Quantifying Stimulus-Affected Cinematic Spaces Using Psychophysiological Assessments to Indicate Enhanced Cognition and Sustainable Design Criteria

Abstract

Objectives: Converging architecture with cinema and cognition has proved to be a practical approach to scrutinizing architectural elements’ significant contribution to engineering science. In this research, a behavioral analysis has been conducted to examine if disruptive events in cinematic spaces can lead to an insightful perception of architectural qualities and enhanced interplay with the observed spaces to highlight mental health and improved cognitive tasks in sustainable design characteristics.Methods: The experiment was conducted in participants (N = 90) while watching three films with different stimuli to facilitate multivariate analyses. The HR, BP, SCL, and BT were measured while screening films to subjects. Psychological assessments of PANAS, TIPI, Chills, Pleasure, Arousal, Dominance, and NAQ were gathered to conduct correlation and regression analyses between variables. An independent space syntax analysis of film plans was also performed to compare film spaces’ properties.Results: Analyses show that physiological responses of HR, BP, SCL, and BT showed a meaningful relationship with the event intensity. Psychological assessments of Chills, SAM, and NAQ also depicted a meaningful relationship with the degree of stimuli during the movie screenings. Regression analyses illustrated that the age factor had a significant relationship with Arousal (p-value = 0.04), Chills (p-value = 0.03), and Dominance (p-value = 0.00). The TIPI factor showed a meaningful relationship with Chills (p-value = 0.03) and Dominance (p-value = 0.00). PANAS PA factor’s relationship was significant on Chills (p-value = 0.00), Arousal (p-value = 0.04), and Dominance (p-value = 0.03), and the PANAS NA factor showed a meaningful relationship with Chills (p-value = 0.00) and Dominance (p-value = 0.05). The correlations in Chills–Arousal (p-value = 0.01), PANAS NA–TIPI (p-value = 0.01), NAQ–Pleasure (p-value = 0.05), and Arousal–Dominance (p-value = 0.00) were significant. Space syntax analyses also showed that film 3 had a mixed plan structure than the other two films. Factors such as area compactness, connectivity, visual entropy, controllability, and mean depth were influential in distinguishing film spaces.Conclusion: It has been concluded that the space with intensive disruption of architectural elements successfully indicated improved cognitive perception of spatial qualities, enhanced interaction, and signified sustainable design criteria. Evoking events disrupted the banalization of cinematic spaces, illustrating that the designed model can indicate a more homogenous evaluation of a sustainable environment.

Assessing the association between subjective evaluation of space qualities and physiological responses through cinematic environments’ emotion-eliciting stimuli

“…The physiological data were imported to SPSS software for analysis. The detailed procedure for collecting the biofeedback data conducted in this experiment has been discussed in a previous study ( Sakhaei et al, 2022b ). Compared to the earlier study, this experiment focuses on the correlation and regression analyses between architectural space qualities and physiological changes in a detailed quantitative approach.…”

“…The unconscious effect of physical spaces on psychological procedures ( Hochberg and Brunswik, 1954 ) works in a way that the characteristics of the space and affective potentials provoke perceptions and sensations that cause behaviors and responses ( Russell and Snodgrass, 1987 ; Vogels, 2008 ). On the other hand, emotion plays a decisive role in subjective environmental perception ( Sakhaei et al, 2022b ), which encompasses different positive or negative affective states that represent motivational phenomena from neuro-physiological, experiential, or expressive factors in the environment ( Dormann, 2003 ). Multiple studies have highlighted the architecture-emotion interactions in which effective spatial stimuli arouse emotions ( Altman and Stodols, 1987 ; Cohen and Areni, 1991 ; Cacioppo et al, 2000 ; Radberg and Steffner, 2003 ; Cho and Kim, 2017 ).…”

The role of place branding in promoting social capital in urban areas (case study: Ahvaz, Iran)

“…In centralist structures based on a traditional perspective, general and inflexible divisions of social capital, i.e., networks of cooperation and mutual trust are not formed (He et al, 2021). Neighborhood planning emphasizes that neighborhood residents, through the shared and long experience of living in an environment, can identify many of the needs and necessities of their daily lives and, in coordination with senior management, help create sustainable urban neighborhoods (Sakhaei, Yeganeh, Afhami, 2022). It has more time and space on a local scale.…”

Reflections on the battle against COVID-19: The effects of emotional design factors on the communication of audio-visual art

“…In this process, the audience is required to combine their knowledge, experience, and perception to decipher and decode ( Formilan and Stark, 2021 ). Evoking attention by showing audio-visual artistic works activates the motor system and embodiment as the emotional–motivational state is linked with cognitive processes in human–environment interactions from a sensory-cognitive structure ( Izard, 2013 ; Sakhaei et al, 2022 ). Mcluhan (2000) proposed that the medium was an extension of human beings, and audio-visual media had a strong influence on people’s touch, and thus made people’s perception a three-dimensional structure.…”