Atmosphere can be defined as the affective quality of an environment. Prior research has shown that music can influence how an environment is affectively perceived. In the current study, we systematically examined in three experiments how musical and spatial atmosphere interact and influence the overall valence of the atmosphere. In Experiments 1a ( n = 50) and 1b ( n = 136), we identified two rooms and two musical pieces that strongly contrast in the valence of perceived atmosphere. In Experiments 2 and 3, 32 participants each were exposed to the four combinations of rooms and music for 10-min periods on two different days. Perceived overall atmosphere was assessed. Musical and spatial valence both significantly affected the experienced overall valence of atmosphere. A significant interaction between music and room showed that making one aspect of a perfectly pleasant overall atmosphere negative had a much stronger effect than making one aspect positive in a totally unpleasant atmosphere. This suggests that pleasant atmospheres are particularly vulnerable, which might be explained by an attentional bias toward negative information. Future research should focus on examining fundamental psychological mechanisms underlying the constitution of perceived atmosphere.

Museums can be restorative environments that promote recovery from directed attention fatigue. The current study investigated the effect of the time spent in a museum on the perception of the museum as restorative environment. A total of 67 participants were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions that differed in how much time participants spent in the museum: 10 min, 45 min, or 110 min. Additionally, we assessed participants' subjective experience of the duration (i.e., too short, ideal, too long). As a baseline for nonrestorative environments, we measured the perceived restorativeness of the museum lobby and compared it with the perceived restorativeness of the museum, rated after the visit. Overall, the museum was perceived as a restorative environment, and this was not significantly modulated by the objective visit duration. However, the subjective appropriateness of the visit duration significantly predicted the perceived restorativeness of the museum. Specifically, participants who perceived their visit as too long rated the restorativeness of the museum as lower compared with participants who perceived the length of their visit as either too short or ideal. Hence, it is the subjective instead of the objective visiting duration that determines the restorativeness of museums. The findings are discussed in the context of attention restoration theory.

In the present study, we examined the impact of the interaction of environmental and task-induced attentional focus on time perception, specifically awareness of the time flow. We tested 48 participants in either a natural or urban setting over three 25-to 35-min sessions. We manipulated the within-subjects factor task by means of two tasks-one requiring directed attention on the task itself, the other undirected attention on the environment-alongside a control condition with no specific task.We measured time awareness, passage of time judgments, felt time judgments, and estimated time as dependent variables. For time awareness, we found an interaction between environment and task: in the natural environment, only a task requiring directed attention reduced time awareness; whereas, in the urban environment, both tasks reduced time awareness compared to the control condition. The results suggest that natural environments increase time awareness unless we focus our attention on a task. K E Y W O R D S directed attention, nature, restorative environments, time awareness, time perception

Coherence, separation and incoherence of playing and speech are different forms of interaction in which individual and collaborative competences of people with and without dementia can be visualized. Furthermore, the study provides evidence for the cultural theory of playing by Huizinga.

The subjective experience of time has many different facets. The present study focused on time awareness and its antipode timelessness as an expression of the extent one focuses on the passage of time. In an exploratory mixed-methods study, we investigated different extents of this time awareness and their relation to perceived valence of the environment, different states of consciousness, and strategies to cope with doing nothing. Thirty-three participants were tested for one hour or more with sitting and exploring as the within-subjects factor. For each condition, they stayed in one of two libraries characterized by their contemplative architecture. Then, participants answered quantitative questionnaires on their time experience and perceived valence and participated in a semi-structured interview. By means of grounded theory, we extracted four different types of time awareness from the qualitative data, of which three corresponded to the results of a cluster analysis on the dimensions of time awareness and perceived valence of the environment. In line with previous literature, we found relations between unpleasant high time awareness and boredom and pleasant low time awareness and flow. Additionally, the data revealed a pattern of high time awareness and positively perceived valence that was mainly experienced while sitting. Possible connections to states of consciousness such as relaxation, idleness, and a mindful attitude are outlined. Real-life settings, long durations, and level of activation are discussed as possible fostering factors for finding this pattern.