Comfort Domain Research Articles

12545 Transgender Healthcare Online Curriculum: A Partnership Between An Academic Medical Center And Corrections Facility

Abstract Disclosure: E. Lamos: None. R. Malek: None. Introduction: The World Professional Association for Transgender Health Standards of Care (WPATH SOC-8) states that all recommendations be applied equally to individuals living in institutions​, including those incarcerated. Studies suggest correctional staff have little training in transgender care.​ To demonstrate a partnership between an academic medical center and a corrections facility and increase knowledge and comfort in transgender healthcare, academic faculty developed an online curriculum as an educational opportunity for state corrections facility staff and clinicians. Methods: There were 6 modules: Overview of Transgender Competent Care, Health Vulnerabilities, Creating an Inclusive Environment, Feminizing and Masculinizing Hormone Treatment, and Preventative Care of the Transgender Individual (Image). The Short Course (first 3 modules) was for staff or clinicians not providing hormone-affirming care and the Full Course (all 6 modules) for clinicians who provide hormone-affirming care. Each module included embedded knowledge assessments and post-module action items. An anonymous pre and post curriculum survey assessed module effectiveness. The project was considered non-human subject research by the Institutional Review Board. Result analysis used the Fisher Exact Test and unpaired t test. Results: 44 corrections staff and clinicians participated (2022-2023) with a 32% post survey response rate. 57% indicated zero prior hours of transgender education with 59% feeling somewhat or extremely comfortable with transgender healthcare. Most were interested in learning about transgender healthcare (Table 1). Participants had a statistical improvement in knowledge and their access to resources were good or excellent after completion (p <0.05, both) (Table 2). Also, for the Short Course, comfort in recognizing barriers to care significantly improved (p<0.05), 100% agreed both with the importance of what they were asked to learn and that knowledge and skills increased. Domains of comfort with transgender healthcare did not statistically change for participants of the Full Course. Participants positively reflected on curriculum content and bias discussion. Full Course respondents requested more therapeutics information. Inclusive interactions were the most frequent practice improvement strategy. Conclusion: This curriculum increased knowledge and improved resources for those providing healthcare to incarcerated transgender patients. The curriculum was inclusive of many diverse types of learner and allowed learners to choose the course that aligned with their clinical role. It meets WPATH SOC-8 recommendations that corrections staff and clinicians receive training in transgender care.​ It highlights the collaboration between an academic medical center and corrections facility, meeting the academic mission to serve marginalized groups. Presentation: 6/1/2024

Nursing students' perceptions of a good death: A mixed method study

BackgroundSocial aging tendencies and increasing chronic disease burdens draw people's attention to the concept of a good death. ObjectiveThis study investigated how Chinese nursing students perceive a good death. DesignA mixed quantitative and qualitative design. Participants and settingFour hundred and ninety-three nursing students from one mainland China university and one Macao SAR university participated in the study. MethodsThe Good Death Inventory (Chinese version) was used to collect quantitative data. Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Four hundred seventy-two questionnaires were collected, and 21 participants were interviewed. Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed through statistics and thematic analysis, respectively. ResultsChinese nursing students gained an average score of 3.76 ± 0.39 in GDI-C. Students from mainland China, female, and with senior grades scored higher in the GDI-C (p < 0.05). Students' good death perception comprised four themes: positive psychological status, no physical suffering, open and supportive social surroundings, and spiritual/religious perfection. Mainland China and Macao students showed high consistency in their ranking of good death dimensions. The first five rankings in GDI-C were domains of being respected as an individual, dying in a favorite place, preparation for death, good relationships with family/medical staff, and environmental comfort. The last five rankings in GDI-C were domains of religious and spiritual comfort, independence, unawareness of death, pride and beauty, and not being a burden to others. ConclusionChinese nursing students had a moderate degree of good death perception, characterized by the emphasis on social domains. Nursing students from mainland China and Macao SAR shared a similar perception of a good death in the Chinese context. More hospice care opportunities should be provided to students to train their empathy. Educators should guide students to apply principles of respect/dignity and open communication in the nursing practice.

Reliability and Validity of the Turkish Version of the Comprehensive Lower Limb Amputee Socket Survey

Purpose: The aim of this study was to translate the Comprehensive Lower Limb Amputee Socket Survey (CLASS) into Turkish and examine its reliability and validity in lower limb amputees. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study included 97 lower limb amputees. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to evaluate internal consistency, and intraclass correlation coefficient was used to evaluate test-retest reliability. The retest of the CLASS was applied one week later. The satisfaction with the prosthesis subscale of the Trinity Amputation and Prosthesis Experience Scale (TAPES) was used to assess convergent validity. Results: The mean age of the participants was 46.78±15.04 years and 71.1 % were male. Internal consistency was found to be high for all domains of the Turkish CLASS (Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.81 to 0.90). Test-retest reliability was found to be high (intraclass correlation coefficient ranged from 0.82-0.95). A significant relationship was found between all domains of the CLASS and TAPES prosthesis satisfaction subscale (r=0.553 for stability domain, r=0.509 for suspension domain, r=0.482 for comfort domain, r= 0.444 for appearance domain, p

A Current Design Approach for Ming Chairs

Ergonomics are key in the design and application of Ming-style chairs. However, there are presently few specific design frameworks to guide Ming-style chair design. Under this background, the present study developed a questionnaire on the ergonomic design of Ming-style chairs and assessed its validity and reliability. Fifty-two respondents involved in the design and manufacture of Ming-style chairs participated in this study. The statistics of the questionnaire were analyzed and yielded a significant reliability coefficient (α &gt; 0.70, p &lt; 0.01). This ergonomic design framework study of Ming-style chairs analyzed the domains of Chair Form, Aesthetics, Safety, Comfort, Ease-of-use, and Productivity. To assess the importance of various design elements, we used a five-point Likert scale to score items within each domain. This scoring system enabled us to prioritize features, allowing the designers to focus on the essential elements before beginning the design process. We found that designers and manufacturers focused primarily on the Four-headed Official Chair with Armrests form.

Indoor quality-oriented approach for the performance evaluation of building retrofit with façade transformation: Case study of student dormitory in Mediterranean climate

The rapid expanding of refurbishment incentives requires to deserve more attention on how to reach nearly zero energy standard without compromising occupant wellness, when the building is undergone to important architectural transformations. To overcome the above drawbacks mainly for student dormitories, the paper introduces a new indoor quality oriented post-retrofit evaluation approach that simultaneously quantifies the impact of design decisions on thermal, respiratory and visual comfort. Investigations on the building quality and readily monitored indoor variables are the core of the approach that also provides sensitivity analysis on some subjective parameters and questionnaires for the main involved stakeholders.The proposed approach is tested on a student dormitory belonging at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, refurbished in the frame of Horizon Project Pro-GET-OnE. The results reveal an improvement in the passive control of thermo-hygrometric comfort as well as in the satisfaction level. The adoption of mechanical ventilation consistently ensures dioxide emissions lower than 430 ppm, TVOC below 300 μg/m3 and PM2.5 and PM10 lower than 6 μg/m3. More in general, it is remarkable the importance of considering all comfort domains and occupant behavior, as one design or management choice might improve one indoor quality domain at the cost of others.

Effect of Process Parameters on the Hardness of 3D-printed Thermoplastic Polyurethane that Includes Foaming Agent

Recent progress in Material Extrusion-based Additive Manufacturing (MEX) has introduced active foaming agents in filaments composition, thus allowing for the tuning, by various process parameters, the hardness and the mechanical behavior of 3D-printed parts. In case of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) filaments, these advances significantly broaden the range of applications, particularly in the domains of comfort and orthotics (wrist-hand orthoses, insoles), offering the dual benefits of design flexibility inherent in MEX and the comfort of lightweight and customizable structures. However, the field is still in its early stages, with only a limited number of research efforts dedicated to characterizing these novel materials. In this context, this study is focused on determining the influence of printing temperature (190�C, 220�C, 240�C), infill density (25%, 35%, 45%) and infill pattern (honeycomb, gyroid) over the hardness of cylindrical specimens made of Colorfabb varioShore TPU. A comprehensive methodology of calibration is also presented as mandatory for obtaining good quality and accurate products by establishing correlations between flow rate and printing temperatures. The findings showed that the printing temperature is the most relevant factor impacting the hardness of varioShore TPU prints. At a printing temperature of 190�C, which corresponds to less foamed prints, the honeycomb infill yielded higher hardness compared to the gyroid infill, but the difference was not significant. Also, at 220�C and 240�C, the mean values of hardness remain relatively consistent, regardless of infill density and pattern.

Exploring office comfort and productivity in living labs: A yearlong structural equation modeling study

The relationship between workers' environmental comfort and productivity has been extensively studied over the years, yet real-world investigations remain limited. Living labs provide an opportunity to observe interactions between different comfort domains and their impact on occupants' attitudes and preferences. This study aims to investigate the connection between contextual factors, visual and thermal sensations, and comfort, and how they relate to the self-perceived productivity of office workers in a Living Lab setting, utilizing Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Comfort and sensation perception surveys were conducted during each session over a year, alongside a sensing system continuously monitoring air temperature, illuminance, and window/door operations in the five offices of a dedicated living lab participating in the study. Subjects working in single offices reported higher productivity than those in shared offices across all comfort conditions. Contextual characteristics, such as the time of day, had a significant impact on defining thermal and visual satisfaction. A significant cross-modal effect was observed between thermal and visual domains, highlighting that evaluating factors in isolation from comfort assessment overlooks critical elements of building physics. These findings underscore the importance of considering the broader context when assessing people's perception of their surroundings and how operational changes in office spaces can enhance employees' productivity judgment.

Impact of indoor environmental quality weighting schemes on office architectural design decisions

The importance of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) cannot be overstated, as it impacts the health and satisfaction of occupants. To evaluate overall indoor comfort, all four IEQ domains must be considered together. However, there is a lack of guidance on how to prioritize each domain and corresponding metrics, particularly during the early design stage. Therefore, this study investigates the effect of different weighting schemes on commercial building design elements to have high overall comfort. First, a parametric modeling approach for a shoe-box office building is developed to quantify IEQ domains using various design parameters. Subsequently, multiple weighting options are defined, resulting in an aggregated IEQ score. Next, high-performance designs are identified and compared based on each weighting scheme for two different climates. Results show that, as long as all four comfort domains are considered, the choice of weighting scheme does not significantly affect the selection of high-performance designs. Therefore, an equal weighting scheme is suggested for the early stage. This paper presents an original approach to support design decisions and the mutual weightings of IEQ factors.

Indigenizing journalistic objectivity in an African context: How ‘indigenous’ journalistic practices (re)define professional norms

Through comparative content analysis of online news reports ( N = 420), we examined how indigenous values and source citation practices (re)define journalistic objectivity away from the normative comfort domain of ‘The American standard’. We argue that ‘African’ journalistic practices will more possibly reflect more ‘objective’ narratives with a critical gaze to African values such as ‘ Ubuntu’ and ‘ Afriethics’. By comparing ‘grassroots’ with ‘elite’ source citations as reflected in ‘African’ media reportage, we found that African news narratives that embrace ‘Community Journalism’ reflect more grassroots than elite voices as distinct from ‘Western’ libertarian journalistic practices.

Towards multi-domain user archetypes for user-centred façade design

User experience and satisfaction with the facade play a significant role in user comfort and energy efficiency of buildings. This paper explores the concept of User-Facade archetypes to inform the user-centred design of shading devices based on the perceived level of importance of different environmental domains at the workplace. A questionnaire was developed to collect data on users’ perceived level of importance of different environmental domains, user characteristics and other preferences. Based on the associated level of importance of the domains affected by shading devices (thermal conditions, access to daylight, access to outdoor view, privacy and glare mitigation), users were then clustered into eight different archetypes, which associated different “weights” to each comfort domain. The study also found a significant correlation between the associated level of importance and the reported frequency of interaction with shadings because of thermal comfort, glare mitigation or privacy. Overall, users that associated high levels of importance to several environmental domains also reported high perceived levels of importance for personal control at the workplace. Only one archetype reported low importance for personal control at the workplace. Further work is required to validate these archetypes by capturing actual user behaviour and preferences in real workplaces. However, these findings provide preliminary and valuable insights into the possibility of clustering users on their preferences and using this for informing a more user-centred design or operation of shading devices.

Wellbeing at home: a mediation analysis of residential satisfaction, comfort, and home attachment

AbstractIn the study of residential satisfaction in architectural design different physical comfort domains have received the most attention. But with this comfort-driven approach, residential satisfaction is reduced to a psychophysical relationship. Adding psychological substance to the design process, the paper argues that a distinction should be made between residential satisfaction and home attachment and that we need to consider home attachment as a mediator variable for comfort. The aim of the paper is to empirically assess whether the mediation, if it exists at all, is partial or complete. Distinguishing different forms of comfort, a set of alternative structural equation models are tested with data from a 14-nation population survey in Europe. The result of the model tests is that our wellbeing at home comes in two forms—satisfaction and attachment—and that there is partial as well as complete mediation of home attachment on satisfaction depending on the kind of comfort studied.

Immediate versus conventional loading of mandibular implant-retained overdentures: a 3-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial.

There is a scarcity of randomized clinical trials (RCT) that report medium- and long-term results and a lack of consensus in the literature on the predictability of immediately loaded unsplinted narrow diameter implants supporting mandibular overdentures. This RCT compared the performance of conventional (CL) and immediate loading (IL) of mandibular overdentures retained by two narrow-diameter implants for 3years. Patients from an RCT treated with CL or IL were invited to attend to 2- and 3-year follow-ups. Clinical, radiographic, functional, and oral health-related quality of life parameters were evaluated. Prosthetic maintenance events, biological complications, and success and survival rates were also recorded. The data were tested by multilevel mixed-effects linear regression analysis and chi-squared tests. The 1-year survival rates of 90% in the CL group and 85% in the IL group were maintained as no implants were lost between 1 and 3years. The marginal bone loss (MBL) in the IL group was significantly lower after year 3 (-0.04; p < 0.01). Significant changes were found only for the intra-group comparisons in the third year of function: (i) CL and IL presented similar progression of implant stability, MBL, and posterior bone area resorption; (ii) while CL started deteriorating of masticatory function, IL still exhibited functional evolution and (iii) oral comfort domain in the CL and pain domain in the IL were improved. Although IL experienced the lowest MBL after 3years, the outcomes showed that both loading protocols result in predictable medium-term rehabilitation when monitored annually. It can be expected that in the third year of function, patients with immediate loading may present more complaints related to general performance even with acceptable masticatory function and self-reported improvements in oral comfort.

Within- and cross-domain effects of environmental factors on students’ perception in educational buildings

Students in classrooms are exposed to environmental stimuli in the thermal, visual, acoustic and air quality domains, which affect their overall comfort and performance. Therefore, in recent studies, questionnaires are used to collect information about subjective perceptions and investigate links with physical parameters. Most field studies in educational buildings either focus on a single comfort domain, or consider multiple domains but provide inconsistent questions among the 4 domains (i.e., IAQ, thermal, visual and acoustic). Very few studies have investigated cross-domain effects in a consistent manner, considering satisfaction, comfort and perception aspects. To address this research gap, a survey with consistent questions among the 4 comfort domains was designed and used to collect more than 900 subjective responses from students. The analysis of subjective data together with objective measurements allows: (i) correlating the environmental physical parameters and students’ perception in each of the comfort domains; (ii) understanding the students’ preferred environmental conditions; and (iii) understanding cross-domain effects, i.e., the effects between the average conditions and the mean vote expressed for another domain. The results show that air temperature, illuminance and sound pressure level are correlated with the sensation in the respective domains, in contrast to CO2 concentration. Regarding cross-effects, the study confirms interference of CO2 concentration and illuminance on thermal sensation as well as the effect of sound pressure level on visual sensation.

Do owner-reported changes in mobility reflect measures of activity, pain and degenerative joint disease in cats?

The aim of this blinded, nested case-control study was to compare cats with and without early owner-reported mobility changes using subjective and objective outcome measures (owner-completed questionnaires, orthopaedic examination). A total of 57 cats with and without early owner-reported signs of impaired mobility were allocated to the case (n = 30) and control (n = 27) groups, respectively. Participating owners completed one inclusion and two pre-visit questionnaires (Feline Musculoskeletal Pain Index, VetMetrica). Cats were then visited in their own homes, where they underwent an orthopaedic examination, an assessment of their body condition score and temperament, and the placement of an accelerometer on their collar for 2 weeks. There was no significant difference between groups for age category, breed, sex, temperament and body condition score. Case cats scored significantly lower for the Feline Musculoskeletal Pain Index (P = 0.003) and the VetMetrica domain of Comfort (P = 0.002), but not Vitality (P = 0.009) or Emotional Wellbeing (P = 0.018). Total pain (P <0.0001), crepitus (P = 0.002) and thickening (P = 0.003) scores were higher in case cats, as was the presence of bilateral disease (P = 0.005, odds ratio 14) and the number of bilaterally affected joints (P = 0.001). Both the Feline Musculoskeletal Pain Index and orthopaedic examination were able to differentiate cats with early owner-reported signs of impaired mobility from healthy cats. VetMetrica Comfort domain scores indicated a compromised quality of life for cats with early owner-reported signs of impaired mobility compared with healthy cats. Being able to recognise signs of mobility impairment earlier would allow interventions aimed at slowing disease progression, thereby improving feline health and welfare.

Bubble-PAPR: a phase 1 clinical evaluation of the comfort and perception of a prototype powered air-purifying respirator for use by healthcare workers in an acute hospital setting

ObjectivesWe aimed to design and produce a low-cost, ergonomic, hood-integrated powered air-purifying respirator (Bubble-PAPR) for pandemic healthcare use, offering optimal and equitable protection to all staff. We hypothesised that participants...

A simulation-based approach for evaluating indoor environmental quality at the early design stage

People spend about 90% of their time indoors. This extended exposure to indoor conditions affects well-being and performance. Design decisions have a profound impact on IEQ, yet existing IEQ-related assessments normally wait until the post-occupancy evaluation when few opportunities for design improvement exist. This study introduces an efficient simulation-based framework involving parametric modeling to simultaneously quantify the impact of design decisions on all domains of IEQ, namely, thermal comfort, visual comfort, acoustic comfort, and air quality. To achieve this goal, first a set of metrics and corresponding evaluation methods to quantify the four IEQ domains are developed. Then, a number of design parameters that impact multiple IEQ criteria in the design stage including office geometry, facade design, and material properties are investigated. Next, the aggregated score for each domain is presented to measure the room’s IEQ performance. A case study is considered to demonstrate the proposed workflow. The results indicate the importance of considering all comfort domains together, as one design choice might improve one IEQ domain at the cost of others. The proposed workflow is an efficient and effective method for architects and other building stakeholders to compare design scenarios with regards to IEQ performance at preliminary design stages.

Use of Pediatric Outcomes Data Collection Instrument to Evaluate Functional Outcomes in Multiple Hereditary Exostoses.

The Pediatric Outcomes Data Collection Instrument (PODCI) is a validated quality-of-life questionnaire with 6 domains designed to provide a standardized method of measuring outcomes in pediatric musculoskeletal conditions. To our knowledge there are no reports on its use in children with multiple hereditary exostosis (MHE). Most published studies on MHE patients have described the efficacy of specific surgical techniques or the specification of deformities. Little is known about the general health status of pediatric patients, the severity of pain, loss of function, and how MHE influences the activities of daily life. We aim to assess the functional levels of MHE pediatric patients with PODCI questionnaire. As a cross-sectional study, we prospectively administered PODCI to 34 pediatric patients diagnosed with MHE and their families. The score distributions were compared with values published earlier for children and adolescents without musculoskeletal disorders using the Student and Welch t tests. Parents and adolescents' reports were compared using Wilcoxon signed rank test. Physical examination and PODCI score relation were evaluated by Spearman test. Children with MHE have significantly lower scores ( P <0,05) in comparison with unaffected children in all domains using the Student and Welch t test. Parents score differs from children score with statistically relevance in pain and comfort domain ( P <0,5). The Spearman test showed a negative correlation between physical examination and PODCI score with statistical significance. These results point towards PODCI's capacity in evaluating functional outcomes of pediatric patients with MHE. Diagnostic Study, Level III.

Multi-domain model-based control of an adaptive façade based on a flexible double skin system

Adaptive envelopes have the potential to significantly reduce energy use in buildings while ensuring high performance. These envelopes interact with multiple interconnected domains, such as daylight, indoor air quality, thermal comfort, and energy use, which can often conflict with one another. Identifying and developing suitable control strategies that can optimally manage the envelope’s impact on many domains and avoid sub-optimal operations is an open challenge. Conventional approaches commonly adopted in buildings and building envelope control based on schedules or relatively simple decision trees may be unable to tackle the dynamic behaviour of adaptive envelopes. Due to their complexity, more advanced control approaches based on simulation-informed decision-making are scarce in both research and practice. In this work, we propose a multi-domain model-based control (MBC) algorithm for an adaptive façade concept based on a flexible Double Skin Façade (DSF). The proposed method, which aims for a balanced performance over different comfort domains and energy use, employs a co-simulation approach where the DSF is modelled in a Building Energy Simulation (BES) tool and the control algorithm to manage the simulation and optimize the control of the façade is developed in a generic programming language. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first attempts to design and demonstrate the effectiveness of a simulation-informed control strategy that can handle and optimise the behaviour of a complex façade by considering multiple performance objectives. The innovation of this approach lies in the MBC algorithm that selects the optimal façade state among over seventy possible states at each timestep, the practical demonstration of the feasibility in a BES tool, and the complexity of the controlled façade system. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed control approach, we compared the innovative MBC to more traditional control strategies, such as schedule and rule-based controls, revealing how it enabled the façade to achieve a better performance in all the analysed domains. By applying the MBC to three different year periods, we showed that the energy and environmental performance was within the selected comfort criteria for all the domains for>80% of the occupied hours, and an energy reduction of up to 70% was simultaneously obtained if compared to more traditional approaches. The control approach presented in this study and the simulation method employed can be used not only to improve the performance of advanced adaptive façades by providing an effective solution to the challenge of balancing multiple conflicting performance domains but also for more conventional building envelope systems that exhibit a certain degree of dynamic behaviour.

Energy Savings in Buildings Based on Image Depth Sensors for Human Activity Recognition

A smart city is a city that binds together technology, society, and government to enable the existence of a smart economy, smart mobility, smart environment, smart living, smart people, and smart governance in order to reduce the environmental impact of cities and improve life quality. The first step to achieve a fully connected smart city is to start with smaller modules such as smart homes and smart buildings with energy management systems. Buildings are responsible for a third of the total energy consumption; moreover, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems account for more than half of the residential energy consumption in the United States. Even though connected thermostats are widely available, they are not used as intended since most people do not have the expertise to control this device to reduce energy consumption. It is commonly set according to their thermal comfort needs; therefore, unnecessary energy consumption is often caused by wasteful behaviors and the estimated energy saving is not reached. Most studies in the thermal comfort domain to date have relied on simple activity diaries to estimate metabolic rate and fixed values of clothing parameters for strategies to set the connected thermostat’s setpoints because of the difficulty in tracking those variables. Therefore, this paper proposes a strategy to save energy by dynamically changing the setpoint of a connected thermostat by human activity recognition based on computer vision preserving the occupant’s thermal comfort. With the use of a depth sensor in conjunction with an RGB (Red–Green–Blue) camera, a methodology is proposed to eliminate the most common challenges in computer vision: background clutter, partial occlusion, changes in scale, viewpoint, lighting, and appearance on human detection. Moreover, a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) is implemented for human activity recognition (HAR) because of its data’s sequential characteristics, in combination with physiological parameters identification to estimate a dynamic metabolic rate. Finally, a strategy for dynamic setpoints based on the metabolic rate, predicted mean vote (PMV) parameter and the air temperature is simulated using EnergyPlus™ to evaluate the energy consumption in comparison with the expected energy consumption with fixed value setpoints. This work contributes with a strategy to reduce energy consumption up to 15% in buildings with connected thermostats from the successful implementation of the proposed method.

Visual placebo-like effects on subjective assessment of room acoustics: Sound absorption in classrooms

When studying occupants' environmental perception of well-being in indoor spaces, subjective questionnaires are most often used to evaluate indoor comfort domains. When estimating parameters which can be influenced in some way by certain visual aspects, researchers may question if the obtained results could be affected by other issues. In particular, certain aesthetic aspects, such as indoor furnishing or room shape may have impact on occupants’ perceptions.For this reason, this paper focuses on determining the influence of the visual aspect on occupants’ perception of indoor acoustics. Classrooms were chosen as an example of an enclosed environment; we modified the indoor acoustics of a real classroom twice, inserting false and real sound absorbing panels featuring an identical external layout. Following this, using questionnaires, the indoor acoustics perceived by students were analyzed. Results clearly demonstrate that the sight of false absorbers is sufficient to provide the same perceived acoustics as real absorbers. Since only the visual aspect is varied, a placebo-like effect is assessed. Therefore, this issue can bias results when using surveys as a scientific approach in experimental studies.