Evaluation of Daylight Perception Assessment Methods

Abstract

Daylight is an important component in maintaining human health and wellbeing and plays a key role in physiological, psychological, and behavioural regulation. Understanding the complexity of daylight perception is vital since the degree of satisfaction with daylight conditions could greatly impact individual mood, behaviour and cognitive performance. This paper aims at (1) presenting an overview of current knowledge on methods for assessing daylight perception and (2) establishing a methodology for assessing daylight perception in the context of cultural background. An experiment was conducted with 50 students who were instructed to select the best and worst seats, describe the best desks’ daylight conditions and draw boundary lines between perceived daylit and non-daylit spaces in a library. The study showed that subjective rating and seat preference methods were consistent with actual daylight levels. However, participants’ boundary lines did not represent the actual daylight availability in the space. The study suggests that individual daylight perception in the context of cultural background can be assessed using the subjective rating and seat preference methods.

Seating Behaviour of Students before and after the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from Occupancy Monitoring with PIR Sensors at the UCL Bartlett Library

“…Although all rooms have been less utilised after COVID-19, Room 2 still has the highest occupancy at 47.5%. Previous research [ 11 , 33 , 34 ] revealed that the reason for the high selection of desks in this room is the accessibility to daylight and outdoor views.…”

“…Since collecting data from individuals in the real world was not feasible, this study used motion sensors to track changes in students’ library usage over an extended period of time. The methodology is based on the assumption that occupancy monitoring data accurately represents the individuals’ seating preferences because an experiment in the Bartlett Library [ 33 , 34 ] and a subsequent occupancy monitoring study [ 11 ] both identified specific spaces as being the most occupied and most in-demand.…”

“…This study used motion sensors to track changes in the use of the library over an extended period. The methodology is based on the assumption that occupancy monitoring data accurately represents the individuals’ seating preferences in the Bartlett Library [ 33 , 34 ] and a subsequent occupancy monitoring study [ 11 ] both identified specific spaces as being the most occupied and most in-demand. Therefore, the data obtained from the occupancy monitoring system was analysed to understand the role of COVID-19 in the seating behaviour of students.…”

Reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the sunlight exposure questionnaire

“…Sunlight is important for human health and helps regulate physiology, psychology, and behavior ( 1 ). For example, sunlight influences melatonin secretion, which in turn affects circadian pacing by the supraoptic nucleus in the brain, such that lack of natural daylight can disturb sleep–wake rhythms ( 2 , 3 ).…”

Cloudy or sunny? Effects of different environmental types of urban green spaces on public physiological and psychological health under two weather conditions

“…Numerous studies have demonstrated that sunny weather and good daylight could improve mood ( 23 , 27 ), relieve stress ( 28 ), improve perception ( 29 ) and promote physical and mental health ( 30 ). Ulrich ( 31 ) found that daylight can affect people’s environmental preference, thereby affecting restorativeness.…”