The effects of dynamic lighting and nature soundscapes on human well-being, perceived restorativeness, and cognitive function

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Authors
Lim, Heejee, Amy
Issue Date
2024-08
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Electronic thesis
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en_US
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Architecture
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Abstract
This research extends on previous studies on acoustic and lighting on forest bathing to measure human well-being, cognitive effects and the perceived restorativeness of two experimental stimuli, soundscapes and lighting, presented to individuals indoors. Recent studies have shown that forest bathing has been proven to have multiple positive benefits on human health and well-being, which in itself has brought novel interest to explore how to reintroduce the forest bathing in urbanized indoor environments. Currently, there is no solid experimental foundation to suggest that recreation of nature through synthetic parameters indoors can positively affect individuals in well-being, cognitive function, and perceived restorativeness. This study is the implementation of lighting and acoustic interventions in an augmented indoor environment to stimulate lighting and sound conditions as if encountered in a typical wooded area to determine if these changes, likewise to forest bathing, could improve well-being, cognitive function, and perceived restorativeness with heart rate and heart rate variability testing, cognitive tasks, self-report stress and mood scales, and a perceived restorativeness scale. Results found that there was statistical significance only in the effect of time for heart rate, in the interaction between stimulus and group for State-Trait Inventory for Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety (STICSA) and the Digit Symbol Substition Task (DSST), and in the main effect of stimulus and group and stimulus interaction for the D2 test. Survey results showed a leaning preference towards the Nature condition to having restorative value while the Traffic and Nothing conditions did not
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August2024
School of Architecture
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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
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