be applicable more broadly: “larger (vs. smaller) food images on food packages can positively influence consumers’ initial product attitudes toward the food (i.e., purchase likelihood). . . . Compared with smaller food images, larger ones improve purchase likelihood. . . . this effect is only observed for vice (vs. virtue) foods.” Jingya Huang, Liangyan Wang, and Eugene… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

If you are a company owner, how should your customer service look? Beeler and colleagues focus on judgments of digital assistant technologies, but what they learned can likely be extrapolated to other contexts: “ability assessments are dependent upon both the use context (i.e., automation versus augmentation; disclosure of automation) and individual characteristics (i.e., consumer mood state and consumer preference for human interaction). . . . some consumers simply prefer people over technology, regardless of the technological capabilities of the digital… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Macaulay and teammates report that “Before and after a 20-minute outdoor experience, participants . . . completed surveys. . . . Participants were randomly allocated to one of four engagement intervention groups: mindful engagement, directed engagement, mind wandering, and an unguided control group. . . . the unguided control group had the greatest level of attention restoration. . . . . Performance on the post-test attention task demonstrated that the unguided control group had the highest level of attention restoration… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Whether it’s at work, at school, in a hospital, or even in a shop, we find ourselves in environments that we haven’t designed ourselves.  In the paragraphs that follow, we’ll explore why and how the design of these spaces influences how we think and behave. Workplaces Unfortunately for most of us, we haven’t inherited a fortune or won the lottery, so off to work we must go.  Until the pandemic, many of us spent our working time toiling outside our… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

You’ve probably noticed that sometimes designers and managers give you choices at work—where to sit, whether window blinds are open or closed, the height of your desk—and there’s a research-based reason for that.  When we have some control over how we work, we work better (at least from a brain perspective) and don’t feel as tense compared to situations where we can’t change or select anything; both our performance and wellbeing are better when we have choices.  People sometimes even… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Healing spaces have probably been researched more extensively than any other sort of place (largely because it’s so easy to quantify the results of design actions taken there; after something changes more or less medication is dispensed, people are discharged sooner or later, etc.).  Healthcare environments are also more likely to be designed in ways consistent with research findings. In a future issue we’ll more completely discuss the design of spaces where people are likely to heal best, so you… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Even in our world’s best of times, life isn’t always the best-est and our planet’s current predicaments seem to move all of our societies’ wellbeing scores from middle of the road, neither terrible nor euphoric, clearly into “could be improved” territory.  Particles in the current swirling dust cloud of uncertainty and tension have no doubt recently settled upon your psyche, making you feel that much more frazzled. Design can help to counter the frazzles, if you use it the right… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

A few of us actively soundscape the worlds in which we live, but way too many of us just let sound happen to us, which is an opportunity missed.  To calm yourself via your ears: Try listening to music with 50-70 beats per minute (aim for around 60, if you can), that has a deeper, more resonate sound (think cello not violin).There are multiple internet sites where you can learn how many beats per minute are in music that you… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

It probably won’t surprise you at all to know that touching soft things, such like the flannels that baby pyjamas are made of, is relaxing.  If you want to banish the stress demons, make sure there’s nothing around you that is scratchy, itchy, or otherwise irritating to touch. Similarly unsurprising:  in a space where we’ll relax all our joints and muscles will be comfortable, ergonomics will prevail. Most of us are more significantly influencing emotionally by what we see than… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

To really relax in a space, people need to feel in control of it, that no one can intrude visually or acoustically without their permission—in other words, no one can see or hear them and they can’t see or hear anyone else clearly either.  Some private territories are permanent or at least indefinitely owned (even the surliest teenager will [probably] eventually leave home) and others are just ours for an hour or an afternoon, but whatever the case, we need… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Many of us now are starting to travel again (hurray!) outside our own car—but travel is stressful—we’re packed into airplanes, trains, and buses as close as sardines (sometimes it seems closer) and don’t have much control of when we move or stop or even can go to the bathroom, for example. How can you use science to travel better (and remember, for most of us creating instantaneous transfer, Star Trek like transporters is not a real option, even if science… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

There are ways that design can make it more likely that you’ll have a constructive, mutually-beneficial conversation with someone else—whether you’re trying to negotiate world peace or help your teenager understand that they do not, perhaps, at least yet, know everything. And most of the ways that design can encourage good talks are, sadly, lacking in this space where Putin and Macron recently had a tete-a-tete. For the best discussions: Tables need to be carefully considered. Round tables where everyone… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

New research confirms that walkability is good for us.  Wali and colleagues examined “high resolution data for 476 participants in the Rails and Health study on health care costs, mode specific MVPA[ moderate-to-vigorous physical activity], parcel-level built environment, and neighborhood perception surveys. . . .  A 1% increase in bike, walk, and transit-related MVPA was associated with lower health care costs by −0.28%, −0.09%, and −0.27% respectively. A one-unit increase in neighborhood walkability index correlates with a 6.48% reduction in… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Some things to note as you begin to travel far from home again: Climate varies dramatically based on distance from the equator and leads people to want to use spaces in different ways.For example, in the far North, when there are long stretches of cold every year, people often enjoy being outside whenever the weather is at all temperate – so you may find people eating outside in Stockholm in Sweden’s summer months (and under lap blankets during spring and… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Ever wondered why some people you know always seem lost?  Coutrot and colleagues report that “how the environment in which one grew up affects later cognitive abilities remains poorly understood. Here we used a cognitive task embedded in a video game to measure non-verbal spatial navigation ability in 397,162 people from 38 countries across the world. Overall, we found that people who grew up outside cities were better at navigation [had a better sense of direction]. More specifically, people were… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Santangelo and associates report that “music is frequently played while we are engaged in other activities that rely on decision-making (e.g., driving). . . . We analyzed response times and accuracy from more than 100-thousand decisions and mapped the effects of music onto decision-process components with a mechanistic model of decision-making. We found evidence . . . . [that] decisions—across domains—were faster but less accurate with music. . . . Overall, our results suggest that background music shapes our decisions… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Rossel and teammates report that “Our study investigated the influence of expectations based on prior experience and contextual information on the perceived sharpness of objects and scenes…  We manipulated the availability of relevant information to form expectations about the image’s content: one of the two images contained predictable information while the other one unpredictable. At an equal level of blur, predictable objects and scenes were perceived as sharper than unpredictable ones. . . . Expectations about the visual environment help… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

DeafSpace was developed at Gallaudet University years ago to spatially support people who are hard-of-hearing.  As the article at the link below indicates, it is now being used to develop a major public space. Although DeafSpace was originally developed in one sensory context, when its principles are applied, we can all benefit, regardless of our sensory capabilities.  For example, many deaf individuals lip-read and being able to clearly see each other’s faces is often a big plus. Another example:  corridors… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

We wrote before about the windowless dorm being built for students, and the negative impact it could have on them. Recent articles which report on the experiences of living in a windowless dormitory room not only highlight all the great things that natural light can do for us but also why people would agree to live in such places (for example, privacy and autonomy in units that have no windows but a private bathroom, just for the occupant). Also, in… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Humans are a young species and still working with the same sorts of mental apparatus and ways of processing incoming information from our physical world that we had in our first few generations as Homo sapiens.  Lots of us, lots of the time, like to think we’ve come so far from our earliest days as a species—this is a thought that often comes to people in opera houses listening to Mozart—but really, we haven’t. When we were just starting out,… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Flooding a space with natural light (minimizing glare with blinds as needed during certain times of the day, as needed) is biophilic design at its finest; it elevates our mood as well as our ability to learn and our cognitive performance (and you get bonus mood and performance points if the windows admitting that natural light can be opened to temperate breezes of clean, not polluted, air).  So is making a sleeping space as dark as is reasonably possible at… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

What have neuroscientists learned about plaza design that you can apply in your patio: Design for what you actually want to happen on that patio.If you enjoy barbequing, not compromise on space for the grill.  Want to feel the sun on your skin? Don’t build in the shade.  And so on. Also, zone, via seating, or whatever you can, for groups of different sizes or who might prefer to spend time in different ways. An elongated patio is likely to… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

There are ways that design can make it more likely that you’ll have a constructive, mutually-beneficial conversation with someone else—whether you’re trying to negotiate world peace or help your teenager understand that they do not, perhaps, at least yet, know everything. And most of the ways that design can encourage good talks are, sadly, lacking in this space where Putin and Macron recently had a tete-a-tete. For the best discussions: Tables need to be carefully considered. Round tables where everyone… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Abrams studied people with ADHD during the pandemic and reports that “Working from home has also presented challenges for adults with ADHD, including dealing with the loss of boundaries—such as a dedicated workspace or an on-site supervisor—that help them avoid distractions and provide cues about when to stop and start tasks. . . . [mental health care] providers have used a mix of old and new strategies to help people with ADHD function well during the pandemic. . . .… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Our pets, at the very least, seem like our very good friends, and we can make sure that they enjoy living in our homes as much as we enjoy having them share it with us.  Pets are also a tremendous psychological support for their humans, particularly when those humans are stressed, because they can’t leave their home or for some pre-COVID reason (those stressors didn’t disappear), such as preparing for medical school exams. Research presented at meetings of the American Psychological Association, and certainly at other groups as well, reports that a full grown dog has the emotional and cognitive capabilities of a 2 or 2 and a half year old human—we don’t realize how “advanced” their doggie brains are, however, because our dogs don’t speak to us in a straightforward way in words we understand, although we learn generally what’s up with them as we become familiar with each of our pet’s systems of barks, whimpers, and exasperated moans.  Keeping dogs’ “human equivalent mental age” in mind as you think about making a house dog-friendly can be useful. Cats, of course, refuse to participate in any sort of research that would establish their “human equivalent mental age.” And fish,…

As the weather gets warmer, people move, and often people who are romantically linked decide to take the plunge and move in together. People who with tight enough bonds to decide to move in together may or may not have similar personality profiles.  As discussed in this article, it’s important to align place design with personality, and all that is easy when people moving in together have similar personalities, but what to do when they don’t? Everyone living in a… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Men and women can experience spaces in slightly different ways from time to time: Women have a better sense of touch than men, in technical terms, they are more “tactically sensitive” than men. This is because basically everyone has the same number of nerve endings on the end of their fingers, for example, and since women are often shorter/smaller than men, for women those nerve endings are closer together, so women may note changes or problems with textures that men… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Greenberg and teammates report that they “built on theory and research in personality, cultural, and music psychology to map the terrain of preferences for Western music using data from 356,649 people across six continents. . . . the patterns of correlations between personality traits and musical preferences were largely consistent across countries and assessment methods. For example, trait Extraversion was correlated with stronger reactions to Contemporary musical styles (which feature rhythmic, upbeat, and electronic attributes), whereas trait Openness was correlated… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Turns out the sex of a robot makes a difference! While we might look at stereotyping issues, this research points out that preference is still biased to the female in this service industry. Read on… Seo evaluated responses to service robots in hotels and found that “female service robots generated more pleasure and higher satisfaction compared to that of male service robots, and its influence is amplified when the level of anthropomorphism is high [the robots are more human-like] rather… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

In many a boudoir scene on the silver screen, not only do candles predominate, but before the person to be romanced arrives, some scent is sprayed in the air and background music begins to play. As difficult as it is for me as a scientist to admit it, the directors and script writers again seem to be onto something that research can support. There is continuing debate about the effectiveness of pheromone type air fresheners which supposedly introduce odours into… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

People putting together plans for new homes pass through a set of predictable phases.  The first is euphoria:  “Wow, I’m going to have the opportunity to do something new, to create the sort of home for myself and the people I’ll share it with that helps us live the lives we intend to live!” Euphoria is followed by confusion:  “What should my new home look and feel like?” And then terror:  “What should my new home look and feel like?”… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Ever wondered how you align with your friends and family? One of the things that’s clearest about space design is that everyone feels better when their personality aligns with the place that they find themselves. But who are you?  Who are those who come and visit or stay with you? One of the quickest ways to find out is to answer the questions on the TIPI survey developed by Professor Sam Gosling’s working group at the University of Texas.  It… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Binter and colleagues looked at how urban design affects child development.  They share that they “investigated the association between early-life urban environment and cognitive and motor function in children. We used data from 5403 mother–child pairs from four population-based birth-cohorts (UK, France, Spain, and Greece). . . . Higher greenness exposure within 300 m during pregnancy was associated with higher verbal abilities. . . . Higher connectivity density within 100 m and land use diversity during pregnancy were related to lower verbal… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Faraji-Rad and Lee determined that  “Merely anticipating a future sad event motivates consumers to ‘accumulate happiness’ in order to enhance their ability to cope with the anticipated sadness later—a phenomenon that we call banking happiness.  To bank happiness, consumers not only choose positive stimuli over non-positive stimuli when given the choice. . .  Consumers bank happiness because of the lay theory that happiness is a resource that can be accumulated (i.e., banked) and consumed later.  . . .  believing that happiness is bankable increases consumers’ engagement with positive stimuli when anticipating sadness, possibly boosting the hedonic [pleasure-related] utility [value] consumers obtain from the positive stimuli and helping them to build a stronger buffer against the negative stimuli later.” Ali Faraji-Rad and Leonard Lee.  “Banking Happiness.”  Journal of Consumer Research, in press, ucab066, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucab066

Goldring and Bolger investigated how daily stressors influence lives and found that “Prior research shows that daily stressors lead to greater psychological distress. A separate body of research links daily stressors to physical symptoms such as backaches and stomach problems. We integrate these literatures by positing an interconnected causal system, whereby stressors lead to psychological distress which, in turn, leads to physical symptoms. Our integrated approach also includes causal effects in the opposing directions: Psychological distress can increase physical symptoms… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

As a gift for Christmas, The Space Doctors have written another poem for you in the style of Dr Seuss!  We hope you enjoy it! If you would like your very own higher resolution PDF copy to send to your friends and family do email us on vanessachampion@thespacedoctors.com. Otherwise feel free to share the image here. The Space in the Place! The How, The Why and The Wherefore, Did you know? Science-Informed Design Works! To read our first poem which we recited in person at Workplace Trends in London in October 2021, click here.

Science makes it clear that there are some hard and fast rules about spaces where people have great conversations—you can apply them throughout your home, creating multiple conversation zones—even if you don’t have any neighbours (or you’ve invited all your neighbours to your party so you can turn the music as loud as you’d like) and plan to turn the music at your soiree to speaker stressing levels—people will still try to have conversations and to a great extent will… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

At this time of year we can become particularly attuned to the smells in our homes and offices, regularly because they’re not very good. If you actively manage the scents in your home and office now, when it’s a challenge to open the windows and air them out, you can put your olfactory system to work for you, not against you. Science has shown that: Making a space smell good, for example, like an event that you have pleasant memories… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

If you are, don’t be surprised—the two of you bring very different mindsets to any design discussion. Designers have spent a lot of time thinking about design (no surprise there).  Even if you’ve been trying to figure out what do with your home’s look for a very long time, it’s almost definite that any designer you’re working with has still spent more time considering design opportunities and issues than you have. All that considering means that they’ve developed the skill… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

The warmer we are the safer we feel. Hornstein, Fanselow, and Eisenberger link feeling something warm feeling safe: “a physically warm stimulus was less readily associated with threat (compared to soft or neutral stimuli; Study 1) and was able to inhibit the fear response elicited by other threatening cues (compared to neutral stimuli; Study 2). Results showed that physical warmth resisted association with threat (Study 1) and not only inhibited the fear response but also led to lasting inhibition even… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

New research from Jarvis and colleagues has been published. They looked at how living near greenspace impacted childhood development. It turns out, that it does 🙂 How did they do it? They report that “early childhood development was assessed via teacher ratings on the Early Development Instrument (EDI), and we used the total EDI score as the primary outcome variable. We estimated greenspace using percentage vegetation derived from spectral unmixing of annual Landsat satellite image composites. Lifetime residential exposure to… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Sometimes people to your home have some sort of “difference” that they’d rather not be publicly discussed (although today there are many fewer topics that fit into this category than in the past) but that will significantly influence their experiences in your home, and that you should foresee as you design if you ever intend to have guests visit. For example, someone visiting may have ADHD and not want other guests, for example, their boss to know this.  A rocking… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

One of the things that’s clearest about space design is that everyone feels better when their personality aligns with the place that they find themselves. But who are you?  Who are the people who will visit your home? One of the quickest ways to find out is to answer the questions on the TIPI survey developed by Professor Sam Gosling’s working group at the University of Texas.  It is located here:  http://gosling.psy.utexas.edu/scales-weve-developed/ten-item-personality-measure-tipi/ten-item-personality-inventory-tipi/ Take a minute and go and answer the… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

From the previous post, another study by essentially the same group:  Aristizabal and colleagues also report that they collected data in spaces “allowed individuals to perform their typical workday task for 10 weeks. . . . After a 2-week acclimation period, participants were exposed to three biophilic conditions (visual, auditory and multisensory) as well as the baseline setting.” In the visual condition, participants viewed “Indoor plants, projections of greenery, and artwork displaying nature scenes.” In the auditory one they heard… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

This is the time of year when there are often quite lively, shall we say, debates over where to set the thermostat in your home or office. Please consider this article a public service, one that can keep those conflicts in check. Research shows that our mental wellbeing, at least, is best at temperatures of around 70 degrees Fahrenheit (or 21 degrees centigrade) with humidity levels, if you can set them, of 40-70% when we’re awake and about 65 degrees Fahrenheit (or 18 degrees centigrade) while we sleep.  

Lee and Chen found that face masks may influence how far we choose to be from other people. The researchers report that via data collected through an online survey they found that “A smaller IPS [interpersonal space] was observed when participants faced confederates wearing surgical masks than in the no-mask condition. Female dyads tended to maintain a smaller IPS than did both male and mixed-sex dyads, and Taiwanese participants maintained a significantly larger IPS than did Mainland Chinese participants. .… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Kim and colleagues determined that “congenitally blind and sighted individuals share in-depth understanding of object colour. Blind and sighted people share similar intuitions about which objects will have consistent colours, make similar predictions for novel objects, and give similar explanations. Living among people who talk about colour is sufficient for colour understanding, highlighting the efficiency of linguistic communication as a source of knowledge.. . . People develop intuitive and inferentially rich ‘theories’ of colour regardless of visual experience.” Judy Kim,… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Trying to increase the likelihood that someone will eat something?  Consider Zhou, Chen, and Li’s findings:  “Despite being a fundamental food feature, the effect of food shapes has been underexplored. This study demonstrates that giving hedonic [pleasure-related] foods a round shape increases their desirability, choice probability, and consumption. However, this effect does not apply to utilitarian foods. Such asymmetric effects are attributed to the positive affect [emotion] elicited by a round shape and not to the food’s shape typicality, food… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Cognitive learning is hard, hard brain work, whether you’re 8 or 80.  Spaces where you plan to learn new material, whether they’re a home schoolroom, a home office, or a classroom outside a home need to be carefully designed or instead of learning about trigonometry or butterflies or rules for running effective meetings, students will be coming up with new ways to pass the time until they can stop their lessons and move on to something they actually want to… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

The PARTY CHECKLIST! It’s probably been a while since you’ve been able to plan any sort of gathering that includes more than you and your cat.  Neuroscientists (who would no doubt by this time welcome an invitation to your party) would make these suggestions, for example, as you plan your bash: Want a high energy bash? Buy balloons, streams, etc., in saturated not very bright colours, like candy apple red and sapphire blue and pumpkin orange.  Want to be more… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

In a shared bedroom the main difference would be to make sure that each child has some space to put out/display a couple of things that remind them about what they value about themselves and who they are, or at least what they aspire to be, and send the same messages to anyone, including parents, who enters the area.  These displays need to be curated, however, to keep our often-discussed enemy, visual clutter, at bay.  Everyone needs a territory and… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

You have some ability to customize the interior of your car to help you deal with situations you encounter as you drive. If you want to relax, the traffic has gotten your blood pressure up to really impressive levels, spritz the inside of your car with the scent of lavender, lemons, or oranges.  Want help keeping your mind from wandering? Smelling rosemary or peppermint may help some. Hearing traffic and sounds made by your car and around it are important… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Loads of people are proclaiming that future mingling will be much less prevalent than in the past.  There’s even discussion of whether we’ll need offices in the future, for example here: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210721-whats-the-purpose-of-the-office-and-do-we-still-need-it There are compelling reasons to believe, however, that after we’ve all been vaccinated we’ll continue to find ourselves in the same places with others—for reasons way beyond our desire to simply be sociable. We will continue to gather because we can only really communicate with each other when… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

So when they speak about seeing the world through Rose-coloured glasses, it seems the opposite is true if you’re feeling blue. Researchers have verified that being depressed influences how people see the world, literally; previous studies have shown that when people are depressed, whether they are on medication or not, they see colours as greyer than they actually are. Salmela, Socada, Söderholm, Heikkilä, Lahti, Ekelund, and Isometsä “confirmed that the processing of visual information is altered in depressed people, a… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Who would have thought that a little walk on a carpet can help reduce your stress level. Hoki, Sato, and Kasai’s research “focused on the effects of indoor flooring in the residential environment on stress, as flooring is a feature that the human body is in contact with for long periods of time. We objectively measured the extent of psychological stress perceived while walking on carpeting and on wood flooring.” Study participants “were asked to walk on carpeting and wood flooring… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

If you want to improve your little grey cells and also make yourself happy, get yourself out into nature. Write yourself a “green prescription” and take a walk outside, in a park, forest or woods. Kuhn and colleagues report that “A whole-brain analysis [conducted via MRI] revealed that time spent outdoors was positively associated with grey matter volume in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and positive affect, also after controlling for physical activity, fluid intake, free time, and hours of… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Recently published research confirms links between thinking creatively and being in less energizing spaces.  Needle and Mallia  report that  “Open-office plans have become the dominant mode for creative workplaces, designed to encourage collaboration. . . .This  study surveys people working in advertising and the creative industries, assessing perceptions of productivity and satisfaction with work environment. A majority of respondents yearned for solitude to complete certain tasks. Findings suggest that open-office environments may indeed undermine creative productivity, not just among introverts, but others as well.” Also it is interesting to note that being able to see other people significantly increases how energised we are. Rose Needle and K. Mallia. “Creatives in the Office: Personality and the Environmental Effects of Workspace.”  Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, in press, https://doi.org/10.1080/10641734.2020.1770144

Article after article is trumpeting how much people are enjoying interacting with others again or how much they long to do so (see this one, for example: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/17/insider/working-empty-newsroom.html ) Of course we’re glad to be with others again! We’re all desperate, whether we’re introverts or extraverts, for a good conversation. We communicate via a range of sensory channels, only a few of which can be transmitted via Zoom: we say words, those words are inflected in one way or another,… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Recently, there’s been more attention to people, generally those getting a little long in the tooth, who are choosing to have relationships with others but not marry or move in together (see this article, for example: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/16/well/family/older-singles-living-apart-LAT.html ) Beyond the practical reasons why someone might choose to “live alone together,” LAT, as it’s called, makes sense from a psychological perspective. During the course of our lives, we create homes that send messages to the world (and ourselves) about what’s important… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

In the fourth of our articles this month looking at the different design options you can try to improve your home at different price points, we suggest some tips and furnishings which cost a bit but are worth it! See what you think. You can improve the acoustic situation in your home by making sure that there are enough soft surfaces in place to muffle echoes. Echoing makes us tense.  It can keep us from talking, for example.  If you… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

So it seems that science is proving that we are affected by the moon’s cycle! Casiraghi and colleagues used “wrist actimetry to show a clear synchronization of nocturnal sleep timing with the lunar cycle in participants living in environments that range from a rural setting with and without access to electricity in indigenous Toba/Qom communities in Argentina to a highly urbanized postindustrial setting in the United States.  Our results show that sleep starts later and is shorter on the nights before… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

People with dementia are being given peace by creating personalised soundscapes for them. Talebzadeh’s work focused on “how a personalized soundscape can help those with dementia by providing clues regarding time of day and place. . . . Using a system called AcustiCare, a personalized soundscape is created with a customized algorithm that plays scheduled sounds at specific moments throughout the day. Through feedback, the system can refine the sounds to be played the next day, helping to reinforce time and space for dementia patients. ‘The sounds consist of a collection of natural sounds, birdsongs, outdoor sounds, water/rain sounds and kitchen sounds, music, bell sound, and similar,’ Talebzadeh said. ‘From these sounds, psychoacoustic parameters and metadata is used to obtain similarity information between the different sounds. This information is used to suggest a new sound related to the feedback findings.’” “Personalized Soundscape Could Help People with Dementia With Time, Place Recognition.”  2021. Press release Acoustical Society of America, http://acousticalsociety.org  

Virtual Reality has taken a turn for the better by incorporating smell! There is a new report which uses views and smells to augment the virtual reality to create calm spaces in nature for people. A Tomasi-lead team determined via “Olfactory Virtual Reality (OVR) — a new form of VR that incorporates the sense of smell into its augmented reality  . . . . that stimulating the olfactory system via scent in practitioner-administered virtual realities can trigger memory, cognition and emotion, and may improve the therapeutic benefits of augmented realities targeting chronic pain, anxiety and mood disorders. . . . the team created a [virtual forest and campsite] simulation complete with a virtual tent, picnic table, fire pit, logs and other objects to touch, and aromas of fresh bacon and toasted marshmallows.  Participants — all inpatient psychiatry patients that voluntary participated in the study — were immersed in the forest camp environment for 8–12-minutes, in weekly OVR sessions that coincided with their standard clinical treatment plans. Following the OVR sessions, participants reported significant and immediate improvements to their anxiety, stress and pain levels that lasted up to three hours after a session.” This study is published in Journal of Medical Research and…

Can seeing Red negatively influence Stock Market Liquidity? This is an interesting piece of research. We have written before about how the colour red influences our choices. In this month’s round up of Science News, we spotted an article by Bazley, Cronqvist, and Mormann published in Management Science in which they report “that using the color red to represent financial data influences individuals’ risk preferences, expectations of future stock returns and trading decisions. The effects are not present in people who are… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

We like blue birds, which makes sense because humans definitely have a soft spot in their hearts for blue places and things. In this month’s science round up, there was more evidence that a blue hue is preferable! Thommes and Hayn-Leichsenring share that they “collected over 20,000 photos of birds from the photo-sharing platform Instagram with their corresponding liking data. . . . The colors of the depicted bird . . . significantly affected the liking behavior of the online… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Temperature affects us all, and also how we perceive and like the space we are in. In our regular notes from science we picked up a recent study to share with you here. This research studied how temperature influences how much people like a space. Or not..! Participants in the study experienced “a virtual reality environment at three different temperatures (15°C, 22°C, 30°C). . . .  An EEG device was used to determine the cognitive activities of the participants during space… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

This is the article you need if you often entertain people from countries besides your own and you want them to feel comfortable. A questionnaire was sent to participants out in nine countries: Brazil, Canada, the USA, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. It turns out that in all these countries they scored the comfort of a luxurious bed higher than a simple bed and first-class seats higher than economy class. But all countries rate the comfort lower… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

What to Change First?  If you review your options and decide to remodel your current home, you need to decide what you should change first. In the articles in this month’s issue (May 2021 – New Home!) assume that if you’re staying in your home you’ll feel best about making primarily interior design sorts of changes there and that if architectural modifications seem in order, you’ll pack your bags and move on to a new house! Also, here we’re not… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

If you’ve considered the stay-move list noted earlier and you’re going to find a new home, only relocate to a space that makes you feel good.  Don’t choose to move into a space unless being there is a positive experience for you, no matter what anyone else, in particular a salesperson, has to say. Whatever is prompting you to leave your current home should be a priority in your new one. For instance, if there is no place for privacy… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Loads of people are proclaiming that future mingling will be much less prevalent than in the past.  There are compelling reasons to believe, however, that after we’ve all been vaccinated we’ll continue to find ourselves in the same places with others—for reasons way beyond our desire to simply be sociable. We will continue to gather because we can only really communicate with each other when we are all in the same place at the same time.  We send messages to… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

The single most important message, design-wise, we can draw from our experiences during the pandemic related lockdowns is that we need to make sure our homes, going forward, provide us with options as to how we live our lives. Also that they provide us with the options to spend extended time in our homes, without respite. In essence, we need to ponder how to make our homes wonderful gilded (well, at least as gilded as we can afford) prisons. So,… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Ever wondered which way to face when you’re having your photo taken? Research completed by Park, Spence, Ishii, and Togawa can be useful next time you’re posing for a photo! This team explored  “the influence of the face orientation of a human model on the perception of their attractiveness and its downstream consequences on product evaluation. Across five experiments, we first demonstrate that consumers tend to perceive a model’s face showing his or her left cheek as more attractive than… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Pontes and Williams’ recent research is useful whenever people are trying to encourage or discourage people from gambling, taking risks.  The investigators share that “In general, people make more risk averse choices, gambling less and less often when primed with [shown] the color red over other colors. . . . But when participants feel lucky or are from Asian Chinese backgrounds the effect is reversed and they take more risks when primed with the color red.” Nicolas Pontes and Laura… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Research by Thygesen and colleagues indicates that spending a little extra to provide greater access to green spaces for children may be money well spent. The Thygesen-lead team reports that when they reviewed data collected in Denmark for “individuals, who were born in Denmark between 1992 and 2007 . . . and followed for a diagnosis of ADHD [Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder] from age 5, during the period 1997–2016. . . . Individuals living in areas defined by sparse green vegetation… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

As we start to be inoculated, worldwide, it does start to seem likely that someday soon we may again find ourselves on airplanes, actually travelling, maybe even for fun.  Remember vacation? Airplane Design from an Environmental Psychology Perspective. Airplane design does just about everything wrong from an environmental psychology perspective. Some prisons may be better places to spend time than airplanes. One of the most challenging part of being on an airplane is that we have so little control of… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

In another of our science-based research short reports we bring you this lovely study. Dzhambov and teammates probed links between the presence of indoor and outdoor greenery and the wellbeing of people during the COVID pandemic. They found via data collected using a survey that “Greenery experienced both indoors and outdoors supported mental health. . . . We employed two self-reported measures of greenery experienced indoors (number of houseplants in the home and proportion of exterior greenery visible from inside the… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Humans “communicate” extensively via scents, according to research recently published by Hofer, Chen, and Schaller; these findings support subtle scentscaping. In another of our “in the news” articles, here is some really interesting information to wow your colleagues with. Hofer and colleagues found that  “People readily perceive and react to the body odors of other people, which creates a wide range of implications for affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses. . . . . Like physical appearance, body odor reflects personal characteristics… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

When it’s cold we need more social warmth. Fay and Maner found that “Laboratory studies have linked variability in temperature to the psychology of social affiliation. In colder ambient environments, for example, people report greater loneliness, and they pursue both physical warmth and social affiliation (i.e., social warmth). Here, a field experiment tested whether tactile warmth [basically, touching something warm] eliminates the effect of colder ambient temperatures on desires for social affiliation. Consistent with previous research, people expressed greater intentions… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Yes, research indicates that some shapes are cuter than others; while this research at first might not appear to be very useful, it can be handy the next time you’re selecting a baby gift, redecorating a child’s room, or engaged in some other similar pursuit. Cho and team report that “229 participants completed a task in which they modified a rectangle for the parameters of size, colour, angle, height, -width ratio, and roundness to create a ‘cute rectangle.’ As predicated,… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

The bottom line of this research is that we need larger spaces and look out onto greenery, awe also need natural lighting, better acoustics, art, greenery and privacy… Design-depression links have been identified using data collected via web-based surveys in Northern Italy during a pandemic lockdown that lasted over two months: “houses became the only place where people slept, ate, worked, practiced sports, and socialized. . . . . living in apartments less than 60 square meters with poor views and scarce indoor quality is associated with, respectively, 1.31 . . .  1.368 . . . . and 2.253 . . . . times the risk of moderate-severe and severe depressive symptoms. . . . . Housing design strategies should focus on larger and more livable living spaces facing green areas. . . . Small apartments without habitable balconies, with a poor housing quality such as a little natural lighting and acoustic comfort, a low thermo-hygrometric comfort, the absence of soft qualities in the living quarters (e.g., art objects, green plants), and living spaces that do not guarantee adequate privacy during phone calls for work or personal reasons, were much more frequent in individuals with moderate-severe and severe depressive symptoms.” These findings should…

Mullen and colleagues confirm how important it is to breathe clean air and their work supports efforts to make sure air inside buildings is filtered. The researchers report that  “Fine particulate air pollution is harmful to children in myriad ways. While evidence is mounting that chronic exposures are associated with reduced academic proficiency, no research has examined the frequency of peak exposures. . . . [the researchers examined] the percentage of third grade students who tested below the grade level in math… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Intentionally adding water to a space is a good idea, as long as that water stays where it belongs—rogue water from a broken pipe is a psychologically debilitating stressor. Looking at water that’s gently moving is tremendously relaxing to us.  That’s why there’s a fish tank in every dentist’s office.  Research shows that we’re calmer when we look at a fish tank even when there aren’t fish in it—but fish tanks without fish get the neighbours talking.  Research has shown… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Most offices, even if they’re used by well-known people are unseen by most of us.  Titans of industry and even many public officials spend their “office hours” working in places that only their professional colleagues ever see—except if those offices are part of a worksite redone by a popular designer and get included in a flashy, magazine article presenting work by that design group. One of the few offices that most of us have, however, seen photos of over the years is the Oval Office, the workplace home of the US president, located in the White House in Washington DC. Each time that a new president takes possession of the Oval Office, there are changes, often many changes in its appearance—lots of these modifications are made nearly entirely to signal a policy interest or political concern of the new president. When Joe Biden became president he made oodles of changes to the Oval Office, although not so many that Donald Trump would be confused if he found himself invited back for a visit.  Doors and windows stay in the same place, even when administrations change, and the presidential desk, chair, other seats in the rooms, and occasional tables seem locked…

Robles and colleagues make it official—natural fractals really are a visual plus!  They determined that adults and children as young as 3 respond to these fractal patterns in the same way.  The Robles, Taylor, Sereno, Liaw, and Baldwin team  found that “Before their third birthdays, children already have an adult-like preference for visual fractal patterns commonly seen in nature. . . . We found that people [both adults and children] prefer the most common natural pattern, the statistical fractal patterns… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Tarlao, Steffens, and Guastavino’s work verifies that many factors besides the actual noises themselves influence perceptions of acoustic experiences. The researchers report that “Previous soundscape research has shown a complex relationship between soundscapes, public space usage and contexts of users’ visits to the space. . . . The present study is a comparative analysis of in situ questionnaires collected over four study sites in Montreal . . . . in both French and English. . . .  The analyses. . .. . suggest[s]… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Methorst and colleagues report that they “examine[d] the relationship between species diversity and human well-being at the continental scale, while controlling for other known drivers of well-being. We related socio-economic data from more than 26,000 European citizens across 26 countries with macroecological data on species diversity and nature characteristics for Europe. Human well-being was measured as self-reported life-satisfaction and species diversity as the species richness of several taxonomic groups (e.g. birds, mammals and trees). . . . bird species richness… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Mental and physical work can take multiple forms.  Mental work is doing the book keeping for your business or some other “knowledge-“ type work or maybe even thinking creatively to solve some sort of problem or just because.  Physical work ranges from exercise to the laundry to adding a room onto your home to many other things that, for the faint of heart among us, lead us to sweat just thinking about them. The single most important thing that the… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Wang and colleagues link clothing worn and food selections made, it may be possible to apply their findings  more generally, but whether this sort of extension is reasonable will need to be directly investigated.   The Wang-lead team found that “formal and informal clothes styles can activate different clothes-image associations and thus make consumers more likely choose a food type (healthy or unhealthy) that is congruent with a specific set of clothes-image associations, referred to as clothes-food congruence. For example, wearing… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Whether you’re doing mental or physical work, the space you are in should come complete with lots of natural light.  Natural light is good for our mood and that has benefits for how good we are at problem solving, thinking creatively, getting along with others, basically all the things required for modern life. Since there are times when natural light is just not sufficient (the extreme case of this is at night, of course).  Science also makes it clear what… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

The space in this photograph is a fine place to spend some time. Nothing says “cosy winter afternoon” faster than a fireplace fire. Staring into those flames is, what’s known in the psych biz, as “cognitively restorative.” Cognitive restoration is a fancy way of saying that looking at that fire helps us restock our levels of mental energy after we’ve depleted them doing something that saps our brain’s reserves, such as concentrating on solving a problem—which explains why after a… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Are you following The Great British Bake-Off?  If you are, that’s great because Bake-Off’s sets are doing all sorts of good things from an environmental psych perspective. The Bake-Off happens in a tent, which is pretty astounding.  Except over campfires, when toasting a marshmallow, is about as sophisticated as cooking gets, not much takes place food-wise outside.  There’s research indicating that doing a usual activity in an unusual location can spur us to think more creatively, which may be why… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Happily, for most of us, most of the time, are noses are doing their job and we can pick up odours in the world around us.  Scientific studies consistently link particular smells to particular outcomes. Before thinking about any particular smells, it’s important to know that when a person smells a smell that they themselves categorize as pleasant, their mood improves, that means they’re better at problem solving, creative thinking, and getting along with other people, for example.  We may… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Winter – This is temperature tango time, the months of the year when there are lots and lots of heated debates about where to set the thermostat. Science can end this discussion before it does any more damage to what might otherwise be positive relationships. The research is clear: at temperatures set between 68 and 74 degrees Fahrenheit (20 and 23.3 degrees centigrade), with humidity levels from 40% to 70%, our cognitive performance is optimized.  To think and reason to your… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Seeing oneself in a mirror makes it more likely we’ll follow the rules that our society has set for us, so they’re good options for places such as entry areas where properly stowing boots and mittens is desirable. We’re also less likely to eat unhealthy foods that we select for ourselves when we see ourselves in a mirror.  However, people who are alone, perhaps because they’re older, can benefit from eating in a location where they can see themselves in… Become a member and log in to view this content and all the articles on The Space Doctors! Please click here to sign up Already a member? Log in here

Since the first of our ancestors set up a home and cared about the experiences of people living there, there has been environmental psychology. Whenever people developing or managing spaces have cared about making sure that people, individually and in groups, work to their full potential, get along with others, think creatively, or, in short, do or don’t do a myriad of things, environmental psychologists have been at work. Environmental psychology was formally recognized as a field in the 1960s by the American Psychological Association and others. Environmental psych was originally known as architectural psychology but changed its name to environmental psych to recognize that some research and practical work involves the design of objects.  Today, environmental psychologists study and help create all sorts of areas, indoors and out, all with the goal of helping people live the sorts of lives they have planned, via design. Environmental psychologists consider issues such as: How are our emotions and behaviour affected by surface colours? Patterns?  Colours of light? What about light intensity? How do textures influence us emotionally? Are some naturally calming? Is it important whether we see them or feel them? How do sounds affect our mental state? What sorts of…

People wearing or near more saturated colours are perceived as being more extraverted and open to experience, than people who aren’t; apparently viewers judging others don’t consider the possibility that a sweater or shirt we’re wearing may have come to us via a sibling or cousin who is Marie Kondo’ing their life. Pazda and Thorstenson found that people “surrounded by (or wearing) high-chroma [saturation] colours were perceived as more extraverted and open than when surrounded by (or wearing) low-chroma colours.” A.Pazda and C. Thorstenson. 2019.  “Colour Intensity Increases Perceived Extraversion and Openness for Zero-Acquaintance Judgments.”  Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 147, pp. 118-127, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid/2019.04.022

In 2020, Classic Blue was named colour of the year by Pantone Color Institute, a leading source of colour expertise, the Pantone Color Institute provides colour insights and solutions and announces a different colour every year. Selecting Classic Blue as the colour for 2020 has proved a prophetic choice.  People crave familiarity when stressed, and 2020 has been quite a stressful year for many individuals—Classic Blue is nothing if not a familiar colour.  Also, blues tend to be linked to thoughts of credibility, trustworthiness, and competence, all of which are desirable associations as the world collectively tunnels its way out from under a pandemic. Across the planet, people are also more likely to select a blue as their favorite colour than any other colour, and Classic Blue is a middle-of-the-road blue, so people are likely to have positive feelings about its use, on clothes, appliances, furnishings, and throughout our worlds. An additional benefit of Classic Blue:  people generally feel cooler in a space that features cool colours, so maybe its use will save a little on the energy consumed for air conditioning as our climate warms. Bravo Pantone for picking Classic Blue as the colour of the year for 2020.  You’ve…

If you or someone you know has colour blindness you might find that you are having difficulty identifying and differentiating between certain colours. Often the struggle is between red, green and yellow, some confuse reds and blacks and others see colours as slightly faded. Both people who are colour blind and those who are choosing colours for spaces that will be used by people who are colour blind will find the information here (http://colourblindpal.com) handy.  Tools at the Colour Blind Pal site allow people with colour vision to see the world as a colour blind person does and to identify colours that are easily distinguished, etc., by colour blind individuals.

Infants have colour vision, just like adults, using only black and white in spaces for them isn’t desirable.  Children are more apt to say that their favorite colour is red than adults, but actually, do generally prefer environments heavy on cool surface colours. As kids age and become oldsters, very old oldsters, the yellow of the lens of their eyes starts to yellow and that causes their colour vision to evolve as well.  As we get old, we also start to see colours as less saturated than they actually are, which not only changes the experience of particular colours already in place but also options that are selected for new use, all of which can lead to somewhat strained conversations between senior citizens and others, all looking at the same things. 

[restrict] To settle a continuing dispute in many homes, women do indeed have better colour vision than men (men’s vision is more tuned to moving objects than women’s).  So, if you’re trying to decide if two colours of paint or whatever are the same or different, rely on a woman’s opinion. While we’re on the subject of gender and vision, it’s important to note that females prefer redder shades than males, so the blue that’s their favourite is likely to be a little different than the blue that’s the favourite of males they share space with.

Around the world, when people are asked what their favourite colour is they are more likely to say it is blue than any other colour.  The colour that people are most likely to say is their least favourite colour is a particularly yellow-ish yellow-green.  You know what your own favourite colour is and also the favourite colours of whomever you share your home with, and you should use them whenever appropriate.  Knowing about blue and yellow-green can come in handy if you’re painting rooms in your home before you put it up for sale or something similar.  If you want perspective buyers to think more positively about your home, paint spaces blue. 

Seeing the colour pink seems to help women think more optimistically.  Maybe this is the colour to be looking at while working with a new recipe for the first time, working out your life-plan or embarking on a do-it-yourself home renovation project.