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."

Glass Ceilings

[TheCouchPotatoFamine (628797)]

Obviously, they're doing it wrong.

Just work outside

[EmbeddedJanitor (597831)]

Telecommuting from the lawn chair is why wifi was invented.

Re:Just work outside

[simm1701 (835424)]

Yes..

Until you start to sky dive

No I'm not being sarcastic I'm serious.

After sky diving regularly (to the point of being licensed and in control of yourself in the air) you start to look at the sky differently. It ceases to be just something that is there, instead its a medium that is yours, you can move with it in, you feel as though you have an extra degree of freedom - its changes your perspective.

I'm told many pilots and other aerial sports people feel the same way - ditto for divers and the water.

Re:Glass Ceilings

[ThePromenader (878501)]

"Ceiling Height May Affects Problem-Solving Skills"

Whoever wrote that headline must have a low ceiling.

May affects?

[patternmatch (951637)]

It may affects grammar skills too.

on the other hand..

[dotpavan (829804)]

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?)

Re:May affects?

[maxwell demon (590494)]

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?"

Re:

[enjerth (892959)]

Two grammatical mistakes in three posts from ScuttleMonkey seems to indicate the need for a little more proofreading... ...or a higher ceiling.

The article suggests a higher ceiling may inspire free thought, while a lower ceiling may promote attention to detail. So he needs a lower ceiling.

Perfect

[ls -la (937805)]

I blame the extra-short ceiling on my floor for less-than-perfect grades freshman year!

Re:Perfect

[orangesquid (79734)]

What about outdoors versus indoors?

Ancient greek philosophers wandered around outside a lot, so the stories go. I'm curious about where lawmakers did their work, traditionally; probably inside buildings, but how high were the ceilings?
I checked the latest revision of wikipedia's page on Ancient Greek law [wikipedia.org] (as of the time of posting this comment) to see if there were any pictures of ancient Greek law buildings, but, there were only references to "Ancient Greek poop" and "Roman crap." This could be symbolically indicative of legislatures in low-ceiling buildings, but I suspect it's just random vandalism...

What About Tall People?

[Chagatai (524580)]

I'm nearly 7 feet tall, so how does this affect my ideas? Can I call in a "ceiling bias" at work when a short coworker comes up with a great, broad idea and I tend to develop something more constrained and compact? How about when I run into a doorjamb? How does that affect my ideas?

Re:What About Tall People?

[TeknoHog (164938)]

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"?

Re:

[mcpkaaos (449561)]

How about when I run into a doorjamb? How does that affect my ideas?

Depending on how fast you are running, your entire idea might stay in the room you just left. Wait, my bad, that would be your head. Eh, same difference.

Interesting Thought

[MyLongNickName (822545)]

Wealthier individuals with the larger home... does the environment itself produce children who are less restricted in their thinking?

Re:Interesting Thought

[tedgyz (515156)]

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.

Re:Interesting Thought

[MyLongNickName (822545)]

Amazing how folks' minds go to Paris. I would argue her thinking is not restricted at all. This does not translate into "intelligent".

Re:Interesting Thought

[inviolet (797804)]

Wealthier individuals with the larger home... does the environment itself produce children who are less restricted in their thinking?

Now think even broader than that. What will the effect be of the grand and unprecedented social experiment, conducted over the past two decades, of raising children almost continuously confined indoors?

The farther back in history you go, the more time everyone spent outdoors, in which there was no ceiling. Perhaps this explains some small part of the modern retreat from independence.

Re:

[Radon360 (951529)]

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.

Re:

[WilliamSChips (793741)]

Interestingly, the best surgeons appear to be the ones who played a lot of video games as a child.

Maybe...

[eln (21727)]

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.

Re:

[Dr. Eggman (932300)]

Whether the variety of snacks has changed in the last 3 years is not my concern, but rather if the snacks themselves have changed in the last 3 years. You've never had old chewing gum until you've cut your gums on a stick shard.

Of course, we certainly know the working evironment can be too opulent as well. I'm looking at you, Ion Storm [gamespy.com]

Ceiling Height May Affects Grammar Skills

[hexed_2050 (841538)]

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

Science

[pete-classic (75983)]

"professor of marketing"

Is marketing a Science now?

-Peter

Re:

[Bearhouse (1034238)]

Slow down, Pete... from /.'s favourite source:

'The meaning of the word professor (Latin: "one who claims publicly to be an expert") varies. In most English-speaking countries, it refers to a senior academic who holds a departmental chair, generally as head of the department, or a personal chair awarded specifically to that individual.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor [wikipedia.org]

I've worked with some top-level marketing guys. Can't comment on the 'pure marketing' stuff, but I'm not too shabby at applied statist

Re:

[iapetus (24050)]

He's saying that it may be the problem-solving skills that are making the ceiling higher.

Probably.

On a more serious note

[ls -la (937805)]

From TFA:

In one test subjects were more critical of a product's design flaws when evaluation took place in a shorter room. This result could have important implications for retailers.

I wonder how many stores are going to see this and move to a larger, more spacious facility like most Barnes and Noble and Best Buy stores I see. Personally

Re:

[ls -la (937805)]

Oops, wrong button...

Personally, I wouldn't mind a more spacious store. They should do a study that shows people prefer aisles wide enough to walk through.

Re:On a more serious note

[0rionx (915503)]

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

Finally!

[Penguinisto (415985)]

...I can now justify my smoke breaks as "more creative thinking" time! Sweet! (no ceiling out back where I pollute my lungs... :) )

/P

Re:

[sjwest (948274)]

I'm tall, and love to stretch - so im leaving the employment of the seven dwarfs..... ok snow white is cute but those bloody songs

Ah, modern psychology research

[idontgno (624372)]

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)

TPS reports

[Dachannien (617929)]

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.

Hmmm

[KKlaus (1012919)]

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!

I'd normally come up with a witty comment

[CaptainPatent (1087643)]

But the ceiling is closing in on me!!!

Ok but...

[bhmit1 (2270)]

...if they move my desk again I'm going to burn the building down.

Height of Ceiling VS Height of Worker?

[HappyHead (11389)]

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?

Re:

[nbert (785663)]

I'd say that small people just get used to having more space above (just like they are used to looking up when they speak to someone of average height). They will perceive a low ceiling exactly like a really tall person.

A personal side note: I had the luxury of growing up in an apartment with 3 meter ceilings (~10 foot). It's nothing special - just an older building in Europe. However, growing up under such conditions, I find it quite hard to accept any place where someone of average height can touch the ce

It's true for me, at least.

[Control Group (105494)]

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.

I would trot out the Soviet Russia joke

[suitepotato (863945)]

but it seems that everywhere, the ceiling makes you.

Activating idea of freedom as a negative...

[KokorHekkus (986906)]

...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.

Einstein

[iplayfast (166447)]

Interesting, in that Einstein liked to go for long walks under the open sky.

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...

Superfriends

[vjmurphy (190266)]

"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?"

General Observations

[RockoTDF (1042780)]

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.

Glass

[hansamurai (907719)]

Makes me wish I was a woman and could work under that limitless glass ceiling they're always talking about!

Ceiling Height Variety

[bmajik (96670)]

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 [ahartman.com]

Alternate conclusion

[PPH (736903)]

Did they consider whether, for a fixed ceiling height, shorter people exhibited less constrained thinking?

Re:Next step

[the phantom (107624)]

You get wet when it rains.

Re:

[PitaBred (632671)]

But it does give you a damn good idea of where to start looking. Correlation doesn't PROVE causation, but it sure as hell implies it.

Re:fascinating

[Puff of Logic (895805)]

Correlation doesn't PROVE causation,

I see that maxim quoted a lot these days. I see the point it's making, of course; but I can't help wondering: what does prove causation, then?

If a phenomenon is observed only when something is present but never when it is not, a causal relationship can reasonably be construed. The other point is, at least in science, nothing is ever proven!

Re:

[topherhenk (998915)]

How's about we put you in a 1m x 1m x 1m box and see how your creativity changes.

Hey, you can't use my office for this study.