Search for: All records

In modern workplaces, the well-being and productivity of employees are increasingly recognized as essential for organizational success. This study explores the impact of lighting interventions—specifically, Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) and illumination intensity—on stress and cognitive function restoration among office workers. A between-subjects experimental design involving 100 participants assessed the effects of various lighting conditions on stress responses and cognitive performance after exposure to stress-inducing and cognitive fatigue tasks. Five experimental conditions were studied: 100 lux & 7000 K, 100 lux & 3000 K, 1000 lux & 7000 K, 1000 lux & 3000 K, and a baseline condition of 500 lux at 3700 K. Results indicated that lighting conditions significantly influence both physiological stress markers (such as skin conductance level and heart rate) and cognitive performance. Specifically, warm, and dimmed lighting (3000 K, 100 lux) effectively reduced stress markers and perceived stress levels, aligning with theories suggesting the calming effects of warmer white light tones. Conversely, cooler lighting (7000 K) was associated with enhanced cognitive performance and reduced cognitive fatigue, potentially due to its similarity to natural daylight, stimulating an alert state conducive to mental tasks. These findings suggest that lighting interventions offer a non-intrusive strategy to improve well-being and productivity in office environments, particularly addressing acute symptoms. 

Misinformation around scientific issues is rampant on social media platforms, raising concerns among educators and science communicators. A variety of approaches have been explored to confront this growing threat to science literacy. For example, refutations have been used both proactively as warning labels and in attempts to inoculate against misconceptions, and retroactively to debunk misconceptions and rebut science denialism. Refutations have been used by policy makers and scientists when communicating with the general public, yet little is known about their effectiveness or consequences. Given the interest in refutational approaches, we conducted a comprehensive, pre-registered meta-analysis comparing the effect of refutation texts to non-refutation texts on individuals’ misconceptions about scientific information. We selected 71 articles (53 published and 18 unpublished) that described 76 studies, 111 samples, and 294 effect sizes. We also examined 26 moderators. Overall, our findings show a consistent and statistically significant advantage of refutation texts over non-refutation texts in controlled experiments confronting scientific misconceptions. We also found that moderators neither enhanced nor diminished the impact of the refutation texts. We discuss the implications of using refutations in formal and informal science learning contexts and in science communications from three theoretical perspectives. 

Our technological, information-rich society thrives because of scientific thinking. However, a comprehensive theory of the development of scientific thinking remains elusive. Building on previous theoretical and empirical work in conceptual change, the role of credibility and plausibility in evaluating scientific evidence and claims, science engagement, active learning in STEM education, and the development of empirical thinking, we chart a pathway toward a comprehensive theory of the development of scientific thinking as an example of theory building in action. We detail the structural similarity and progressive transformation of our models and perspectives, highlighting factors for incorporation into a novel theory. This theory will focus on beneficial outcomes of a more collaborative scientific community and increasing scientific literacy through deeper science understanding for all people. 

Previous studies have primarily focused on predicting stress arousal, encompassing physiological, behavioral, and psychological responses to stressors, while neglecting the examination of stress appraisal. Stress appraisal involves the cognitive evaluation of a situation as stressful or non-stressful, and as a threat/pressure or a challenge/opportunity. In this study, we investigated several research questions related to the association between states of stress appraisal (i.e., boredom, eustress, coexisting eustress-distress, distress) and various factors such as stress levels, mood, productivity, physiological and behavioral responses, as well as the most effective ML algorithms and data signals for predicting stress appraisal. The results support the Yerkes-Dodson law, showing that a moderate stress level is associated with increased productivity and positive mood, while low and high levels of stress are related to decreased productivity and negative mood, with distress overpowering eustress when they coexist. Changes in stress appraisal relative to physiological and behavioral features were examined through the lenses of stress arousal, activity engagement, and performance. An XGBOOST model achieved the best prediction accuracies of stress appraisal, reaching 82.78% when combining physiological and behavioral features and 79.55% using only the physiological dataset. The small accuracy difference of 3% indicates that physiological data alone may be adequate to accurately predict stress appraisal, and the feature importance results identified electrodermal activity, skin temperature, and blood volume pulse as the most useful physiologic features. Implementing these models within work environments can serve as a foundation for designing workplace policies, practices, and stress management strategies that prioritize the promotion of eustress while reducing distress and boredom. Such efforts can foster a supportive work environment to enhance employee well-being and productivity. 

We investigated the physiological (heart rate variability) and psychological (state of anxiety, pleasantness, and comfort) effects of ambient bergamot scent on the stress levels of office workers by exposing them to the scent while stressors persisted as the workers continued to work on the office tasks. Forty-eight young adults were randomly assigned to either a control or scent group. Our results show that the stress restoration effect of bergamot scent depends on gender. The change in heart rate variability revealed that bergamot scent increased stress among males but not for females. The reported pleasantness and comfort followed the same trend. Compared to the control groups, females in the scent group thought the office smelled pleasant and felt more comfortable, but males in the scent group reported the opposite. However, no gender effect was found in the level of state anxiety. Specifically, compared to the control groups, both males and females exposed to the bergamot scent self-reported decreasing stress levels. This inconsistency between self-reported stress and physiological measurements is not uncommon, especially among males who are socialized to downplay emotional experiences. Our data suggest that there is indeed a gender difference in the effectiveness of the bergamot scent for reducing stress in office workers.