Recovery in sensory-enriched break environments: integrating vision, sound and scent into simulated indoor and outdoor environments

Abstract

To deal with stress and exhaustion at work, personal resources need to be replenished during breaks. The aim of this laboratory study (n = 122 students) was to test the restorative potential of sensory-enriched break environments (SEBEs) in between-subjects with repeated measures design, focusing on the type of the environment (natural outdoor vs. built indoor environment) and sensory input (no sensory input vs. audiovisual input vs. audiovisual and olfactory input). Analyses showed that SEBEs simulating either a natural or a lounge environment were perceived as more pleasant and restorative (fascination/being away) than a standard break room, which in turn facilitated the recovery of personal resources (mood, fatigue, arousal). Moreover, adding a congruent scent to an audiovisual simulation indirectly facilitated the recovery of personal resources via greater scent pleasantness and higher fascination and being away. The current study shows the opportunities for sensory enrichment to foster restoration in break environments.

Practitioner summary

This project reveals the impact of the recovery process of simulated environments on personal resources. Analyses confirmed that sensory-enriched environments were perceived as more restorative than less enriched environments, which in turn facilitated the recovery of personal resources. The results highlight the relevance of holistic sensory impressions to fostering recovery.

Keywords:

• Ambient scents
• restorative environments
• personal resources
• fascination
• being away

Acknowledgments

This paper is based on research conducted by the first author in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a doctoral degree from the University of Hohenheim and supervised by the third author. We would like to acknowledge the interdisciplinary research team ‘People Inside’ and the chair of Business and Organizational Psychology at the University of Hohenheim for funding this project. Moreover, we want to sincerely thank our colleague Konrad Senf for proofreading parts of this manuscript! We also thank our students for their help in collecting the data.

Notes

1 This paper is based on the third chapter of the doctoral thesis (Sona, HYPERLINK "\\\\blrnas3.glyph.com\\Home$\\EzhilRaj.D$\\114" \o "89 = Ref Sona, B. 2017. With all My Senses: Restorative Environments Through Holistic Sensory Impressions. Electronic published dissertation at University of Hohenheim."2017). It represents an enhanced version regarding theory, previous research, analyses and discussion.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by University of Hohenheim. http://www.people-inside.de/index.php?lng=en.