Cognitive and physiological influences on energy related judgments

• Main Author: Lim, Kim Loong
• Other Authors: Georgios Christopoulos
• Format: Thesis-Doctor of Philosophy
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
• Subjects: Social sciences::Psychology::Experimental psychology
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/152384
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Reducing energy consumption remains a major focus for many countries for a combination of reasons including ecological, financial, and resource limitations. Strategies to reduce domestic energy consumption are increasingly focusing on socio-psychological and behavioural paradigms due to the pivotal role of behaviour in energy use. The aim of this thesis is to examine how a multidisciplinary visual perception and cognition approach to sustainability interventions may be applied to augment ongoing conservation efforts. Two types of intervention strategies: information provision and non-information multimodal sensory perception were investigated. The first study examines the effects of visual information communication parameters on information processing behaviour via eye-tracking methodology. Gaze behaviour towards real-world implementations of information feedback was influenced by different information elements and potentially semantic relatedness. The second study suggested perception of either water or energy utility to be incorrectly influenced by each other, which is influenced by task demands. The third study examined whether the multi-modal processing of different sensory inputs, i.e., visual (illumination colours) and thermal (room temperature) could interact to change occupants’ thermal comfort. Participants’ subjective evaluation of their thermal environment was significantly influenced by coloured illumination but the effect depended on the time of the day, suggesting a role of circadian mechanism. The findings open the possibility of reducing room temperature by altering the colour of the light. Overall, the present dissertation demonstrates the potential value of integrating cross-disciplinary visual perception and cognition approaches to address information communication assumptions and intervention needs in the sustainability literature.