Masaaki Higuchi

Indoor odor exposure effects on psycho-physiological states during intellectual tasks and rest

The responses of five human subjects to two indoor airborne odors (mint and cypress) were examined to determine the effect of perceived air quality and odor type and duration on several psycho-physiological variables during periods of rest and while performing intellectual tasks. An olfactometer system was installed in a climate chamber at the University of Tokyo, with the nozzle located on a desk just to the right of the task-performance screen. The odor concentration presented to the subject was adjusted to keep the perceived odor intensity constant at level 2 (weak) as established in a pretest. Subjects performed a simulated office task, 12 min of Sudoku (number placing puzzle), or rested for 7 min. The task and the rest periods were repeated six times each (except for first and last rests) during one days exposure. Odor exposures during tasks and rest involved one of the two odors for either a short or long period. During the 3 min between a task and rest, subjects rated their perceptions of odor intensity, degree of odor preference (enjoyment, pleasing quality), comfort, indoor air satisfaction, effect on work efficiency, and several other affective responses. Heart rate variability was continuously monitored by electrocardiographs to assess the activity of the autonomic nervous system. Exposure to a preferred odor may improve comfort, satisfaction, and mood, as well as increase self-reported work efficiency; it may also enhance the activity of the parasympathetic system. Sensitivity to a preferred odor was higher at rest than during a task. The exposure time that produces a positive effect on a subjects physiological responses differs with activity level, being 1 min during work and 10 min when at rest.

Psychological experiment on the evaluation system of creativity

Creativity can be understood to mean many different things, and researchers study creativity from widely varying points of view. One target for the present research is the process of creative thinking. The focus is on the subjective evaluation that such thinking is beautiful, excellent, amazing, and creative. The hypothesis: that which is creative is attractive. To investigate this hypothesis, subjects’ assessment of creativeness of their ideas were examined in three types of creative thinking tasks. Subjects undertook these tasks and evaluated attractiveness and creativeness of their own and others’ efforts intuitively. Their intuitive and subjective evaluation is largely a matter of emotion, and their measures of the evaluation are subconscious functions. There are high correlations between attractiveness and creativeness that is rated as novel and appropriate. In particular, there are very high correlations in one of the three tasks, named the new product test. The absence of correlation between novelty and appropriateness suggests that novelty and appropriateness are independent of each other. In all creative thinking tasks, answers can be obtained in sufficient quantity and with an adequate range of scores. The new product test in particular yields a range of responses from the highest score to the lowest. The results of this experiment support the hypothesis that what is creative is attractive. Furthermore, the considered thinking tasks should be valid for assessing the influence of the physical environment on creative performance.