School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing 210003, China.
Department of Environmental Health, Nanjing Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Nanjing 210003, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 Jun 13;15(6):1256. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15061256.
Indoor physical environments appear to influence learning efficiency nowadays. For improvement in learning efficiency, environmental scenarios need to be designed when occupants engage in different learning tasks. However, how learning efficiency is affected by indoor physical environment based on task types are still not well understood. The present study aims to explore the impacts of three physical environmental factors (i.e., temperature, noise, and illuminance) on learning efficiency according to different types of tasks, including perception, memory, problem-solving, and attention-oriented tasks. A 3 × 4 × 3 full factorial design experiment was employed in a university classroom with 10 subjects recruited. Environmental scenarios were generated based on different levels of temperature (17 °C, 22 °C, and 27 °C), noise (40 dB(A), 50 dB(A), 60 dB(A), and 70 dB(A)) and illuminance (60 lx, 300 lx, and 2200 lx). Accuracy rate (AC), reaction time (RT), and the final performance indicator (PI) were used to quantify learning efficiency. The results showed ambient temperature, noise, and illuminance exerted significant main effect on learning efficiency based on four task types. Significant concurrent effects of the three factors on final learning efficiency was found in all tasks except problem-solving-oriented task. The optimal environmental scenarios for top learning efficiency were further identified under different environmental interactions. The highest learning efficiency came in thermoneutral, relatively quiet, and bright conditions in perception-oriented task. Subjects performed best under warm, relatively quiet, and moderately light exposure when recalling images in the memory-oriented task. Learning efficiency peaked to maxima in thermoneutral, fairly quiet, and moderately light environment in problem-solving process while in cool, fairly quiet and bright environment with regard to attention-oriented task. The study provides guidance for building users to conduct effective environmental intervention with simultaneous controls of ambient temperature, noise, and illuminance. It contributes to creating the most suitable indoor physical environment for improving occupants learning efficiency according to different task types. The findings could further supplement the present indoor environment-related standards or norms with providing empirical reference on environmental interactions.
如今,室内物理环境似乎会影响学习效率。为了提高学习效率,当学习者从事不同的学习任务时,需要设计环境场景。然而,基于任务类型,室内物理环境如何影响学习效率仍未得到很好的理解。本研究旨在根据不同类型的任务(包括感知、记忆、解决问题和注意力导向任务),探索三种物理环境因素(即温度、噪声和照度)对学习效率的影响。在一间大学教室里进行了一项 3 × 4 × 3 完全因子设计实验,招募了 10 名受试者。根据不同的温度(17 °C、22 °C 和 27 °C)、噪声(40 dB(A)、50 dB(A)、60 dB(A) 和 70 dB(A))和照度(60 lx、300 lx 和 2200 lx)水平,生成环境场景。准确率(AC)、反应时间(RT)和最终绩效指标(PI)用于量化学习效率。结果表明,环境温度、噪声和照度对四种任务类型的学习效率均有显著的主效应。在所有任务中,除了解决问题导向的任务外,还发现了三个因素对最终学习效率的显著并发效应。在不同的环境相互作用下,进一步确定了最佳的环境场景,以获得最高的学习效率。在感知导向任务中,在热中性、相对安静和明亮的条件下,学习效率最高。在记忆导向任务中,当回忆图像时,受试者在温暖、相对安静和适度光照下表现最佳。在解决问题的过程中,学习效率在热中性、相当安静和适度光照的环境中达到最大值,而在注意力导向任务中,在凉爽、相当安静和明亮的环境中达到最大值。本研究为用户提供了指导,以便在同时控制环境温度、噪声和照度的情况下进行有效的环境干预。它有助于为改善不同任务类型的学习者的学习效率创造最适合的室内物理环境。研究结果可以为现有的室内环境相关标准或规范提供经验参考,进一步补充环境相互作用的内容。