Adam C. Roberts

A Psychosocial Approach to Understanding Underground Spaces

With a growing need for usable land in urban areas, subterranean development has been gaining attention. While construction of large underground complexes is not a new concept, our understanding of various socio-cultural aspects of staying underground is still at a premature stage. With projected emergence of underground built environments, future populations may spend much more of their working, transit, and recreational time in underground spaces. Therefore, it is essential to understand the challenges and advantages that such environments have to improve the future welfare of users of underground spaces. The current paper discusses various psycho-social aspects of underground spaces, the impact they can have on the culture shared among the occupants, and possible solutions to overcome some of these challenges.

Processing of Phonemic Consonant Length: Semantic and Fragment Priming Evidence from Bengali.

Six cross-modal lexical decision tasks with priming probed listeners’ processing of the geminate–singleton contrast in Bengali, where duration alone leads to phonemic contrast ([pata] ‘leaf’ vs. [pat:a] ‘whereabouts’), in order to investigate the phonological representation of consonantal duration in the lexicon. Four form-priming experiments (auditory fragment primes and visual targets) were designed to investigate listeners’ sensitivity to segments of conflicting duration. Each prime derived from a real word ([kʰɔm]/[gʰenː]) was matched with a mispronunciation of the opposite duration (*[kʰɔmː]/*[gʰen]) and both were used to prime the full words [kʰɔma] (‘forgiveness’) and [gʰenːa] (‘disgust’) respectively. Although all fragments led to priming, the results showed an asymmetric pattern. The fragments of words with singletons mispronounced as geminates led to equal priming, while those with geminates mispronounced as singletons showed a difference. The priming effect of the real-word geminate fragment was significantly greater than that of its corresponding nonword singleton fragment. In two subsequent semantic priming tasks with full-word primes a stronger asymmetry was found: nonword geminates (*[kʰɔmːa]) primed semantically related words ([marjona] ‘forgiveness’) but singleton nonword primes (*[gʰena]) did not show priming. This overall asymmetry in the tolerance of geminate nonwords in place of singleton words is attributed to a representational mismatch and points towards a moraic representation of duration. While geminates require a mora which cannot be derived from singleton input, the additional information in geminate nonwords does not create a similar mismatch.

Design for climate resilience: influence of environmental conditions on thermal sensation in subtropical high-density cities

ABSTRACT Although outdoor thermal comfort has gained increasing research attention, meteorological conditions and thermal sensation in different urban settings in high-density cities have not been systematically studied from the perspective of urban planning and design. Considering the potential relationship between environmental quality and thermal sensation in outdoor spaces— an emerging topic in perceived comfort, this study offers a new approach for planning and design for climate resilience in cities. This paper presents the results of an outdoor thermal comfort survey conducted on hot summer days in Hong Kong. Diverse patterns of PET-comfort ratings relationships were found in different urban settings. The study revealed that air temperature, subjective assessments of solar radiation and wind environment were strong determinants of thermal sensation and evaluation. In our analysis, wind condition showed a significant indirect effect on comfort through subjective perception. Statistical modelling showed that subjective perceptions on microclimate condition and comfort are moderated by various aspects of environmental quality. The findings of this study help inform future design for climate resilience in outdoor urban spaces in hot-humid subtropical cities.

Digging Deep: The Effect of Design on the Social Behavior and Attitudes of People Working in Underground Workplaces in Europe

With the cities of the world grappling with the ever-increasing challenge of land scarcity, sustainable solutions such as Underground Workplaces (UW) have been getting renewed interest. However, considering the hefty investments that will go into building UW and since the success of this solution relies on the wellbeing of the people who are to occupy it, there is a need to examine existing UW from a human factor point of view. In this paper, we present an analysis of how design factors in UW affect the attitudes and social behavior of employees and how these perceptions and attitudes towards the workplace vary across different work types. According to our analysis organic elements, art, architecture and lighting affect social behavior and attitudes. These factors can be manipulated according to the type of work and environment in a way that is in line with company values. The paper also attempts to create a framework for how the significance of the work environment varies with the type of work and workplaces.

Underground Workspaces: A Human Factors Approach

With increasing population density in urban areas, underground space use in these urban centres is also on the rise. This can be in the form of more traditional underground (UG) facilities, such as water treatment plants and subway stations, but also more diversified uses such as underground offices and data centres. As these relatively novel underground workspaces are constructed, we need to take a human centric approach to ensure that the workers are happy and healthy. When designing any space, it is important to consider the relationships between the environmental, architectural characteristics and behavior and wellbeing. This is crucial in underground developments, as the initial cost of developing an underground space is significantly higher (at least in the short term) than aboveground and would have to be offset by a longer building life. Previous studies show negative attitudes towards working underground and hint at possible psychological and health complaints. Major themes include lighting and circadian rhythms, metabolic changes and claustrophobia. However, these studies are over thirty years old and mainly concentrate on self-report measures. To respond to this challenge, we have systematically examined the relationship between underground spaces and human performance in a 4 year research program. Using mixed methods such as psychophysiological measurements, cognitive tests and interviews, we examine the architectural and engineering choices that could impact or mitigate specific issues related to underground work environment.

The Influence of Room Size on Error Monitoring: Evidence from Event-Related Potential Responses

The effect of environment on human behavior is a central topic for many disciplines. Many physical properties of the built environment, such as room size, modulate human perception and cognition: for instance, restricted physical space may lead to the perception of confinement, and potentially alter human cognitive functions, preferences, and performance. In the present study, we investigated the influence of room size on inhibition control with an established cognitive task (The Eriksen Flanker Task), while participant underwent EEG (electroencephalogram) recording. Specifically, we tested whether making error responses in a small room would lead to greater emotional disturbance as compared to a big room. Consistent with previous studies, reaction time was longer in trials with correct responses than those with error responses. Interestingly, participants in the small room, but not the big room, showed faster reaction time in error trials. For EEG results, we measured error positivity (Pe), a component reflecting motivation of error detection and emotional state after error responses. Our findings showed a comparable error positivity (Pe) responses regardless of room size. Possible implications are discussed.

Attention and Vigilance

Many previous studies have examined the effect of working environment on job performance. However, these are usually site-specific experiments examining office workers, concentrating on self-report measures and peer assessments. An area of particular interest is whether computerised tests could be used to identify deficits in performance and associate these with specific environmental problems.