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Ceiling Height May Affect Problem-Solving Skills
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."
Obviously, they're doing it wrong.
CS majors know the time/space tradeoff, but they never get taught the 3rd, crucial, tradeoff of the set: comprehension!
It may affects grammar skills too.
I blame the extra-short ceiling on my floor for less-than-perfect grades freshman year!
Fascinating, companies that do creative work should take note and think about high ceilings for creative office spaces in the future. On the other hand, looks like the detail oriented rank and file will always be stuck in Dilbert Land.
Haiku for you!
Wealthier individuals with the larger home... does the environment itself produce children who are less restricted in their thinking?
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
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.
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
Valkyrie is about to die! Wizard needs food -- badly!
Telecommuting from the lawn chair is why wifi was invented.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
i always felt less constrained mentally in a high-ceiling space. It's nice to see that there might be a biological or scientific explanation besides, "surely you must be joking, Dr. 192939495969798999!"
stuff |
"professor of marketing"
Is marketing a Science now?
-Peter
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
I would imagine the same argument could be made for cubicles. You know, the claustrophobic kind...
Thank God for evolution.
I wasn't aware that cognitive psychology was a branch of marketing.
That's like saying that automotive engineering is an offshoot of ricer tuning. (To coin a car analogy)
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
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.
God made us a high ceiling (the atmosphere)
He wants us to be free
lol
Interesting, and not altogether surprising when you think about it, but I suspect the researchers are being a little to narrow minded about this (maybe they need higher ceilings). I think it's pretty reasonable to suspect (although I obviously don't have the data to prove it) that a wide variety of environments influence human thinking in non-subtle ways. I can imagine people being more or less optimistic depending on how white (color, not race just to head that one off...) their surroundings are, or more ecofriendly depending on how urban their surroundings are. I can at least speak from personal experience that I find myself less likely to speak my mind when I am in rooms where the walls are nearly all glass, where perhaps the underlying mechanism is one of being overly watched or scrutinized. Either way, I always appreciate studies that show a link between quality of work environment and quality of performance (which is what this essentially is). Here's to the death of stuffy and suffocating rooms!
Relax I just want some peanuts.
But the ceiling is closing in on me!!!
Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
So accountants and programmers and all dreg office workers should really be crammed into little hobbit house cubes? I'm already shoved into a windowless cave, now I lose my headroom too?
This research sucks.
So what happens if we just remove the ceiling?
...if they move my desk again I'm going to burn the building down.
...and you'd be a good candidate for the low ceiling crowd ;)
u-bend
Free your mind! Embrace the glass ceiling!
The next question is - since ceiling height really is relative to how tall the person in the room is, (a 6.5 foot high ceiling would brush some people's heads and feel cramped, while others I know in the industry would not be able to reach it while standing on their desks and jumping.) does this mean that very short people are generally more prone to activating the idea of "freedom", while ludicrously tall people are more prone to thinking in constrained, confined concepts, when both are placed in an identical office environment?
I think these guys should do a study on the effect of monitor size on creativity, so I can show it to my boss. Were it that the relationship was superlinear! One can dream...
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
This, while news to me, doesn't actually surprise me at all.
I've encountered this effect personally - working on cars, the thought and problem-solving processes I go through when lying on the driveway under the car are notably different than those when I shimmy out and stand up next to it. Case in point: the starter/solenoid assembly on a 1977 Caprice is practically a topological brain teaser if you're trying to put it in or take it out without removing significant sections of the frame. There's literally one correct ordered set of rotations and translations that must be performed to do so.
Standing next to the car with the starter, I had an incredibly hard time solving this problem. Once under the car, however, it was a matter of a few minutes before I could "see" the solution. Before everyone points out the obvious, no, it wasn't a matter of being able to literally see the solution; given the available vantage point due to the right front tire, the jack, and a frame member, you really couldn't see any more of the problem than the first opening.
That's the most specific example I've got, but a similar thing has happened to me multiple times. At this point, I spend most of my planning time under the car with rust falling in my eyes, because I think better that way.
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
Lots of my idea's are considered "out of the box" thinking and they generally happen where ever I may be. I'll admit that many people dislike low ceiling rooms, I know a converted building has recently been turned back to its original use because it was a horrible place to learn (because of low ceilings and small class room sizes) but I wouldn't say its because of idea's about freedom. When people don't feel enclosed they tend to be happier, happy people tend to be more creative and productive. But theres far more involved in making a happy worker than high ceilings.
I'm not sure about creativity, but I'd say having a larger (or second) monitor definitely improves productivity.
(IANAL)
Back in my college days I'd walk across campus to study in the library's 25-foot high reading room rather than slither down to my dorm basement to use one of the study cubes with a steam pipe right over my head. If nothing else, I was far less likely to doze off in the big room.
Keeping in mind that there is a difference between restrictive thinking and the ability to think in the first place.
Perhaps one could say that her self discretion has been less restrictive from such an environment.
but it seems that everywhere, the ceiling makes you.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
...kind of. :)
I went to a school that was built in the early 1800s and had some really high ceilings on the top floor... about 15 feet high. The doors were made of massive wood and 8 feet high. This prompted some creativity in the students and there was a teacher that was usually a bit late so they unhinged the inwards opening door, put it back so that it was just held by the handle lock. Teacher enters and door falls down with a really really major bang as it went down. Teaching staff was not amused by students apparent creativty.
From the headline. When people are in a room with a high ceiling, they activate the idea of freedom and The concept of freedom promotes information processing that encourages greater variation in the kinds of thoughts one has, said Meyers-Levy...
"When people are in a room with a high ceiling, they activate the idea of freedom."
"Wonder Twin powers activate!"
"Shape of an idea of freedom!"
"Form of an ice-- wait, what? Can Gleek carry that in a bucket?"
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
Depending on where I look, my office either has a really, really short roof, or a fairly tall roof. Do I get the best of both worlds?
(Yeah, it is a home office)
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
be careful not to have too high ceilings, as you might be thinking out-of-the box and returning back might be a problem (or tiresome?)
Creativity and attention to details are both qualities that are valuable. Being creative can help you solve difficult problems that require "out of the box" thinking, while being good with details is valuable for managing time and repetitive tasks. I doubt I'm going to have an auditorium to do deep thinking in, or a cage to do my routine work in so how is this useful in practical terms?
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
Naah, being in an office with co-workers is what causes the behavioral/affective disorders. It's not the fluorescent lights.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
You must be in a room with short ceilings, otherwise your comment would have been more creative ;)
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
I sure am glad to see the wonderful studies my tuition pays for. This kind of fascinating research will surely help the U reach it's goal of being in the top 3 research universities!
Dr. Lester: Any questions?
Craig Schwartz: Just one. Why are these ceilings so low?
Dr. Lester: Low overhead, my boy - we pass the savings on to you! But seriously, that'll all be covered in the orientation.
oddly enough, when you sit down, the ceiling gets higher...
It's not what you Warg, it's how you Snarf
--Chag
You mean, all this time, while I was starring down at my work with my head buried, I should have been starring off into space? Sounds like someone stopped whatever serious work or research they were doing to stare off into space and ended up wasting time on this idea, instead;)
As a psychology student/researcher, I must say our worst enemy is the media. The way these stories are reported sometimes distorts the research or the conclusions drawn from it. If you were to read the actual journal article when it is published, it will likely be far less B.S. like "activating inner creativity" and more like "participants in the higher ceiling room demonstrated more creativity as measured by (variable)." Although the article may have used BS terms since its a marketing journal and not a proper psych journal. The publication standards in education, communication, and marketing journals are generally less demanding and so sometimes crap gets through and makes all scientific research outside of bio/chem/physics look bad. Also, since correlation does not imply causation it is possible that as previously mentioned certain jobs will intentionally create different environments for whatever reason...ie graphic designers may care more about an open aesthetically pleasing office than engineers who sit in cubicles and just want to do their work. In addition this article fails to give any actual statistics, which limits how much we can critique it...so if it has a correlation of .9 there is probably a good connection between ceiling height and creativity, but if its only .3 it could just be coincidental or due to many outside factors.
There is more to science than physics!
www.iomalfunction.blogspot.com
If this was the case, wouldn't more free thinking going on in the giant cathedrals of the time?
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Low ceilings interfere with my tinfoil hat thus allowing the CIA satellites to harrass me.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
no, the OP must have a really low ceiling, thats a 'closed minded' view not open to the idea of 'freedom'
Makes me wish I was a woman and could work under that limitless glass ceiling they're always talking about!
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
Great... now our managers will put us back a cube/office/cage.
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
Put people in a room with a 2-ft ceiling, they're going to get damned resourceful, and fast.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Solution : Sit on the floor when thinking. Now the ceiling is further away from you. (Thought of in a room with a 9 foot ceiling.)
More people discovering what Christopher Alexander discovered, and what thousands of years of humans knew before he re-discovered it.
Pattern #190: Ceiling Height Variety
http://www.ahartman.com/apl/patterns/apl190.htm
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
People think better in non-cramped spaces? Cubicles should go? Beer at company meetings improves morale? (The last is from my current employer, it does).
have really high ceilings. New ones have really low ceilings.
I'm 6'9" (1.98m), and I definitely agree. We need taller ceilings, taller doorways, bigger chairs, bigger desks. And why stop there? We should eliminate shoe stores that only carry only pair of size 16 shoes! We want... no, we *demand* a revolution! The biggest revolution ever!! Only the tall shall survive! You will all look up to us in the end! Mwaa ha ha!!
Wait... I'm getting off-topic. Yeah, higher ceilings would be nice.
I'm outside now. +1 Insightful, please.
[sig]
Well, if high ceilings improve creativity... why not make creative people work outside?
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
If this is largely based on visual cues (and I'm going to assume that's the case, here; don't know how it could be otherwise) - then it should be a fairly simple task to take an FPS-type video game, modify the maps into two or three experimental configurations, one with high ceilings, the other with low ceilings (assuming that the ceiling height does not impact game mechanics) - and then have three groups of individuals play the games. See which group performs "better".
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
...testing and 1% will find results that are 99% significant just by chance. Here's that 1% folks.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Executives need to be on the top floor where there is a plastic bubble instead of a roof. ...And the engineers must toil away in dark, short-ceilinged caves, narrowly focused on the tasks that their overlords ask of them, in fulfillment of the Grand Vision that having no ceiling has made possible.
Either that or make holographic screens on the ceilings to make them look higher or lower depending on the task at hand.
Ahh, yes. In fact, in large doses, approx. 400 micrograms and higher, you may find yourself solving many problems. Not the least of which would be "How the hell do I get out of this chair?"
...that the beatings will continue until the morale improves
Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.
Since when are subjective observations on a group of people in rooms with different ceilings called Science?
How about: "New study reveals Sociologists unable to cope with the realization that they are not real scientists."
I think that the world of science has finally hit some kinda ceiling....
So, a "bright idea", gives an additional meaning to the phrase: "The sky's the limit!" :^)
This is absurd. It's no answer at all to say that either is good, and neither is bad. You might as well ask for a ceiling that's both high, and low, at the same time. Or one that adjusts to your mood, or the detail of work you're doing in that second. It reminds me of the old PC versus Mac, and which promotes better results. Either, depending on what you're doing at that moment.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I wondered why after moving into my 4ft high cabin, all I could think about was sex and urination. Now I know.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
Executives should work on the grand scheme in vast halls, whilst their drones work out the detail in low-ceilinged cubicle farms.
Boy, those researches sure knew who decides their research grants!
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
Actually, I read a story a few years back about how some of the tightly-wound type A engineers in Silicon Valley would sometimes go out into the dessert in a group and take hallucinogens to do creative problem solving if they had a particularly tough problem that wasn't being solved the conventional ways. Pretty sure they were doing lower level doses - otherwise they spend to much time looking at their fingers and saying the same word over and over again until it loses all meaning...
"But this one goes to 11!"
I have fear of heights and if I can change a light bulb without using the stairs, that problem becomes easier for me to solve.
Elementary, my dear Watson
Other than that... I don't buy it.
how long until
I've always said that the key to creativity is peripatesis... Io Aristotle!
thats why I always sit around on my ass instead of standing up for myself.. creative thinking baby..
I don't know what they took, but just trying to visualize a bunch of guys going out into a dessert (I imagined something with ice-cream and lots of fruit, but YMMV) makes me wonder: which hallucinogen are you on?
Ignore this signature. By order.
It just seems that way, but they are in fact so free-thinking that it's out of our regular free-thinking frequency. Kind of like the infrasound of free thinking. We see it as Short Person Syndrome.
I've totally changed my way of talking to shorter people. Instead of being cautious and watching where I swing my knees, I'll be able to admire their ability.
One would even say this is the mythical '2' we've been looking for all these years.
1. Find a tall room
2. *Find a Short Person* (This is key)
3. Profit!
Task Mangler
Perhaps he mastered the transitions. Or could embed a movie that actually worked on the day...
When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
Note: Yes, this is off topic. Please accept my apologies in advance.
..it's news to me.
> others I know in the industry would not be able to reach it while standing on their desks and jumping.
Lets say the average desk is roughly 30 inches tall.
6.5 ft. is 78 inches
78 in. - 30 in. = 48 in., which is 4 feet. Assuming these little tykes have a vertical leap of at least 1 foot , they would have to be no more than 3 ft. tall! Either you know some 2 year olds who are "in industry" or you know some little people who are littler than I've ever heard of.
Do "little people" really come that small? If they do
--
Do The Fizzle Dance
Censorship is obscene. Patriotism is bigotry. Faith is a vice. Slashdot 2.0 sucks.
Although my knowledge of architecture/psychology is limited, it seems like low ceilings have always had a psychological impact on people. Architects like Frank Lloyd Wright recognized this and exploited it in places like the Hollyhock House where the front entrance has a small area with an uncomfortably low ceiling, followed by the rest of the room having a high ceiling. When I took a visit to this place about ten years ago, it was explained to us that low ceilings make people uncomfortable and thus the high ceilings would allow more freedom. So naturally guests should never stand at the front entrance too long and in a place like Hollyhock House high ceilings become inviting after you spend any amount of time at the front entrance :-)
m
See: http://www.waltlockley.com/hollyhock/hollyhock.ht
In any case interesting to see that more angles on this low ceiling/high ceiling idea are being looked into.
.... ... }
int main (void) {
The concept of your "state" affecting your effectiveness, is not news (although this is an interesting detail on the same).
:)
I remember playing pool with some sailing friends one night, playing an average game. They asked me about my business, which happened to be (at the time, at least) going extremely well. I was enthusiastic, confident, and excited telling them about the business. And suddenly I was kicking ass at pool; nobody could touch me. Similarly, there have been times when things weren't going well, in a negative state, and pool and other attempts at things, were quite poor.
(Another example, on the positive side, was when my home office overlooked the ocean; I was inspired and confident and produced some great stuff.)
Being in an environment with lofty, spacious ceilings, is inspiring. It's symbolic of success and riches (high ceilings in expensive houses, etc.) So it's not surprising there are measurable differences in results. Lock someone in a 4x4 box, and see what kind of results they get
(I've read a bit of NLP and Tony Robbins stuff, which focuses upon this concept a lot; almost to an extreme. Yes, it's new-age-ish and pop-psychology-ish, but it is effective and based in a lot of good behavioural psychology. And it does work, surprisingly well. Get yourself in a peak state, even through somewhat artificial means, and you'll achieve more. It's a powerful self-fulfilling prophecy.)
(/me looks at my 7 foot ceilings, and contemplates a renovation...)
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
I wrote: and based in a lot of good behavioural psychology
I should have said "cognitive psychology." Minor nit, but thought I'd correct it.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
Hey, Burning Man takes place out in the desert every year and is full of executive types by day running around half naked and on hallucinogens. The reason the engineers did it is because they claimed it allowed them to approach a problem in an unconventional manner, and try to solve it differently. Don't recall exactly which type of hallucinogens, but think it was something like MDMA or DOC or one of the "designer" hallucinogens.
As to which one I am on, well, those days are behind me now, life is strange enough as it is...
"But this one goes to 11!"
Did they consider whether, for a fixed ceiling height, shorter people exhibited less constrained thinking?
Have gnu, will travel.
They must be damn smart, because their ceilings were infinite high, right, they were so smart that they even could create ceiling. Now that all make sense.
There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
I knew I should be doing my math work outside! Now I just need to wheel a chalkboard out there.
Am I the only one who thought of "Being John Malkovich" after reading this?
"Low overhead!"
if(!toilet_paper) roll.replace(new roll);
When I'm working on a problem on the computer, I'm physically in the room, but my mind is in some abstract space such that the height of the ceiling is really irrelevant. Perhaps they should do a study on the effects of monitor size. I might feel more constrained using a 14" monitor. Or operating systems. Unless I can install cygwin, I feel really constrained in Windows.
Loose lips lose spit.
All curse the cubicle.
I could have a complicated assemblage of mirrors in the ceiling.
Your ad could be here!
ergo, this is not science.
assignment != equality != identity
I was merely trying to be funny instead of a spelling-Nazi.
The fact that I have to explain that proves I have failed.
Ignore this signature. By order.
I am so glad firefox came out with the spell checker. I'd used to have to open up word or something (I have a duel boot - don't worry slashdot) and paste the text in and check it. Man, that sucked.
Japanese buildings tend to have fairly low ceilings, due to space being at a premium and them wanting to make the best use of it. Yet, when it comes to innovation, the Japanese are way ahead of, say, us British with our old high ceiling buildings.
It seems more like a cultural thing than anything. R&D = risk, something we are deathly afraid of here. We prefer just to have the government waste money for us, thanks.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
By this line of thinking, we should be more intelligent at outdoor environments.
Clearly an outright bias in favour of short people. Sig: If I say something and my wife is not there to hear it, am I still wrong?
yes, the ancient greek philosophers wandered around while discussing ideas, but it was mainly to get fresh air, and also, cause the walking will make the blood circulation more effective, so their brains will be better oxygenated. (Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body). The "no ceiling" benefit could be a plus. Now I'm worried about all the accountants that spend most of their labor time trapped into small cubicles. Hey, more programmers do so too! If that makes 'em more focused on details, how can you explain so much accounting errors and bugs? Hmmm... variables, variables, why are you so many?!
"...Supreme Excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting..." Sun Tzu. The Art Of War
And apparently I was on too many mushrooms to even notice the second "s" in my first post...
"But this one goes to 11!"
There's a book I've been meaning to read that you may be interested in: Last Child In The Woods.
I think the title alone gives you a pretty good idea of what it's about.
quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.
I said it was painful. *cries at the memories*