Moderately cold indoor temperatures’ effect on human attention:Immediate decrease in inhibiting erroneous responses

The aim of the study was to investigate whether a moderately cold indoor temperature, 15.5+- °C, has a negative effect on human attention. This was investigated in an experiment where 40 participants (18 women, M = 23.5 years, age range 20–33 years) partook in three commonly used attention demanding...

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Main Authors: Jonsson, Anton, Hedman, Sandra
Format: Others
Language:English
Published: Umeå universitet, Institutionen för psykologi 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-149550
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spelling ndltd-UPSALLA1-oai-DiVA.org-umu-1495502018-06-29T05:17:27ZModerately cold indoor temperatures’ effect on human attention:Immediate decrease in inhibiting erroneous responsesengJonsson, AntonHedman, SandraUmeå universitet, Institutionen för psykologiUmeå universitet, Institutionen för psykologi2018ErroneousresponsescoldtemperatureattentionhumaninhibitingPsychologyPsykologiThe aim of the study was to investigate whether a moderately cold indoor temperature, 15.5+- °C, has a negative effect on human attention. This was investigated in an experiment where 40 participants (18 women, M = 23.5 years, age range 20–33 years) partook in three commonly used attention demanding cognitive tests, where half of the participants were tested in a normal room temperature environment around 20+-1 °C and the remaining participants in a cooler temperature of 15.5+-2 °C. The three tests that were used were the Stroop Test, Trail Making Test A and B as well as the Dot Cancellation Test. The results from the study suggest that attention is significantly affected in tests where rapid, correct responses are demanded, since the lower indoor temperature in particular significantly affected the performance in the Stroop Test. This effect is suggested to originate from a performance decrease when inhibiting erroneous responses. Additional to this it is interesting to observe that the test time was short, 15-20 minutes in the test environment, thus the effect has been shown to affect rather immediately, during a short time period. Student thesisinfo:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesistexthttp://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-149550application/pdfinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
collection NDLTD
language English
format Others
sources NDLTD
topic Erroneous
responses
cold
temperature
attention
human
inhibiting
Psychology
Psykologi
spellingShingle Erroneous
responses
cold
temperature
attention
human
inhibiting
Psychology
Psykologi
Jonsson, Anton
Hedman, Sandra
Moderately cold indoor temperatures’ effect on human attention:Immediate decrease in inhibiting erroneous responses
description The aim of the study was to investigate whether a moderately cold indoor temperature, 15.5+- °C, has a negative effect on human attention. This was investigated in an experiment where 40 participants (18 women, M = 23.5 years, age range 20–33 years) partook in three commonly used attention demanding cognitive tests, where half of the participants were tested in a normal room temperature environment around 20+-1 °C and the remaining participants in a cooler temperature of 15.5+-2 °C. The three tests that were used were the Stroop Test, Trail Making Test A and B as well as the Dot Cancellation Test. The results from the study suggest that attention is significantly affected in tests where rapid, correct responses are demanded, since the lower indoor temperature in particular significantly affected the performance in the Stroop Test. This effect is suggested to originate from a performance decrease when inhibiting erroneous responses. Additional to this it is interesting to observe that the test time was short, 15-20 minutes in the test environment, thus the effect has been shown to affect rather immediately, during a short time period.
author Jonsson, Anton
Hedman, Sandra
author_facet Jonsson, Anton
Hedman, Sandra
author_sort Jonsson, Anton
title Moderately cold indoor temperatures’ effect on human attention:Immediate decrease in inhibiting erroneous responses
title_short Moderately cold indoor temperatures’ effect on human attention:Immediate decrease in inhibiting erroneous responses
title_full Moderately cold indoor temperatures’ effect on human attention:Immediate decrease in inhibiting erroneous responses
title_fullStr Moderately cold indoor temperatures’ effect on human attention:Immediate decrease in inhibiting erroneous responses
title_full_unstemmed Moderately cold indoor temperatures’ effect on human attention:Immediate decrease in inhibiting erroneous responses
title_sort moderately cold indoor temperatures’ effect on human attention:immediate decrease in inhibiting erroneous responses
publisher Umeå universitet, Institutionen för psykologi
publishDate 2018
url http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-149550
work_keys_str_mv AT jonssonanton moderatelycoldindoortemperatureseffectonhumanattentionimmediatedecreaseininhibitingerroneousresponses
AT hedmansandra moderatelycoldindoortemperatureseffectonhumanattentionimmediatedecreaseininhibitingerroneousresponses
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