Abstract:

The built environment influences the cognitive processes of its users. Previous literature has reported that in university classrooms, noise have detrimental effects on students’ performance. However, work is often approached without taking into account that other variables can affect the user therapeutically. In particular, artificial lighting: it has been found that can independently affect these same cognitive processes. So as today technical solutions permit modification of lighting parameters as its intensity, studying it in conjunction with acoustics should be tackled. Could some attention and memory problems caused by poor acoustics be overcome by a specific lighting intensity? The main objective of this project is to study the effect of the combination of acoustic intensity with this lighting intensity on the performance in attention and memory of university students. To quantify this, a laboratory field study was conducted. 120 participants were exposed to different experiences of a virtual classroom, modified in a controlled manner consisting the above-mentioned parameters: low (44 dBA), medium (54 dBA) and high (64 dBA) acoustic intensities with low (100 lx), medium (300 lx), and high (500 lx) lighting intensities; resulting in 9 combinations. The results indicate that the negative effects of some intensities can be compensated by specific intensities, but differently whether it is attention or memory. The results presented may be of interest to designers and managers of teaching spaces.

Keywords:

Classroom design, attention, memory, virtual reality, neuroarchitecture.