Relationship Between Environment and Human Performance, Research Paper Example

The environment has a huge impact on how human beings perform. Depending on the time of the day, environmental conditions such as pressure illumination, sound and vibration, humans are impacted differently and their level of productivity varies. On the other hand, the effects caused by these environmental factors are not the same. However, when combined, they tend to have a combined effect that makes it hard for people to cope properly. In this analysis, a review of ten articles pertaining to the relationship between the environment and human performance has been done.

Objectives

In the article by Lawrence Berkeley, the objective is to determine the relationship between environmental temperature and office work performance.  As a result a result, the study measure indoor temperature and office performance as a way of coming up with the relationship that exists.

Nassiri et al. (2013) has also done a study on the relationship between the environment and human performance. Specifically, the objective of the study is to identify how noise and different levels of noise impact the performance of human beings.

According to the article by Iyer, Rattan and Soodan (2000), people flying at high altitudes are usually impacted by environmental factors like hypoxia, noise and vibration. As a result, the authors sought to investigate the hormonal responses and performance capabilities of the people onboard.

Light also has an effect on human performance. In this particular case, Heschong (2002) has done a study with the main objective being identifying how day lighting impacts human performance.  According to the article, the practice of using natural light has a significant impact on performance.

Room temperature is another aspect that impacts the performance of human beings. In the study by Kahl (2005), the objective was to study participants in a room on how room temperature was able to impact their reading, mathematics and memorization.

Szalma and Hancock (2011) have also contributed to the studies on the effects of environmental factors on human performance. In their study, the main objective is to identify the effects of noise on humans and the reasons behind the logic and prolonged exposure to the noise.

Pilcher, Nadler and Busch (2002) did a study on the effects of hot and cold temperature exposure on performance. Their main objective was to identify how various cognitive tasks are impacted by the temperatures and how people react.

Office environment is impacted by the various levels of temperature. As a result, Sepannen, Fisk and lei (2006) came up with a study to realize the effects of temperature on task performance in office environment. The main objective of the study is to identify temperature effects on human responses including perceived air quality and thermal comfort.

Lighting impacts human performance. However, Zill, Werth and Steidle (2012) have studied indoor lighting and how, and the type of effects it has on human performance. The main objective of the study is to come up with the specifications in humans that make them react in certain ways to lighting.

In this last article, the author has studied the collective human behavior in a crowd and their responses to the effects of sound. Cornwell et al. has studied how a simulated environment causes human reaction and impacts performance through music and noise.

Literature Reviews

In the study by Lawrence Berkeley, the study came up with a conclusion that temperature has an impact on human performance. However various factors impact the environment that a person works in and the factors include climate, clothing, thermal comfort and indoor air temperature. The study used literature review to come up with the findings.

Heschong (66) came up with results from her study that student performance is indeed impacted by day lighting. In the study, she used students where conditions like socio-economic status, the school size and special programs were kept constant. As a result, she identified that students in properly lit classrooms have higher scores that their counterparts in poorly lit classes.

In the study by Cornwell, they used protestors and security guards outside prisons. In the study they realized that the presence of music and chanting causes a change in the response of protestors to police aggression. As a result, the level of chanting and music is directly proportional to human response.

According to Nassiri et al., the combined conditions of noise are very special because of the impact they lay upon human beings. When sound pressure is high, there is a low level of concentration and when it is low, the concentration level of human beings tends to increase. Thus, they came up with the conclusion that sound is collision factor in human performance.

In studying the effect of hypoxia, noise and vibration on neuro-endocrine reactions, various psychological tasks are affected and this is according to Iyer, Rattan and Soodan. In the study, high altitude increases the influence of these factors on hormonal responses as compared to low altitudes. For a captain flying a plane, the combination of hypoxia, noise and vibration compromises a flight.

In the article by Kahl, room temperature has an effect on subjective physical comfort. However, in these findings, he identified that the type of activity that a person is engaging in is impacted differently by room temperature. In addition, he observed that room temperature impacts males and females differently.

Zill, Werth and Steidle did a meta-analysis on indoor lighting and its impact on human performance. In room lighting, there are various levels of lighting including high and low lighting. However, according to the article, low lighting negatively impacts human performance while high lighting has a positive impact on human performance.

Office environment and task performance have a direct correlation. In the study presented by Seppanen, Fisk and Lei, it is clear that performance increases with temperature and vice versa.  However, the performance is optimum between the temperature of 20 and 24 degree, below and above this threshold causes a significant decrease in human performance and efficiency.

In the meta-analysis by Pilcher, Nadler and Busch, hot and cold temperatures are not good for human performance. Instead, they identified neutral temperatures as ideal for optimum human performance. Additionally the type of task and the duration it will take to end also impacts the performance of persons in a home or office environment.

Noise just like light and pressure impacts human performance. Szalma and Hancock came up with the findings that the type of noise present in the environment is influential too human performance. The type of noise and whether it is intermittent or continuous has different impacts on human performance.

Viewpoint

According to the reviewed articles, it is clear that human performance is not constant. Instead, the environment that one is operating in is very effective to the performance level of people. In my view, the topic covered in the paper is very effective and its continuous study will improve the available literature. As a result, schools and work environments will receive upgrades depending so that the efficiency and effectiveness of students and workers is increased. In addition, the integration of environmental factors on human performance is interesting because of the different impacts that they separately have. As a result, the topic of discussion is a wide topic and having a keen interest in it will significantly enable future studies where convergent findings will arise.

Works Cited

Cornwell, Jason B., et al. “A demonstration of the PMF-extraction approach: Modeling the effects of sound on crowd behavior.” (2002).

Heschong, Lisa, Roger L. Wright, and Stacia Okura. “Daylighting impacts on human performance in school.” Journal of the Illuminating Engineering Society 31.2 (2002): 101-114.

Iyer, E. M., N. Rattan, and K. S. Soodan. “Effect of hypoxia, noise & vibration stress on human performance and neuro-endocrine reactions.” Ind J Aerospace Med 44 (2000): 21-27.

Kahl, Jonathan K. “Room temperature and task effects on arousal, comfort and performance.” UW-L Journal of Undergraduate Research VIII (2005).

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. “Impacts of Indoor Environments on Human

Performance and Productivity: Temperature and Office Work Performance.” Lawrence Berkeley. 2014.

Nassiri, P., et al. “The Effect of Noise on Human Performance: A Clinical Trial.” The international journal of occupational and environmental medicine 4.2 April (2013).

Nassiri, P., et al. “The Effect of Noise on Human Performance: A Clinical Trial.” The international journal of occupational and environmental medicine 4.2 April (2013).

Pilcher, June J., Eric Nadler, and Caroline Busch. “Effects of hot and cold temperature exposure on performance: a meta-analytic review.” Ergonomics 45.10 (2002): 682-698.

Seppänen, Olli, William J. Fisk, and Q. H. Lei. “Ventilation and performance in office work.” Indoor air 16.1 (2006): 28-36.

Szalma, James L., and Peter A. Hancock. “Noise effects on human performance: a meta-analytic synthesis.” Psychological bulletin 137.4 (2011): 682.