Environmental Science and Psychophysics
Research in the area of Environmental Science and Psychophysics aims at the quantitative and qualitative study of the relationships between people and their perception of, and response to, the environments they inhabit. Research activities look at human physical and physio-psychological response to - and cognition of - visual, aural, thermal and olfactory stimuli, moving away from a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach and looking more closely at individual differences (within- and between-subjects) and how they shape responses to both the built and natural environment.
Current projects include exploring those factors that affect human visual, non-visual (metabolic) and perceptive (cognitive) response to (day)lighting, glare and view in buildings, the impact of the sonic environment within healthcare settings and teaching and learning spaces, systems dynamics approaches to energy management, etc. Closely related to the above theme, the group has also attracted significant research funding in the area of pedagogical research as it applies to environmental design and sustainability in higher education and professional practice.