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Ceiling Height May Affect Problem-Solving Skills

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the how-low-can-you-go dept.

An anonymous reader writes to mention that a recent University of Minnesota study suggests that ceiling height may affect problem-solving skills. "'When people are in a room with a high ceiling, they activate the idea of freedom. In a low-ceilinged room, they activate more constrained, confined concepts.' Either can be good. The concept of freedom promotes information processing that encourages greater variation in the kinds of thoughts one has, said Meyers-Levy, professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota. The concept of confinement promotes more detail-oriented processing."

12 of 279 comments (clear)

  1. Glass Ceilings by TheCouchPotatoFamine · · Score: 5, Funny

    Obviously, they're doing it wrong.

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    CS majors know the time/space tradeoff, but they never get taught the 3rd, crucial, tradeoff of the set: comprehension!
    1. Re:Glass Ceilings by ThePromenader · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Ceiling Height May Affects Problem-Solving Skills"

      Whoever wrote that headline must have a low ceiling.

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      ThePromenader
  2. May affects? by patternmatch · · Score: 5, Funny

    It may affects grammar skills too.

    1. Re:May affects? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 5, Funny

      Where is the problem? The ceiling height May (obviously not every May is a ceiling height May; I wonder what's special about those, and if May 2007 is one) affects problem-solving skills (i.e. whenever we have a ceiling height May, the problem-solving skills are either increased or reduced significantly).

      Given the amount of spelling errors on Slashdot lately, I guess May 2007 is a ceiling height may, and it actually reduces at least the skill of solving the problem "is this spelled correctly?"

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  3. Maybe... by eln · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can buy the idea that the ceiling tends to stifle my creativity, but I think the chain attaching me to my desk and the guy who comes around every 15 minutes with the whip probably don't help either. And if all that weren't bad enough, they haven't changed the variety of snacks in the snack machine in like 3 years. There has to be something in the Geneva Conventions about that.

  4. Ceiling Height May Affects Grammar Skills by hexed_2050 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think you made a mistake in the title.

    From the title "Ceiling Height May Affects Problem-Solving Skills"

    Should be "Ceiling Height May Affects Grammar Skills"

    h

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    Valkyrie is about to die! Wizard needs food -- badly!
  5. TPS reports by Dachannien · · Score: 5, Funny

    Umm, we just read a report that ceiling height affects detail-oriented thinking. Mmmkay? So, I'm gonna have to ask you to mount this sheet of plywood across the top of your cubicle. If you could just take care of that, that'd be really great.

  6. I'd normally come up with a witty comment by CaptainPatent · · Score: 4, Funny

    But the ceiling is closing in on me!!!

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    Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
  7. Re:Interesting Thought by tedgyz · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wealthier individuals with the larger home... does the environment itself produce children who are less restricted in their thinking? Ummm... Paris Hilton? She's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.
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    "No matter where you go, there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai
  8. Re:Next step by the+phantom · · Score: 4, Funny

    You get wet when it rains.

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    Rhapsody in Numbers
  9. Re:What About Tall People? by TeknoHog · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm nearly 7 feet tall, so how does this affect my ideas? Can I call in a "ceiling bias" at work

    On the other hand, didn't Newton say something around the lines of "If I have been able to see further, it is because I have been surrounded by midgets"?

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  10. Re:On a more serious note by 0rionx · · Score: 4, Funny

    1. Write up an interesting comment
    2. "Accidentally" cut it into two separate posts
    3. ???
    4. Karma!

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