High ceilings in examination rooms and lower exam scores are correlated, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of South Australia. The researchers analyzed data from 15,400 students across three campuses between 2011-2019.
The study accounted for individual differences and prior coursework performance, suggesting that the effect was not due to student-specific factors.
Potential factors contributing to the poorer performance in high-ceilinged rooms include room scale, student density, poor insulation, fluctuating temperatures, and air quality.
Virtual reality experiments and electroencephalography (EEG) measurements suggested increased brain activity associated with focusing on difficult tasks in larger spaces, which may trigger a perception of the environment being more suitable for social gatherings than concentration.
Sources: Newsweek, ScienceDaily, Trust My Science, Newser, Business Insider, The Focus, News Medical, ES De Latino, Metro, InternewsCast, Mirage News, Foreign Affairs, University of South Australia
This article was written in collaboration with Generative AI news company Alchemiq.
