Classroom design has important effects on the cognitive functions of students. However, this relationship has rarely been analysed in terms of gender. The aim of the present study, therefore, is to analyse the influence of different design variables (classroom geometry, wall colour, and artificial lighting) on university students’ memories from a gender perspective. To do so, 100 university students performed a memory task while visualising different design configurations using a virtual reality setup. Key results show that certain parameters, such as 5.23 m classroom width, 10,500 Kelvin lighting colour temperature, or the blue hue on the walls influence men and women in a similar way, while a purple hue or walls with low colour saturation can generate significantly different behaviour, especially in cognitive processes such as short-term memory. In this study, the use of virtual reality proved to be a useful tool to explore the design effects of virtual learning environments, increasingly present due to training trends and catalysed by the 2020 pandemic. This is a turning point and an international novelty as it will enable the design of classrooms (both physical and virtual) that maximise the cognitive functions of learners, regardless of gender.
A fundamental problem in the design of a classroom is to identify what characteristics it should have in order to optimize learning. This is a complex problem because learning is a construct related to several cognitive processes. The aim of this study is to maximize learning, represented by the processes of attention, memory, and preference, depending on six classroom parameters: height, width, color hue, color saturation, color temperature, and illuminance. Multi-objective integer linear programming with three objective functions and 56 binary variables was used to solve this optimization problem. Virtual reality tools were used to gather the data; novel software was used to create variations of virtual classrooms for a sample of 112 students. Using an interactive method, more than 4700 integer linear programming problems were optimally solved to obtain 13 efficient solutions to the multi-objective problem, which allowed the decision maker to analyze all the information and make a final choice. The results showed that achieving the best cognitive processing performance involves using different classroom configurations. The use of a multi-objective interactive approach is interesting because in human behavioral studies, it is important to consider the judgement of an expert in order to make decisions.
Different variables affect the performance of university students. Motivation is one of them, so teachers try to enhance it through their teaching methodologies. However, most of the studies focused on the influence of motivation come from a single experimental situation, so extrinsic variables such as the specific design of the classroom could be affecting it simultaneously. Therefore, although there are reasons to consider that higher motivation helps to increase cognitive performance, the quantification of this relationship is not clear. This was the aim of the present study: to evaluate the relationship of motivation in students' cognitive performance in different design situations, so that the design effect is diluted. For this purpose, a field study was conducted. 100 university students carried out cognitive performance tests in two very different real classrooms, after which they were asked about their motivation. The quantification of performance focused on memory (remembering an auditory list of words, similar to the experiments based on the DRM paradigm) and attention (reaction time to auditory stimuli, similar to the auditory and continuous performance experiments). The quantification of motivation was done through the Spanish version of the EMSI scale, making it possible to discern between intrinsic motivation, external regulation, identified regulation, and amotivation. The results show that there are very strong relationships between motivation and performance in attention and memory; especially in attention. Results may be of interest for educators and for researchers.
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