The Influence of Heat, Air Jet Cooling and Noise on Performance in Classrooms

Combined effects of environmental factors on human perception and objective performance: A review of experimental laboratory works

“…Forty‐five papers have been finally collected to review the most recent studies on combined effects of environmental factors upon human performance and comfort. Details are provided in the Appendix S1 (SI.2) and in particular in Table SI.1.…”

“…The majority of studies (Figure ) was designed for an unspecific target of buildings or was specifically designed to test interaction effects in office buildings . Just few articles focused on aircrafts or schools …”

“…As far as experimental procedures are concerned, distinction can be made between one‐stage and multi‐stage experiments, as indicated in Table SI.1. In the former—73% of laboratory studies—subjects are exposed to a single or to a series of exposure conditions for each experimental session, sometimes following a neutralization period; in any case, perception and performance are dealt by researchers as expression of a single exposure condition.…”

“…Samples of subjects participating in the experiments can undergo the different phases or tests according to some alternative approaches: in within‐subjects design ( w ), participants are subjected to every exposure condition; in between‐subjects design ( b ), they are exposed just to a single condition; and in a mixed design ( b/w ), subjects take part in several but not to all exposure conditions . Most of studies (80%) adopted a within‐subjects design, followed by between (11%) and a mixed design (9%).…”

“…On the contrary, for the latter, an antagonistic effect was found, in some cases limited to the identification of hidden figures in a problem‐solving task . About writing task performance, Kabanshi et al observed interaction only for the ability of spelling mistakes. A significant interaction, crossover in nature, was detected between noise and heat on the recall of a text, but results were not consistent with the inverted‐U hypothesis.…”