Abstract
Visual and tactile properties of materials can influence human emotional and cognitive functioning. Existing studies indicate that exposure to wood may lead to more favourable outcomes than contact with other common materials, but evidence is limited. We measured affective states and cognitive performance in 16 participants before and after each spent 15 min at 10 desks with differing top surfaces. Desk surfaces were made of untreated, oiled, or lacquered spruce or oak solid wood, laminated or oak-veneered particleboard, glass, and mineral-filled thermoplastic composite. The results indicate that cognitive performance and affective states of participants did not differ between the desk surfaces. It appears that exposure to a relatively small wooden surface does not significantly influence affective and cognitive outcomes. Incorporating larger amounts of wood coverage and a more demanding cognitive task would probably increase the chances of capturing the potential effects of wood exposure on human affective states and cognitive performance.
Highlights
An increasing body of evidence demonstrates that when people are exposed to natural environments or elements of nature, such as plants or water, certain indicators of human stress and well-being tend to improve, including affective states, cognitive performance, and physiological arousal [1]
It generally took four visits for each participant to complete the study for all 10 desk materials; typically, less than a week passed between visits
The findings suggest that a brief visual and tactile exposure to a wooden small desk surface might not be enough to significantly improve human affective states and cognitive performance, even though the study tested a variety of materials and included a sensitive measure of affective states
Summary
An increasing body of evidence demonstrates that when people are exposed to natural environments or elements of nature, such as plants or water, certain indicators of human stress and well-being tend to improve, including affective states, cognitive performance, and physiological arousal [1]. These observations are typically explained through the stress reduction theory [2], emphasizing physiological and affective improvements in response to nature exposure, or/and attention restoration theory, highlighting restoration of cognitive capabilities [3, 4]. Visual and tactile stimulation of wood might be easier to implement on a wider scale, as it seems challenging for indoor wood furnishings to provide longterm olfactory stimulation that is as intense as the one delivered in the experiments observing positive findings [12]
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