Modeling the relationship between the environment and human experiences

Abstract

Abstract. Within this special issue, different aspects of the environment are studied: aspects that are distant from the human body, close to the body and touching the human body. Consequently, different human senses are involved in these studies as well as the different consequences and effects on the brain and human behaviour. This special issue also highlights many remaining questions about the effects and relationships between environments and human beings and the need for more studies and research. In particular, future studies are needed that address long-term effects and the effects of the combinations of elements which provide comfort or discomfort.Keywords: Comfort, discomfort, transportation, office design, expectations The influence of the environment on the human in a modelAccording to the Environmental Design Technical Group (EDTG) of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society [1], "Environmental design is the discipline concerned with the relationship between human behavior and the designed environment". This special issue of WORK consists of 21 papers concerned with research in the area of environmental design. These papers studied environment and many designed environments for improvement of performance, well-being, comfort or experience * Address for correspondence: Conne Bazley, 5966 County- of humans in contact with the environment. The relationship with the human and the environment is schematically shown in Fig. 1. The scheme shows the environment, the human sensor noticing the environment, the brain processing the input, and the behavior. The process may commence as follows: the human brain decides to focus on a sense organ. These sense organs record a signal, which is processed by the brain. During this processing between the senses and the brain, experiences and the human state play a role. The human state can be excited or relaxed, which influences the way the input is processed. This process has an influence on the behavior of the human being. Time is an important factor. Sometimes the process starts with seeing the environment, which leads to the brain taking an action. Sometimes the brain activates sensors searching for an object such as an exit door. Time is also of importance as usually this action fits into a 'customer 1051-9815/16/$35.00

The effect of aircraft seat pitch on comfort

“…Zhang et al (1996) made a model where comfort is driven by well-being and plushness, while discomfort comes from poor biomechanics and tiredness. Vink et al (2016) also defined comfort as a "feeling and discomfort as a state of the human body". Discomfort is related to physical feelings of pain, soreness, and so on.…”

Ranking of Human Senses in Relation to Different In-flight Activities Contributing to the Comfort Experience of Airplane Passengers

“…Although the outcomes of this research suggest a hierarchical order of factors that might give direction to prioritizing design efforts, Vink et al (2016) discuss that optimizing every single element in the environment in order to optimize comfort is neither possible nor wise. Lewis et al (2016) suggest that people can be distracted from sources of discomfort by a virtual environment.…”

Sağlık Yönetimi ve Beşeri Sermaye İlişkisi

“…Tarihin ilk çağlarından beri insan ve çevre ile bir ilişki halinde olup bu ilişki sanayi devrimiyle birlikte daha da güçlenmiştir. İnsanın çevre ile olan güçlü etkileşimi çevre etiği kavramını ortaya çıkarmıştır (Vink et al, 2016).…”