Darrell L. Butler

Preferred Lighting Levels Variability among Settings, Behaviors, and Individuals

Typically, studies of illumination have emphasized its effects on performance of specific tasks. The present study instead examined preference for lighting levels. Among the reasons for investigating preferences is that preference measures theoretically include a variety of human reactions to lighting, including comfort, aesthetics, and performance. The purposes of Experiment 1 were to obtain preferences for lighting levels, judgments of the importance of lighting levels, and judgments about the desirability of controlling lighting level for 43 behavior settings of college students. The purposes of Experiment 2 were to replicate part of Experiment 1 and extend the research to other common behaviors occurring in the same settings studied in Experiment 1. Results indicated large differences in the variety of lighting preferred for various behaviors and settings. Judgments of importance of lighting level had a quadratic relationship to preferred illumination, that is, importance was greater for behavior settings preferred either dark or bright. Importance and control were strongly linearly related. Implications for I ES standards and future research are discussed.

Effects of Setting on Window Preferences and Factors Associated with Those Preferences

Window preference research on a few settings has found that windows are generally preferred and that larger windows are preferred over smaller ones. No theoretical model of window preferences, however, has been proposed. The present experiment was designed to investigate window preferences across a large variety of common spaces and to examine reasons orfactors that may underlie these preferences with the ultimate goal of predicting them. Window preferences, in terms of size, number, and degree of transparency were made for 14 common spaces. Subjects then indicated the factors underlying their specific preferences from a list of 18 potential factors. Results showed that both window preferences and factors vary more widely than previous research would indicate. More important, however, it was demonstrated that the amount of windows desired in a space can be reliably predicted by knowing how important specific factors (e.g., having a view or good ventilation) are to individuals in that space.

An Arousal Optimization Model of Lighting Level Preferences An Interaction of Social Situation and Task Demands

Both the lighting level of a setting and the social situation can affect arousal. If individuals attempt to maintain an optimal arousal level, then preferred lighting levels for a particular setting should vary with social variables. The purpose of this study was to examine this hypothesis. Male and female subjects (N = 105) were presented with 48 hypothetical situations and were asked to indicate their lighting level preferences for each. Some of the situations involved activities requiring a high degree of visual attention, while the other situations involved activities of a nonvisual nature. Activities were crossed with a social variable: a platonic friend present, a romantic partner present, or a group of platonic friends present. Across all activities, brightness preferences for the romantic partner situations were significantly lower than preferences for either the platonic friend situations or the group of friends situations. The effect of the social situation was very strong for nonvisual activities, but it was considerably weakened for visual activities. Also, brightness preferences were lower for situations with a group of friends than with one friend, but only for complex tasks. The results are consistent with arousal optimization theory.

Graphics in psychology: Pictures, data, and especially concepts

Over the last 50 years, psychologists have included numerous graphics in their journals and textbooks. The textbooks have contained mostly pictures, whereas the journals have contained mostly data graphs. Surprisingly, conceptual graphs (such as a network chart of the relations among types of memory) have been very infrequent. There are two main reasons for this absence of conceptual graphs: a lack of awareness of the important role that they have played in the history of our discipline, and a lack of knowledge about how to make them. Four types of conceptual graphs are presented here: mathematical graphs (e.g., Fechner’s law), geometric models (e.g., Henning’s smell prism), networks (e.g., Atkinson and Shiffrin’s STM-LTM model), and EulerVenn graphs (e.g., Shiffrin and Schneider’s model of control and automatic processes). Suggestions are offered forheuristics that can be used to facilitate the perception of conceptual relations in these graphs. It is argued that appropriate conceptual graphs can help researchers and theorists communicate the “big picture” relevant to their ideas, can help educators more effectively communicate with students, and may help clinical psychologists communicate their ideas to clients better.

Effects of View and Room Size on Window Size Preferences Made in Models

Window size preferences were studied in two experiments using a 1/12 scale model. In the first experiment, subjects viewed small-to medium-sized offices. The experiment showed that window preferences are affected by room size. Preferred window size is not a constant proportion of wall size. Rather, a larger proportion is preferred for smaller rooms. Second, the experiment showed that scenes perceived as more beautiful lead to larger preferred windows. Third, office work experience of subjects had no effect on preferences. Experiment 2, which incorporated several changes, confirmed all three of these findings. In addition, this experiment showed that window size preferences are also affected by the type of the room. Subjects viewing the same model preferred smaller windows for a computer work room than for an office.

An evaluation of statistical software for research and instruction

A variety of microcomputer statistics packages were evaluated. The packages were compared on a number of dimensions, including error handling, documentation, statistical capability, and accuracy. Results indicated that there are some very good packages available both for instruction and for analyzing research data. In general, the microcomputer packages were easier to learn and to use than were mainframe packages. Furthermore, output of mainframe packages was found to be less accurate than output of some of the microcomputer packages.

Selection of software in the instructional laboratory

In this paper, I discuss a number of issues concerning software selection in instructional laboratories. First, I describe several taxonomies of instructional software and argue that the most important dimension of instructional software is that it must be an efficient tool. Second, I discuss some elements of the context of the instructional lab, including sophistication of users. Third, I explore design features, especially those related to ease of learning to use packages. Several other issues are also considered, such as where to find software reviews.

Predicting the perception of three-dimensional objects from the geometrical information in drawings.

Three experiments investigated the hypothesis that perceived dimensionality of drawings of an object increases with the complexity of the drawings. Experiment 1 examined drawings of transparent objects. The results strongly supported this hypothesis: Judgments of each object tested increased approximately as step functions of complexity. In addition, the complexity at which the step occurred increased with the complexity of the object. Similar results were obtained in Experiment 2, which investigated drawings of solid objects. These experiments also provided support for a measure of complexity that includes a measure of how much is in the drawing as well as how organized the drawing is. In Experiment 2, there were some judgments that did not fit the hypothesis. Experiment 3 investigated the possibility that the deviant judgments were produced by alternate three-dimensional interpretations of the drawings. Results indicated that 12% of the drawings had multiple three-dimensional interpretations, but this did not explain the deviant judgments. Several methods of expanding the complexity hypothesis to handle the multiple interpretations and the deviant judgments are discussed.

A critical evaluation of software for experiment development in research and teaching

This paper compares several software packages that allow users to create new computer-run experiments, but do not require that users be able to program. Three dimensions are considered: package requirements, ease of learning, and power and flexibility.

Instructional programs for psychology: A review and analysis

This paper presents 10 general observations about current software for instruction in psychology and examines selected examples employing four instructional techniques for computer-assisted instruction. We find that although the number of programs employing experimental or data-oriented approaches to psychology as a primary vehicle of instruction is increasing, tutorial drill and practice programs and gaming are not well represented.